Council Rock South and North Penn earned spots in Wednesday’s District One AAAA semifinals while Central Bucks East, Central Bucks West and Upper Dublin stayed alive in the battle for the ninth and final state berth. To view photos of the NP/Cheltenham game, please visit the Photo Gallery by clicking on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/g/022512_north_penn_vs_cheltenham_dl
#9 North Penn 47, #1 Cheltenham 42
Ask Vicky Tumasz what it felt like to defeat the top-seeded Lady Panthers for a second time this season, and the sophomore guard didn’t need to say a word. Her smile told the story.
“Oh my gosh, it’s incredible, especially knowing Cheltenham’s only two losses are from us,” Tumasz said. “It feels incredible.”
It was Tumasz who jumpstarted the Maidens on Saturday. On her team’s first three possessions of the game, the sophomore guard came off screens at the top of the circle and buried her first three shots – all three-pointers – to spot the Maidens a quick 9-0 lead.
“I wasn’t hitting any shots in warm-ups,” said Tumasz, who finished with 14 points. “(The ball) came out of my hands and went in. It was great. That’s the way they started the last time we played them. They went up 10-0.”
The Maidens, however, proved to be a bit stingier about relinquishing their lead, and at the end of one quarter, it was Tumasz 11 and the Lady Panthers four.
“Vicky getting us off to that start was huge,” Maiden coach Maggie deMarteleire said.
The Maidens led 17-6 after Brenda McDermott drove to the hoop and still led 19-8 after Steph Knauer rolled to the bucket for an easy deuce at the 4:40 mark.
“They shot well the whole game,” Cheltenham coach Bob Schaefer said. “Their shooting was fantastic all game.
“All they had to do was brick a few shots like we were doing most of the game and we could have pulled the thing off, but it wasn’t going to happen.”
A bucket by Shayla Peoples ignited an 8-0 Cheltenham run that included four points from Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews as well as a putback by Jiana Clark,
“It was very hard,” Clark said of playing catch-up. “We were concentrating on number four (Erin Maher) who last game made all the three’s, and then we had to concentrate on someone else making all the three’s. It was an adjustment, and it was difficult.”
The Lady Panthers trailed 20-18 after another Clark basket, but Knauer scored on a putback to stretch the Maidens’ lead to five before Andrews, who scored nine of her team-high 16 points in the half, buried an impossible three-pointer at the buzzer.
“In the second quarter when they cut the lead on us, Andrews was like, ‘Oh no, this isn’t happening,’ and she just took over the game,” deMarteleire said. “I said to our kids, ‘Look, right now she wants it more than we do. You guys need to turn it up,’ and they did.”
Both teams came out of halftime looking unnerved. The Lady Panthers threw the ball away on their first possession, and the Maidens returned the favor. A wild shot by the Lady Panthers was followed by a miss of an easy shot on the North Penn end, and when Andrews turned a steal into a three-point play, the Lady Panthers led 24-22.
That lead lasted all of 32 seconds as McDermott knotted the score when she buried a pair of free throws, and the Maidens were back on top when Tumasz – after a Cheltenham miss - hit nothing but net on a trey.
The Maidens saw McDermott take a seat on the bench with 4:53 remaining in the quarter after picking up her fourth foul, but they still led 33-32 heading into the final frame.
McDermott returned to the court to open the fourth quarter but was whistled for her fifth foul at the 5:21 mark with the Maidens clinging to a 35-32 lead.
“She runs our offense,” Hagan said of McDermott. “She’s the main person on the court.
“Coach said they wanted it more than we did, but when she fouled out and we huddled up, we knew they didn’t wanted it more than we did. We wanted to win, and we could do it without Brenda.”
Andrews connected on a tough shot to pull the Lady Panthers to within one, and the two teams were deadlocked (36-36) after Christina Coleman buried a pair at the foul line.
The Maidens took a lead they would not lose when Maher found Knauer for an easy bucket in close. A Hagan steal set the stage for a Knauer putback, and the Maidens led 40-36 with 2:43 remaining.
Knauer scored 10 of her team-high 16 points in the final quarter and also had five of her game-high 10 rebounds in the frame.
“We rebound a lot better when our outside guards are rebounding too, but especially when I knew I was outmatched by a bigger girl, I knew I had to work my hardest,” Knauer said. “I used all my energy to get the rebounds.”
Sabrina Casseus connected on an outside jumper to make it a two-point game, but then came a telling sequence. The Maidens misfired on a shot, but Knauer pulled down the offensive rebound, and when a Maiden missed on the front end of a one-and-one, Knauer pulled down the rebound and – after drawing the foul – buried a pair from the charity stripe.
“Steph Knauer just hustling her tail off the whole game and nailing free throws under pressure,” deMarteleire said. “She just played terrific.”
Clark, who finished with 12 points, scored to make it a 42-40 game, but Hagan sank both ends of a one-and-one, and the Lady Panthers would get no closer than three the rest of the way.
“I don’t know what happened,” Clark said. “Honestly, I don’t know, but I think we all wanted it. We need to work harder. I thought we played good, but they’re a very good team.”
