Undefeated Council Rock South escaped with a 52-49 overtime win in Tuesday’s battle with neighboring Council Rock North. To view action photos of the game, visit the Photo Gallery.
NEWTOWN – Council Rock North might have surprised some by extending undefeated Council Rock South into overtime when the two teams met on Tuesday night.
Helena Gemmel is not in that number.
“We lost to Abington in our first (league) game by seven points, and we found out (Rock South) only beat Abington by two points,” the Rock North senior said. “That gave us the motivation we could stick with them.”
Even the most optimistic Indian fan had to have their doubts whether that could happen when – after Taylor Dillon buried a pair of foul shots – the Golden Hawks led 33-20 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter.
They still led by double digits heading into the final quarter (41-31), but that’s when the Indians came to life, outscoring the Golden Hawks 14-4 to send the game into overtime where Rock South prevailed 52-49.
“Their defense was tough,” Rock South senior Alex Wheatley said. “It took us a little while to figure out if we should be running our man offense or our zone offense.
“They’re a good team, and they play good defense.”
“We defend,” Rock North coach Liz Potash said. “The girls play defense. That’s been our thing all year.
“This is the most points we have given up, but the fact that we were right there is a good sign. We’re so proud of the girls. They battled. They could have put their heads down, and they could have quit a couple times, especially in the second half, and they didn’t. They never do. That’s not the way this team plays”
Wheatley scored a game-high 20 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Teammate Caitlin Jackson added 10 points while point guard Alexis Hofstaedter had nine. Dillon – who was a near-perfect 5-for-6 from the foul line – chipped in with eight.
For the Indians, Gemmell led the way with 17 points. Emily Grundman added 17 points, 13 in the pivotal second half. Senior Alyssa Dumont had nine points.
“I don’t think anyone really finished this game happy,” Wheatley said. “They were not happy because they lost, and we were not happy because we should have played better than we did.
“Our personal thing is we want to win every game by 15. That seems like a good number. We will take whatever is needed, but we would not prefer games like tonight.”
Tuesday’s win was the second nail biter in as many games for the Golden Hawks, who eked out a two-point win over Abington last Friday, but in truth, there was nothing to suggest that this game would come down to the wire when Rock South coasted into the fourth quarter with a seemingly commanding 41-31 lead after Courtney Brown buried a shot at the buzzer for the Hawks.
The fourth quarter started innocently enough with Gemmell burying a pair from the foul line. After a pair of South misses, Grundman rolled to the basket for an easy two points. Another South miss set the stage for a tough bucket by Grundman over her defender.
That was followed by a two-minute scoring drought for both teams, a drought that was broken when Grundman buried another difficult shot over her defender. Suddenly, it was a 41-39 game with 4:21 still showing on the game clock.
“We got lackadaisical on offense, and we weren’t coming to the ball,” Rock South coach Monica Stolic said of her team’s fourth quarter woes. “We started shooting from the outside, and we have to get the ball inside like we can.”
Dumont connected on one-of-two from the foul line to pull the Indians to within one. Jackson broke a Rock South scoring drought of close to six minutes when she scored on a drive that put her team on top 43-40.
Things got real interesting when – after Dumont sank one-of-two from the foul line - Gemmell came up with the big offensive rebound. The Indians misfired on a shot for the tie, but this time Grundman was there for the putback, knotting the score with 60 seconds to play.
A bucket by Wheatley on a cut to the hoop put the Golden Hawks back on top, but Gemmell found Grundman for an easy deuce, and the two teams were knotted 45-45 with 25 seconds remaining.
“Our team just really stepped up the intensity,” said Grundman, who scored 10 fourth quarter points. “We were getting some really great ball movement, and they got the ball inside, and I was able to finish.
“Obviously, we always try to give it our best, but when we had that really great ball movement going on, we were able to get the plays we wanted, and we were able to execute.”
Wheatley’s shot for the win rolled in and out of the basket, and the Indians’ desperation shot at the buzzer fell short, setting the stage for overtime.
“The girls never stopped playing,” Potash said. “They refused to quit. They just play hard, and they believe they can play with any team.
