North Penn was the lone SOL team to survive Friday’s opening round of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament. Upper Dublin, CB West and Pennsbury saw their seasons end. To view photos of the CB West/Central Dauphin East game, please visit the Photo Gallery.
Opening night of the PIAA Class AAAA Tournament was not an especially good one for the SOL. Or for District One, for that matter.
North Penn is the lone SOL team still standing, and the Maidens join top-seeded Spring-Ford as the only district squads moving on to the second round. Upper Dublin, CB West, Pennsbury, Boyertown, Mount St. Joseph Academy, Methacton, Garnet Valley and Bayard Rustin all were sent packing.
(1-6) NORTH PENN 44, (11-2) POCONO MOUNTAIN WEST 38
While no one is quite sure when it last happened, it’s safe to say that it’s been a long time since North Penn has won a state playoff game. The Maidens broke that drought with Friday’s win.
“It wasn’t pretty tonight, but we got through it,” coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “We shot well in the first half, particularly in the second quarter, but we did not shoot well in the third quarter at all. I’m not sure if we made a perimeter shot in the second half.
“I said to the kids, ‘You might not make shots, but you have to play good defense, and you have to rebound. You have to fight that much harder to do those things when you’re not shooting well.’”
Friday’s win came on the heels of a potentially demoralizing 22-point loss to Central Bucks West six days earlier.
“In our losses to Upper Dublin and CB West when we weren’t shooting well, it snowballed, and we didn’t play good defense, and we didn’t rebound,” deMarteleire said. “I think back to the CB West game that we won, and we fell in love with the three. We shot so well that game, and it was a great feeling, but 95 percent of the games we’re not going to shoot like that. We need to play good defense and we need to rebound.
“Tonight when we weren’t shooting well in the fourth quarter, we really did buckle down and we rebounded better and we played better defense. They’re the only things you can control. You can’t control if the ball goes in the hoop.”
The Maidens opened up a 12-9 lead at the end of one quarter and extended that lead to 26-15 by halftime.
“We started out in a zone tonight, and that lasted about four minutes,” deMarteleire said. “One of their girls hit two three’s, and they had three or four offensive rebounds, and I’m like, ‘Okay, I’m done with this.’”
Senior Lauren Crisler turned in a double-double to lead the Maidens, finishing with 12 points and 14 rebounds. Vicky Tumasz added 11.
“Vicky made some key plays when we needed her to,” deMarteleire said. “Bri Cullen had a really good game tonight. She defended one of their better players and did a really good job.
“She got fouled on a three-point shot in the third quarter and made all three shots, and we were struggling at that point. They were hitting some bombs in the third quarter – they hit three three’s from real far out, and we turned the ball over a lot in the third quarter.”
Pocono Mountain West outscored the Maidens 17-7 in the third quarter to make it a 33-32 game at the end of three quarters. The Maidens answered with an 11-6 fourth quarter to earn the big win.
“We regrouped and played well in the fourth quarter,” deMarteleire said. “We played good defense.”
The Maidens (23-5), who connected on just 14-of-30 foul shots, will face District 3 champion Wilson in a second round game on Tuesday.
(3-3) CENTRAL DAUPHIN EAST 48, (1-5) CENTRAL BUCKS WEST 46
There are heartbreaking losses and then there are heartbreaking losses.
Friday’s loss to Central Dauphin East cut the heart out of a West team that was in command for the better part of 32 minutes but saw the game slip away in the final seconds. The Bucks still led 46-43 with 58 seconds remaining when Maggie Gratz found teammate Kat Bahner for an easy bucket against a trapping Panther squad.
Momentum began to swing firmly in the Panthers’ favor when sophomore Michaela Gelbaugh buried a three-pointer to knot the score. Still, the Bucks had a chance to win it, but a turnover out of a timeout with 26 seconds remaining gave the Panthers a chance to score the go-ahead basket.
That didn’t happen, and the Bucks regained possession and were again poised to score the potential game winner. This time a charging call against the Bucks gave the ball back to the Panthers with seven seconds remaining. It also sent sophomore Mackenzie Carroll to the bench with five fouls, and while the charge evoked an angry response from the West faithful who questioned the call, they expressed their displeasure in unison when the Bucks were whistled for a blocking foul as time was about to expire.
