Check out all of Saturday’s SOL results. To view photos of the CR South/CB East game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 44, CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 35
The Patriots led 12-9 at the end of one quarter and also did a masterful job of containing Princeton-bound Alex Wheatley, limiting the senior standout to just seven points, but the Golden Hawks proved they are not a one-woman show, outscoring the Patriots 35-23 over the final three quarters to remain undefeated.
“I know Tommy (Lonergan), and I knew he would come up with a (defensive) plan,” Rock South coach Monica Stolic said. “They did a great job on Alex, but other people stepped up big.
“Last year if a team did that to Alex, we would have lost. I think this proves we’re more than a one-person team.”
Point guard Alexis Hofstaedter led a balanced Golden Hawk attack with 11 points to go along with nine assists. Taylor Hunt added eight points while Taylor Dillon had seven. While Wheatley didn’t put up her usual big offensive numbers, she still was a major factor, pulling down 15 rebounds and coming up with five steals.
The Golden Hawks outscored the Patriots 15-6 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 24-18 lead, this despite connecting on just 7-of-30 shots from the floor in the first half. It was a 35-31 game heading into the final quarter when the Golden Hawks limited the Patriots to just four points while scoring nine of their own.
“We did a great job defensively,” Stolic said.
The Golden Hawks upped their record to 16-0 while the Patriots fell to 11-5.
PENNSBURY 51, SOUDERTON 44
A big win, a real big win.
That’s how coach Donna Nicholson described Saturday’s come-from-behind win over the Indians that saw the Falcons rally from a 21-15 halftime deficit to outscore the Indians 19-3 in the pivotal third quarter.
“Carly Kovin came off the bench and had three big baskets in that quarter, and Jae Jackson had three baskets,” the Falcons’ coach said. “The player who played well the whole game was Sajanna Bethea.
“They’re a good team. They had five three-pointers – they battled, but we competed. We came out in the second half and got refocused and did the little things and executed. That was the difference.”
Bethea scored a season best 26 points, and it was her 13 points in the first half that kept the Falcons within striking distance. The sophomore center buried 7-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter. She also had 13 rebounds.
“In the second half, we got stops on defense, and we were hitting our shots,” Nicholson said. “The first half we just seemed out of sorts. We were not in rhythm.
“The kids were getting a little frustrated because they weren’t running through their plays, and we started doing things more individually. In the third quarter, we came out and ran the offense, got good looks, played well together as a team finding the open girl, we were knocking down shots, and we were stopping them.”
Jackson finished the game with nine points to go along with 12 rebounds. Kovin and Kaitlin Kelly both added eight points.
“Carly Kovin was big off the bench making those shots for us,” Nicholson said. “She had four boards and played real strong for us in the second half.”
The win was the fourth in a row and fifth in the last six games for the Falcons, who upped their record to 9-7.
“We’re just riding this momentum,” Nicholson said. “The second half is starting, and every game is big. We’re starting to play well together as a team, and that’s made all the difference.”
The Indians (7-6) were led by the 14-point effort of sophomore Bianca Picard while senior Gabby McAndrews added 13 points.
CHELTENHAM 71, ABINGTON 61
Teamwork.
According to Christina Coleman, that was the secret to the Lady Panthers’ second half comeback after going into the locker room on the short end of a 34-28 score.
“We knew we could pick it up and do what we had to do to win this game,” the Cheltenham senior said. “We knew teamwork would get it done, and that’s what we tried to do.
“He (coach Bob Schaefer) was very upset with us because he knows we weren’t playing like we should be playing and the team we’re capable of being. He just told us the outcome depended on us.”
A 43-27 second half performance by the Lady Panthers certainly helped improve the veteran coach’s disposition.
“They sucked it up and came back at them, and it was a whole team effort,” Schaefer said. “They started playing a little bit more like they’re capable of. The first half they were asleep. They were getting outhustled to the ball.”
No lead was safe in a contest that featured high-powered, end-to-end action for 32 minutes, but in the end, the Lady Panthers – who trailed by eight after a three-point play by Sarah Listenbee early in the third quarter – put the ball in the hands of Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews.