A Rock North turnover set the stage for Jackson finding Wheatley for the first basket of OT, but Grundman answered with a basket after an offensive rebound to knot the score. Jackson connected on one-of-two at the foul line with a minute remaining, and when Dillon – whose two foul shots gave Rock South the win over Abington - buried both ends of a one-and-one with 26 seconds remaining, the Golden Hawks had a 50-47 edge.
With 11 seconds showing on the clock, Hofsteadter all but iced the win when she connected on both ends of a one-and-one. The Golden Hawks – who were just 7-of-19 from the charity stripe in their win against Abington – buried 12-of-14 from the foul line.
“We just knew we had to come back and keep our composure,” Hofstaedter said. “Foul shots win games, and we knew they were very crucial.”
Gemmell scored with 2.4 seconds remaining, and although the Indians came up with the ball on the inbounds, they could not get a shot off.
“I just think we didn’t play well,” Stolic said. “Our second quarter was good and our third quarter was good. We played half a game, that’s how I feel. It’s on and off, on and off, and against good teams, you can’t do that.”
A look back would show that the Golden Hawks endured a six-minute scoring drought in the first quarter as well. They led 8-3 after a Hofstaedter trey but didn’t score again until Wheatley scored on a putback with 14 seconds remaining to pull the Golden Hawks to within two (12-10) at the end of one quarter.
The second quarter belonged to the Golden Hawks, who took advantage of a close to seven-minute Indian scoring drought. Jackson’s fastbreak bucket ignited a 15-0 Rock South run that included six points from Wheatley, four from Hofstaedter and a trey from Dillon. The Golden Hawks led 25-14 before Grundman broke the Indians’ dry spell with a basket in the closing seconds of the half.
The Golden Hawks edged the Indians 16-15 in the third quarter, and it was the nine-point effort of Gemmell that allowed Rock North to remain within striking distance.
“She plays hard no matter what she does,” Potash said. “You get 110 percent from Helena every single night.”
“I’m definitely looking to go to the basket more,” Gemmell said. “I know the team needs it.
“(Tonight) we had some injuries, and it was tough with our bench. We knew we couldn’t get in foul trouble because we only had so many people who could come in. Everyone went in and played their hearts out. We couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
While the Golden Hawks upped their record to 5-0 in league play (10-0 overall), the Indians (3-2 SOL, 6-4 overall) believe they proved a point.
“South is a very, very good team,” Potash said. “They’re one of the top teams in the district. If they’re the top team in the district – we’re right there, we’re close.
“We’ll take this loss, and we’ll learn from it. The nice thing is we get them again.”
Grundman echoed those sentiments.
“The great thing about our league is we get to play each team twice,” the Indians’ senior captain said. “They took this game – it was a great game. It was really intense, it was really competitive, but the positive side is we get to play them at their place, so we have a chance for redemption.
“We can go into that knowing we can play with them. I think that’s something that helps our confidence. You look at the way we played in the fourth quarter – I think that shows the tremendous potential we have to beat them. At the same time, they’re a really, really talented team, and it always comes down to the final minute.”
Council Rock South (52) – Taylor Dillon 1 5-6 8; Alexis Hofstaedter 3 2-2 9; Alex Wheatley 8 4-4 20; Courtney Brown 2 0-0 5; Caitlin Jackson 4 1-2 10; Taylor Hunt 0 0-0 0; Rachel Jacob 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 18 12-14 52.
Council Rock North (49) – Alyssa Dumont 3 2-4 9; Jessica Gerber 1 0-0 3; Melissa Rowland 1 0-0 2; Emily Grundman 8 0-0 16; Helena Gemmell 7 2-2 17; Krista Campbell 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 21 4-6 49
Council Rock South 10 15 16 4 7-52
Council Rock North 12 4 15 14 4-49
3-point goals: CR South – Taylor Dillon, Alexis Hofstaedter, Courtney Brown, Caitlin Jackson. CR South – Helena Gemmell, Jessica Gerber, Alyssa Dumont.
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