“They dominated inside again,” Schaefer said. “We can’t beat a good inside team, and they are. That leaves their guards to get layups because our inside game isn’t tough enough or quick enough.
“We played as well as we could.”
A key to the win was the Maidens’ ability to maintain their composure after McDermott took a seat on the bench.
“Emily Hagan did a terrific job running the point for the last five minutes,” deMarteleire said.
Tumasz admits there was some serious concern when McDermott fouled out.
“When Brenda fouled, we were like, ‘Uh oh, what’s going on?’ because she’s a leader on this team, but Emily Hagan did a great job,” Tumasz said. “We just stayed aggressive and stepped to the ball.”
While the Maidens have earned a date with Downingtown West in Wednesday’s semifinal game at Norristown High School, the Lady Panthers will do battle with Mount St. Joseph Academy in a consolation round game.
According to Clark, they will be ready.
“I don’t really think that just because we lost this game doesn’t mean that we don’t have anything to prove,” she said. “We’ll come out hard.”
EXTRA SHOTS: The Maidens brought a large student section that proved to be an important sixth man down the stretch. “They didn’t really believe in us at the beginning of the year,” Knauer said. “Usually they follow our boys’ team, but once they realized we could go far – they wanted to come out. It’s awesome. It helps us so much, especially the last time we played Cheltenham. They were so loud they got in their heads, and this time it really gave us momentum to win.” North Penn’s fan support was not lost on Schaefer. “Look at their fans,” he said. “They had twice as many fans as Cheltenham. They had five times as many students as Cheltenham.”
#2 Council Rock South 44, #7 Upper Darby 32
Alex Wheatley admits she wasn’t sure what to expect when she came on board as a freshman at Rock South, but advancing to the district semifinals was not on anyone’s radar.
“I don’t think I expected this, and this – whatever it is – is definitely not over yet,” Wheatley said after the Golden Hawks earned a spot in the district semis. “Coming in as a freshman, my upperclassmen said they hadn’t had winning seasons, they had never made it to the playoffs, let alone states.
“Getting to states my sophomore year was fantastic, and we’ve wanted to return since then. This shows how much work we have put in over the years. It shows we have been playing well together and having fun. We just want to keep it going.”
Wheatley certainly has done her part to elevate the Golden Hawks to such lofty heights. She finished Saturday’s game with 23 points, 16 rebounds, three blocked shots, four assists and three steals. Taylor Dillon added seven points and Alexis Hofstaedter, six points.
“They ran a lot of different defenses,” Wheatley said. “Switching to a zone was probably a good move because we weren’t shooting the ball super well, but the great thing is we have girls who can drive it if it’s not going in from the outside, and we know to crash the boards.
“They’re a good team, so obviously, they didn’t let us into the paint without a fight. I was proud of my girls tonight.”
The Golden Hawks led 12-2 at the end of one quarter and took a 22-13 lead into halftime.
“They went into a zone, and we went a little cold,” coach Monica Stolic said. “We didn’t shoot the ball well, but our defense is still pretty good. We had some transition baskets that were key when we had the opportunity.”
The Golden Hawks limited Tyra Polite to just seven points. Kate Fitzpatrick led the way with 14.
“They were a good team,” Wheatley said. “They had a lot of different talents. They could drive it, they could shoot to some degree and they played good defense.
“As we get closer and closer to the end of districts and states, every team wants it a little bit more because their goals of a district championship are within reach. Everything picks up the level of intensity.”
The Golden Hawks, who improved to 25-0, will face the winner of Sunday’s Spring-Ford/Haverford game in a semifinal game on Wednesday night at Norristown.
“This program has come a long way, but when you have players like Alex and Hof - it makes it a lot easier and a bunch of girls around them that fill the holes very nicely,” Stolic said.
#6 Upper Dublin 41, #19 Central Bucks East 34
Taylor Bryant scored 14 of her game-high 16 points after the intermission, allowing the Flying Cardinals to turn an 18-15 halftime deficit into the eight-point win.
“We went in at halftime, and I said, ‘We’re running one play,’” coach Vince Catanzaro said. “That’s the only play we ran after halftime, and that’s why we won the game because everybody touched the ball, everybody had a chance to shoot the ball.
“That’s actually what helped us win the game. Our defense has been okay. It’s just that we haven’t been scoring. Once they saw everybody touching the ball it became a little easier to score.”
The win came on the heels of Wednesday’s second half collapse that saw a 10-point Upper Dublin halftime lead disappear as the Flying Cardinals scored just six points in the second half.
“It’s a shame we ended up losing that game,” Catanzaro said. “That’s the first game where we really had a bad game. It was a combination of things on Wednesday – bad shooting, bad foul shooting, bad rebounding and bad refs.”
Catanzaro acknowledged that Saturday’s win was a team effort.
“Lauren Rothfeld made some key shots, Jen Myers made key shots, and Taylor made some key shots,” he said. “Everybody chipped in.
“(Crutrena Goff) rebounded, Bri (Spector) got rebounds. Overall, everybody chipped in because of what we did on offense. It just made it easier. You have to be happy to come back and beat them. They played well. Once again we did a good job defensively.”