The senior captain showed why she is one of area’s premiere players, scoring 13 of her game-high 29 points in the final quarter. Included in those 13 points was an 11-for-14 effort at the foul line.
“They made their free throws, they played hard, and they’re a very good basketball team,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “CC is phenomenal, but we played hard. I think we proved we can beat this team, and if we can beat this team, we can compete with anybody.”
Andrews was hardly a one-woman show for the Lady Panthers. Coleman delivered a 19-point, 11-rebound effort despite taking a seat on the bench after picking up her third foul early in the second quarter.
“Christina Coleman did a super job in the second half,” Schaefer said. “She can kill teams inside – she’s so quick, and she jumps so well. She has a real nice jump shot in there.”
Ming Seawright added eight points and eight rebounds while Shayla Peoples also had eight points. Jiana Clark scored only five points but had a monster game under the boards, pulling down a team-high 15 rebounds.
“Shayla Peoples played another good defensive game and another good offensive game,” Schaefer said. “Jiana Clark had a big game rebounding, and we needed her to have that kind of game.
For the Ghosts, Listenbee – who had a strong game on the low post - had 21 points and 12 rebounds while Aiyanna Peal added 17 points. Freshman point guard Deja Rawls added 13 points, which included three three-point buckets.
“We played hard,” Marsh said. “I’m super proud of our girls. I didn’t have anything negative to say except that we have to finish our defensive sets with rebounds. We gave them too many offensive rebounds.”
Early on, it looked as though the Panthers had things going their way. They led 19-12 after Peoples scored on a drive in the closing seconds of the first quarter. It was a 20-20 game after Abington’s Joslin Poole converted a three-point play two minutes into the second quarter, and the Ghosts took their first lead (24-23) when Rawls sank a pair at the foul line. After a Lady Panther turnover, Rawls buried a trey to put the Ghosts on top by four.
“Deja was phenomenal tonight,” Marsh said.
The Lady Panthers knotted the score 27-27 after a Seawright putback, but the Ghosts closed out the half with a 7-1 run that was capped with a Peal bucket at the buzzer. Peal had nine points in a quarter that saw both Coleman and Seawright pick up their third fouls.
“We came here, and we were pumped,” Listenbee said. “All week we had been talking about it. We were just so excited to prove to everybody that we’re not the Abington everyone thinks we are. We’re somebody different.
“We’re special, and that’s what we wanted to prove, and I think we did today.”
While the Panthers had foul woes in the first half, it was the Ghosts who saw the fouls pile up in the third quarter. Andrews, after scoring no points and being benched in the second quarter, began to attack the basket. The senior standout had eight points in the quarter, and Coleman owned the backboards, pulling down six rebounds and also scoring six points.
The Ghosts, meanwhile, saw Michael Harris, Rawls and Listenbee whistled for their fourth fouls.
“We didn’t play with the same aggression with four fouls, so it really hurt us,” Marsh said.
The Ghosts took a 49-46 lead into the final quarter, but Andrews scored on a nifty reverse layup to make it a one-point game in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter, and the Lady Panthers took a 50-49 lead after Coleman banked home a shot at the 6:50 mark.
“We have been down before, but we know we always come out even harder after halftime,” Coleman said. “We had to take care of business, so that just motivated us even more.”
The Lady Panthers stretched that lead to three after a putback by Seawright. The Ghosts trailed 52-50 after a Listenbee foul shot, but Andrews scored on an impossible shot off the dribble to extend the Panthers’ lead to four.
Rawls found Listenbee for an easy bucket, but Coleman scored over her defender at the other end. Listenbee benefitted from another Rawls feed to make it a 56-54 game with 3:47 remaining.
Andrews sank one of two from the foul line and after the Ghosts misfired at the other end, Coleman scored on a putback to make it a 59-54 game. The Panthers closed it out with a 12-7 run.
What changed in the second half?
“I actually give the credit to my coach,” Peoples said. “He got on us a lot, and it really helped us bring each 
other up, so from that point on, we said, ‘We have to stick together as a team.’
“We focused on the positives instead of the negatives, and we came together as a team. The credit goes to my coach for helping us out.”
