Ninth-seeded North Penn defeated fourth-seeded Downingtown West to earn a trip to the District One AAAA final. To view photos of all of the action, please visit the Photo Gallery.
NORRISTOWN – There’s something magical about the North Penn Maidens’ basketball season. The Maidens, after stumbling out of the gate to a 6-4 start, have won 15 of 16 games and on Wednesday night did what few people would have given them a chance to do back in December – they defeated Downingtown West 36-31 in a District One AAAA semifinal contest at Norristown High School and, as a result, earned a trip to the district final against Spring-Ford at Villanova University on Friday night.
“At the beginning of the season when we were 6-4, no one really thought that could happen,” said senior captain Steph Knauer, who led the Maidens with 16 points and 12 rebounds. “Everyone underestimated us.
“When the district seeds came out – nine was a good seed, but we were hoping for something higher. We knew we were underestimated, and that pushed us even harder to keep going.”
The ninth seed actually turned out to be the perfect seed for the Maidens, who earned wins over Council Rock North and Methacton and then solidified their place among the district’s elite when they defeated Cheltenham for the second time this season in Saturday’s quarterfinal round.
“I know it sounds cliché, but we really did just take it one game at a time,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “We had a film session on the teams we were playing, and we walked through their plays.
“Once we beat Methacton – it was like a weight was lifted off our shoulders. We knew we were in the state playoffs, and I thought we played well after that.”
On Wednesday, the Maidens exacted a major degree of revenge when they downed a Whippet squad that had soundly defeated them 45-29 on Dec. 22. deMarteleire pointed to the absence of senior captain Allison Shaw from the Whippets’ lineup on Wednesday, but Shaw, who injured her knee in the Whippets’ win over the Mount, had just six points in the initial meeting.
“She’s a tall girl that can shoot, so that was big for them,” deMarteleire said. “But you know what - the Downingtown West girls always play their hearts out. They play so gutsy and scrappy, and they give you trouble no matter what.
“They make you play ugly, and that’s what we did.”
From the outset, the game was devoid of any kind of flow, but thanks to the eight-point effort of junior captain Lauren Crisler, the Maidens trailed by just one at the end of the first quarter (9-8).
“I think that the mindset tonight was definitely to be aggressive, and communication was a big key, especially on defense,” said Crisler.
The Whippets knotted the score 12-12, but a rebound by Crisler and long outlet pass to Vicky Tumasz resulted in an easy fastbreak bucket and a Maiden lead. Again the Whippets knotted the score, this time using a turnover and a Brittany Sicinski bucket.
If there was a defining moment in the game, it came when Knauer – who found herself wide open at the top of the circle – hit nothing but net on a rare three-point attempt, giving the Maidens a lead they would not lose (17-14). They took an 18-15 lead into halftime.
It looked as though the Maidens might be able to coast to the finish line when they opened up a 27-19 lead after an Erin Maher trey late in the third quarter. It was still a 31-22 game after Tumasz sank a three-pointer off a screen at the 6:12 mark of the fourth quarter.
That’s when the points stopped coming and the turnovers started mounting for the Maidens, who endured a scoring drought of close to five minutes that allowed the Whippets to trim their once nine-point lead to one (31-30) after Sicinski scored on a drive with 1:26 remaining.
Maher calmly buried both ends of a one-and-one to give the Maidens a three-point edge. It was still a two-point game until Knauer came up with the rebound of a Whippet miss on the front end of a one-and-one and then sank a pair at the other end to put the Maidens on top 35-31 with 25 seconds remaining.
“We were throwing the ball all over the place,” deMarteleire said. “Thank god we got through it. We hit foul shots at the end, and that’s one thing we’ve been struggling with.
“I don’t think we played that well tonight. I thought our decision-making was poor. That’s one thing that has been better – in the Cheltenham game, our decision-making was really good. We need to get more consistent with that for Friday and the state run.”
With 14 seconds remaining, Knauer closed out the scoring by sinking one-of-two from the foul line, and shortly thereafter, the jubilant celebration began. The Maidens are returning to the district title game for the first time since 1991.
“First time in 20 years,” senior captain Brenda McDermott said. “At the beginning of the season, we started off a little rough – we were 6-4.
“At every practice, we were like, ‘This is what it takes to get to a district championship.’ We worked so hard during the season, and every game we got progressively better and better. This is what we strived for all season. It feels great. It’s awesome.”
The Maidens will face third-seeded Spring-Ford – a 56-50 winner over previously undefeated Council Rock South in the other semi – in Friday’s district title game at Villanova University at 7 p.m.
“Our goal at the beginning of the season was to make it to the district final and to make some noise in states,” Crisler said. “We’re definitely going to achieve that. We’re in the district finals on Friday, and we’re super excited for that.”
NORTH PENN (36) – Emily Hagan 0 0-0 0; Brenda McDermott 0 0-0 0; Erin Maher 1 2-2 5; Lauren Crisler 4 1-2 10; Steph Knauer 4 7-10 16; Vicky Tumasz 2 0-0 5. TOTALS 11 10-14 36.
DOWNINGTOWN WEST (31) – Emily Kuhlman 0 0-0 0; Lindsay Galczynski 0 0-0 0; Brittany Sicinski 9 3-5 22; Devin DiFranks 1 0-0 2; Kayla Feairheller 1 0-1 2; Maddie Dew 1 0-0 2; Kerri Caruso 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 13 4-8 31
North Penn 8 10 9 9-36
Downingtown West 9 6 7 8-31
3-point goals: NP-Maher, Tumasz, Maher, Knauer; DTW-Sicinski
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