Neshaminy earned its first win of the season, and CB South rallied from 20 down to defeat Abington. Check out all of Thursday’s results.
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 46, ABINGTON 41
The Titans found themselves on the short end of a 26-6 score in the second quarter of Thursday’s non-league game against the Ghosts.
It apparently was not cause for concern for a CB South squad that has made a habit out of staging miraculous comebacks against the Ghosts. The Titans, who have won three of the last four meetings between the two teams, cut Abington’s lead to 28-16 by halftime and then outscored the Ghosts 30-13 in the second half to earn the big win.
“In the beginning, we couldn’t finish, and we were making a lot of mental errors – throwing the ball out of bounds and trying to make the extra pass when there was no one between us and the basket,” South coach Beth Mattern said. “A lot of that had to do with the way Abington came out. They came out with a lot of intensity.
“We started to play better towards the end of the second quarter.”
Midway through the third quarter CB South’s Kate McMenamin took an offensive charge that gave Aiyannah Peal her fourth foul.
“I felt that was what started the energy we needed,” Mattern said. “The tide started turning. We were pressing more, we got more steals and we started finishing more and slowly started to eat away at their lead. They also got in big foul trouble.”
While Peal had four fouls, teammates Michael Harris and Sarah Listenbee both picked up their fifth fouls. Freshman point guard Deja Rawls had three fouls.
“They’re a team that definitely plays aggressive, and their aggressiveness got them in a little bit of foul trouble today,” Mattern said.
Alysha Lofton had a big day on the boards for the Titans with seven rebounds to go along with eight points. Madi Vitelli and Shannon Senour both also had eight points.
“In the second half, we were just very effective,” Mattern said. “Rachel Falkowski and Lauren Mosher, my back-up center, stepped in and played great defense, rebounded and finished. Rachel hit a big three.
“In the fourth quarter, that’s when it really all came together. This was a great win. We have played some tough teams in our first six games, and I’m quite happy to be 5-1. I thought we improved throughout the game today. We didn’t play a complete game, but we still got it done.”
The loss was the first of the season for the Ghosts (5-1), who will compete in the Altoona Holiday Tournament on Wednesday. The Titans (5-1) will play in the Spring-Ford Holiday Tournament on Tuesday.
WILLIAM TENNENT 53, NORRISTOWN 46
Senior Emily O’Donnell contributed 19 points and 13 rebounds to lead the Panthers while junior Allison Chatburn filled the stat sheet with 18 points, six rebounds, five assists and eight steals to propel Tennent to the big win.
“We’ve been needing them to do that,” coach Paul Veltre said. “Chat has kind of scored quietly, and this was kind of a breakout game for her, and we needed it tonight.
“Emily played big. We did a great job of pulling down boards. Nikki Alden had 11 boards, and Ally Fenner had six boards. We did a great job defensively of rebounding misses and not giving them second chance shots to score, and that was huge for us.”
The Panthers, who trailed 24-23 at the half, outscored the Eagles 13-9 in the third quarter and 30-22 overall in the second half.
“We changed a couple of things defensively,” Veltre said. “We tried to give them a different look every time down the floor.”
Steph DiNolfi lit up the Panthers’ defense for nine first-half points, but she was held to just two in the second half. Precious Tempson – in her first game back – had seven points in the fourth quarter to make things interesting.
“She was knocking down some shots that made it really close at the end,” Veltre said. “This win was very big. We needed one. We knew that Norristown was pretty good, and we didn’t know how well we would match up. This was a quality win, and we’re pretty pumped.”
DiNolfi led the Eagles with 11 points while Briana Hedgepeth added 10.
Tennent returns to action on Tuesday when the Panthers will compete in the Quakertown Holiday Tournament while the Eagles will compete in the George W. Snear Holiday Tournament in Conshohocken on Thursday.
NESHAMINY 39, CONWELL EGAN 32
Sparked by the 21-point performance of Lori Paulits and the eight-steal effort of point guard Megan Schafer, the Redskins notched their first win of the season on Thursday night.
“This was huge because we’re so young,” coach Joanne McVey said. “Basically, we played a lot of pretty good teams pretty tough this season.
“We were tied with Abington at halftime. Against CB West, it was a four-point game at halftime. We have been in games, but it’s just our inexperience. Against really good teams, the kids don’t believe we have what it takes. It’s just a growing process.
“We talk about how do you speed up the experience process, and you can’t. They have got to go through it, they’ve got to make mistakes. There’s no way you can insulate them from going through it, but as a coach, it’s really painful.”
Two nights after putting up just six points in the first half of Tuesday’s loss to Pennsbury, the Redskins exploded for 24 first-half points and took a 24-9 lead into the intermission.
“That’s the kind of roller coaster we’re on,” McVey said. “As coaches, if we could make these young players more consistent, I’d bottle it and sell it.”
McVey lauded the efforts of Schafer and Paulits.
“Megan just really controlled the tempo of the game,” the Redskins’ coach said. “Our defensive pressure on their guards – it’s what makes our team tick. Megan just created stuff for other players.
“Lori shot 9-for-12 from the foul line. In the Pennsbury game, she didn’t shoot that well, and we worked yesterday at practice – when you’re not shooting well, you have to go to the hoop and get yourself to the foul line, and she did both. It’s always satisfying when you work on something and it pans out.”
Stephanie Donahue gave the Redskins a lift off the bench, contributing six points.
“She gave us some huge, solid minutes,” McVey said. “She’s a jayvee player basically, but she was really steady out there.
“These are kids that had a goal of sitting on the varsity bench, and now they’re being contributors. I think we played 11 kids. We played a lot of young kids. There were times when we had four sophomores and a junior on the floor.”
The Redskins (1-5) return to action on Monday when they will compete in the Wildwood Christmas Tournament.
CHELTENHAM 49, NORTHEAST 26
The Lady Panthers sprinted to a 29-10 halftime lead and never looked back. By the fourth quarter, Cheltenham’s starters were watching from the bench.
“It was a good game to get everyone in the game and get some experience,” coach Bob Schaefer said. “Ming Seawright did another good job on the boards, and Shayla Peoples played good defense, which pressured their point guard and upset their offense.”
Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews led the Lady Panthers with 17 points in three quarters of action. Jiana Clark added 10 points, including six in the second quarter. Seawright chipped in with nine points while senior Jovon Petty scored six points.
The Lady Panthers will compete in the Spring-Ford Holiday Classic on Tuesday.
DOWNINGTOWN WEST 45, NORTH PENN 29
It was a rough night for the Maidens, who found themselves staring at a 19-8 hole at the end of one quarter. Things didn’t improve a whole lot after that. Downingtown West took a 28-10 lead into halftime and upped that lead to 41-14 at the end of three quarters before the Maidens closed out the game with a 15-4 fourth quarter tear. Lauren Crisler led the Maidens with 11 points while Steph Knauer added eight.
The Maidens (4-2) return to action on Wednesday when they will compete in the Boardwalk Classic in Wildwood.
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