Clark also credited Schaefer’s halftime talk for inspiring the Panthers.
“Oh yeah, he definitely gave us a lecture,” she said. “We had to box out weakside low, and the guards needed to crash the boards because they’re definitely bigger than us. I think we executed that perfectly.
“This game was fun, especially because the boys played after us. That brought a crowd, and we wanted to put on a show for everybody. Emotions were high.”
“This is huge because Abington is our rival since day one,” Peoples added. “We had to earn this win, and we want to go on from here and continue to win.”
While the Ghosts saw their record drop to 11-5, the Lady Panthers improved to 16-0.
NORTH PENN 50, COUNCIL ROCK NORTH 32
The Maidens jumped out of the gate to a 12-4 first quarter lead and took a 26-16 lead into halftime. They outscored the Indians in each of the four quarters on their way to the convincing win.
“I really was pleased with our game,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “We played really good defense, and the kids were just really unselfish.
“We’ve reduced our turnovers and increased our offensive rebounds since our Souderton game, and that’s what we have been really concentrating on at practice, and it’s made a big difference.”
The Maidens coach acknowledged the performances of a pair of her players.
“Lauren Crisler had a really solid game,” deMarteleire said. “She made really good decisions. Her shot selection was good and her passing was very good.
“Emily Hagan had a really good game. She had a lot of offensive rebounds and probably scored six points on offensive rebounds. It made a big difference because they came in a timely fashion.”
The Maidens had three players in double figures –Crisler (16 points), Hagan (10 points) and Steph Knauer (10 points).
“Our guard play has really improved, and it’s really made things a lot easier for us to score,” deMarteleire said. “When our guards are scoring, they can’t double team Steph and Lauren all the time.”
Emily Grundman led the Indians (9-6) with 11 points while Alysha Dumont added 10 and Helena Gemmell, nine points.
The win was the fifth in a row for the suddenly streaking Maidens (11-4) and their seventh in eight games in January.
HARRY S. TRUMAN 52, UPPER MORELAND 48
The Tigers, according to coach Colette Munford, were doing a lot of hand shaking and hand slapping after Saturday’s win, and it was hard to blame them. The win was just the second of the season for the Tigers and their first in 12 games.
“It’s tough, but you know what – they keep their heads up,” Munford said. “That’s a varsity team I have out there, but really they’re a jayvee team. They’re very young.”
Munford has four freshmen and four sophomores on the roster with just three juniors and one senior.
“They’re all still learning, but each year they’re getting better,” Munford said. “They take their lumps, and they get mad because most of the time they know they can play better.
“That’s a good thing too. If you know you can play better, eventually you’ll go out there and do what you know how to do, and even if they lost, they’ll still feel good because they know they played hard. Most of the games, they beat themselves up because they didn’t play hard.”
Senior Nieyana Brooks scored a game-high 19 points while sophomore Khristaijah Jackson turned in an impressive double-double, contributing 15 points and 27 rebounds. Brooks was 10-of-16 from the foul line.
“Nieyana is my only senior, and I told her, ‘You’re the leader on the floor,’” Munford said. “She picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter, and I also had to sit her down from the end of the third going in the fourth because she picked up two more fouls.
“I knew I would need her in the final minutes of the game, and that’s when she had most of her foul shots. They kept fouling her, and she kept going to the line and making them.”
The Golden Bears led 11-9 at the end of one quarter, but the Tigers used a 17-11 second quarter to go into halftime with a 24-20 lead.
“We started out in a man, but some of the girls were sluggish,” Munford said. “In the second quarter, I switched to a 3-2, and that seemed to be working much better than the man. We stayed in that the rest of the game.”
The Tigers took a 41-38 advantage into the fourth quarter when they outscored the Golden Bears 11-10.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 2-11 on the season while the Golden Bears fell to 3-12.
NESHAMINY 68, HATBORO-HORSHAM 45
The Redskins took a 36-30 lead into halftime, but coach Joanne McVey was none too happy.
“We were disappointed that we gave up as many points as we gave up,” the Redskins’ coach said. “I’ll give them credit – they shot really well, but we were allowing them to get inside by penetrating a little bit too much.