Tori Steinberg and Madi Vitelli led the Titans with eight points each. Alysha Lofton added seven.
The Titans closed out their season with a 15-10 record while the Flying Cardinals (20-5) will try to keep their season alive when they host Central Bucks West in a playback game on Wednesday.
#11 Central Bucks East 44, #13 Abington 37
Lexi Scrivano scored 10 of her game-high 18 points in a pivotal third quarter that saw the Patriots outscore the Ghosts 18-9, turning a 21-19 halftime deficit into a 37-30 lead.
“She played well today,” coach Tom Lonergan said of Scrivano. “In the third quarter, she hit some jumpers at the elbow, and she had a couple of putbacks.
“When you focus on one player a lot, it creates an opportunity for the other player to be in a one-on-one situation, and it gave Lexi an opportunity to do some things offensively.”
Lindsey Kelly, who has been putting up big numbers, was the focal point of the Ghosts’ defense. She finished the game with 13 points.
“Lindsey (Kelly) had a tough game today, so it was good to see Lexi step up when Lindsey was struggling,” Lonergan said. “What we’re hoping is that they can both bring that game together sometime, and if they could do that, I think it would be very difficult for a team to stop both. If they both bring their ‘A’ games, that will make a big difference for us on the offensive end.
Kelly was whistled for her fifth foul with five-and-a-half minutes to play and the Patriots leading by six.
“That’s when Lexi really upped her game, and she needed to at that time,” Lonergan said. “Not just from an offensive standpoint. Lindsey is our leading rebounder, so Lexi had to pick up the slack.”
Scrivano finished with a team high nine rebounds while Kelly had four and Margaret Anne Hubbell, five rebounds to go along with four points.
Lonergan was pleased with his team’s response to their disappointing loss to Mount St. Joseph in Wednesday’s second round contest.
“I am very happy to have the opportunity as a team to play at our court,” he said. “There’s no question the atmosphere Wednesday was totally different than it was today.
“Getting a chance to come back home makes a big difference to teams in the playback.”
Aiyannah Peal (14 points) and Deja Rawls (11 points) led the Ghosts offensively.
“Defensively we played well except for the fact that we had trouble with Peal and Rawls off the dribble,” Lonergan said. “Abington is a very good. They’re quick, they’re very athletic, and they have some terrific players.
“Peal and Rawls are just phenomenal. They’re two excellent players.”
The Patriots won the game at the foul line where they connected on 16-of-19 while the Ghosts were just 12-for-26 from the line.
“That definitely had a big part in the outcome,” said Lonergan, whose team had 21 turnovers to just five for the Ghosts. “We were able to finish on the line, and I’m sure they usually shoot a higher percentage than they did today.”
Senior guard Shannon Devlin scored five points but provided steady floor leadership for the Patriots.
“She played extremely well,” Lonergan said. “She pretty much had to control the offense because Rawls did a great job (defensively) on Karoline White. We have had that all year, but nobody bottled her up like Rawls did to the point where I pretty much had to have Shannon handle the point guard.”
The Patriots (19-6) will face the winner of Monday’s Methacton-Downingtown East playback game. The Ghosts closed out their season with a 17-8 record.
#15 Central Bucks West 60, #23 Boyertown 44
West’s young players have stolen the spotlight on occasion this season, but with the Bucks’ season hanging in the balance on Saturday, the team’s three seniors stepped to the fore.
Jen Fabian scored a game-high 13 points to go along with three steals and five blocked shots while Amanda Parker added 12 points and seven rebounds. Senior Sam Colloi connected on a pair of treys.
“Our seniors really stepped up when they had to,” coach Terry Rakowsky said. “Sam Colloi has been battling a hand injury since the playoffs started. If this was an out-of-league game, she might not play.
“Amanda has had a bad shoulder the last three weeks, but you just can’t get them out of the lineup. They’re gamers.”
Things didn’t start out on a promising note for the Bucks, who found themselves staring at a 13-7 deficit at the end of one quarter and still trailed 25-24 at the intermission.
“Boyertown was good,” Rakowsky said. “They played good defense, they ran a great offense.
“We had 13 turnovers in the first half and 10 missed layups, but we were only down by one. We should have been getting smoked for the way we played.”
Things changed in a hurry in a third quarter that saw the Bucks outscore the Bears 21-9 to go on top 45-34 heading into the final frame.
“Fortunately, our kids picked it up,” Rakowsky said. “We changed defenses a little bit too. We were doing different things in the second half to slow them down a little bit, but it was really just executing what we needed to do.
“The third and fourth quarters our kids played real well. We have come so far to the point where I was telling the kids - we’re in the district playoffs, and we win by 16, and to be honest, we have to be a little disappointed with the way we played. Our kids came out not real sharp in the first half, but Boyertown is tough. They did a lot of good things.”
The Bucks (18-7) will travel to Upper Dublin for Wednesday night’s playback game.
“Everything is gravy at this point,” Rakowsky said. “We go into each game expecting to win, but it’s just been a great run.”
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