“It was one of those games – it was back and forth. For lack of a better word, it reminded me of an AAU game with little defense and lots of offense, and that’s not who we are.
“We challenged them at halftime. I said, ‘I don’t want this team to score more than 12 points in the second half.’ We talked about what we needed to do to shut them down, and I thought our kids responded in a pretty good way in the second half.”
In a win that saw a lot of players make important contributions, two stood out above the rest. Sophomore point guard Megan Schafer had a most unusual double-double, contributing 17 points and 10 steals to go along with seven assists.
“She played an outstanding game,” McVey said.
The second player is a newcomer to the varsity – freshman Maddie Murray, who scored a game-high 18 points and also pulled down 10 rebounds. Nine of those boards came on the offensive end. Murray was 7-for-15 from the field and 4-for-4 from the foul line.
“She has been playing well,” McVey said. “Our three top interior players are down, two with ACL injuries and one with a concussion (Jade Kent, Jackie Gerth and Sarah Oliveira), so our two interior starters were jayvee players when the season started.
“That’s been a challenge, but they’ve responded in a real nice way. Against teams that are bigger, stronger and faster, we don’t have an answer. Hopefully, as these kids develop, it will pay dividends in the second half of the season as well as in the future.
“I give the kids a tremendous amount of credit. With our record now, our chances of going anywhere are unlikely. We have every reason in the world to give up, and the last practice we had was one of the best practices we had all season. I give the kids and our assistant coaches a tremendous amount of credit. A lot of other people would have given up.”
While the Hatters fell to 4-10, the Redskins improved to 6-9.
UPPER DUBLIN 38, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 25
It was a 15-14 game late in the second quarter when the Flying Cardinals went on a an 8-0 run to go into halftime with a 23-14 lead. The run began with a Curtrena Goff bucket, and after a South turnover, senior Taylor Bryant – who led all scorers with 17 points – connected on a basket down low.
A Bryant steal resulted in a bucket by the senior standout just inside the three-point arc, and when Goff turned a steal into a basket at the buzzer, the Flying Cardinals led by nine.
“That was really big,” Bryant said of her team’s run. “Other than that, it was not going to be a good talk at halftime, but we were able to have something positive to go off of, and it gave us a lot of momentum.”
It was still a nine-point game at the end of three quarters (29-20) before the Flying Cardinals put the finishing touches on the win with a 9-5 fourth quarter.
“At first, our game plan was to stay back a little because we knew they could drive,” Bryant said. “But then we realized we could stay on them and pressure them and make them turn the ball over more because they couldn’t get it inside.”
For the Flying Cardinals, the win snapped a three-game losing streak that included losses to the nation’s second-ranked squad, Riverdale Baptist, as well as Spring-Ford and Cheltenham.
“I think we were determined to come out a little harder after our three losses,” Bryant said. “It took us a little longer to get started, but we made it work.
“We knew what we had to do. They were playing a defense we weren’t really used to, and once we figured it out, we were able to play our game.”
Upper Dublin improved to 11-4 on the season while the Titans fell to 11-5. The loss was their third in five games after a 9-2 start.
CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 61, NORRISTOWN 57 (OT)
West freshman Nicole Munger connected on a huge trey to send the game into overtime. The Bucks rallied to win it in OT with senior standout Jen Fabian, who had fouled out, watching from the bench. Fabian finished the game with six points and 12 rebounds. Munger led the Bucks with 13 points. Corrinne Godshall and Sam Colloi both added eight points while Mackenzie Carroll had six in a contest that saw 11 West players get in the scoring column.
The Eagles were led by the 15-point effort of Tyshay Britten while Briana Hedgepeth, Nicole Graham and Stephanie DiNolfi each had 10 points. Brianna Kennedy added nine points.
The Bucks took a 17-10 lead at the end of one quarter, but the Eagles pulled to within one by halftime (27-26). The Bucks took a 41-39 lead into the final quarter, but the Eagles rallied to knot the score.
The win was the third of the week for the Bucks, who have won six of their last seven games to up their record to 11-5. The Eagles saw their record drop to 5-9.
- Log in to post comments