With 2.2 seconds remaining, Gelbaugh stepped to the charity stripe and buried a pair, giving the Panthers their first lead of the game and bringing an end to the Bucks’ season.
“Calls at the end don’t generally decide games,” coach Terry Rakowsky said. “It seems like it did, but it didn’t.
“We had so many opportunities. We threw the ball away, we didn’t make certain plays. It’s a learning procedure. Our kids played great. They played hard. I don’t know how many people gave us a chance to stay with these guys.”
The tears when it was over – according to Gratz - were not so much that the Bucks had lost but that the season was over.
“It’s extremely disappointing, but it’s been the season of a lifetime,” the senior captain said. “Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a better one.
“This isn’t my last memory of West basketball. It’s the practices, it’s my teammates. It’s not the destination, it’s all about the journey.”
The Bucks led from wire to wire in Friday’s contest. At least, they led until the final 2.2 seconds.
They jumped out of the gate to a 6-0 lead, sparked by a Nicole Munger three-pointer and a bucket by Gratz. There were early signs that fouls could be an issue when they were whistled for their sixth foul midway through the first quarter and found the Panthers shooting foul shots at the 3:31 mark of the quarter.
Still, the Bucks led 11-7 after a quarter, and they took a 24-20 lead into halftime. They appeared to seize complete control of the game when they opened the second half with a 6-0 run to go on top 30-20. The run included four points from Bahner, who had a team-high 12 points. Cait Mautz also contributed a bucket after pulling down a rebound on the defensive end and taking it coast-to-coast.
They still led 36-26 at the 2:53 mark of the third quarter after Munger (11 points) converted a shot in traffic after coming up with a steal on the defensive end. The Panthers responded with an 8-2 run to close out the quarter that included three putbacks.
“We controlled the boards basically the whole game except for that one stretch,” coach Terry Rakowsky said. “It almost looked like we were on the verge of taking them out, and then they got a bunch of putbacks.
“They’d miss a shot and put it back. We were sort of prepared for everything else that they were doing, other than the fact that we weren’t executing as well as needed to. They were giving us stuff that not only should we have not turned it over, but we should have got layups. That’s part of the whole experience process.”
The Bucks led 44-36 after an other 6-0 run that included baskets by Mautz, Bahner and Peyton Traina, but the Panthers ended their scoring drought with a 7-0 run of their own to make it a 44-43 game with 2:31 remaining in regulation.
“That’s part of the process,” Rakowsky said. “We play a lot of young kids, and sometimes they perform and sometimes things don’t go your way.
Both teams had numerous chances to score, but neither could convert until Gratz found Bahner for a bucket that set the stage for a finish that left everyone on West’s sidelines shaking their heads.
“At this level, everyone here is good,” Rakowsky said. “Everybody has been through games like this where they’re up, they’re down. You just have to stay with it.
“They outhustled us in the third quarter with the rebounds. Give them credit.”
The Bucks closed out the year with a 20-7 record and a share of the SOL Continental Conference title. Not bad for a team that was winless four short years ago.
“No regrets,” Gratz said. “It truly has been everything and more than we could have wanted.
“It’s West basketball, and next year you have to expect one step higher, ready to go and play the exact same way. Right now it’s all about celebrating an incredible season with my teammates who will forever be friends.”
(11-1) NAZARETH 41, (1-8) PENNSBURY 28
The shots weren’t falling for the Falcons in Friday’s opening round game, but despite their offensive struggles, they still found themselves trailing by just three in the fourth quarter when Nazareth put the game out of reach down the stretch.
“We didn’t knock down our shots,” coach Donna Nicholson said. “We shot 1-for-12 from the three-point line. We were getting open looks, and we didn’t knock them down.
“We had some turnovers that led to easy baskets for them. They were getting open looks, they were getting second chances and kicking it out, and they were knocking down their shots. For three quarters, we were right there in it.”
The Falcons trailed 23-20 heading into the final quarter.
“They scored 18 points in the fourth quarter,” Nicholson said. “At one point, with about four minutes to go, they went to a box-and-one on Sajanna (Bethea). We had open looks, but we just couldn’t knock them down.”
Bethea led the Falcons with 15 points, Kaitlin Kelly had nine and Carly Kovin had four points as just three players got into the scoring column for the Falcons.
“We battled, we competed,” Nicholson said. “We’re proud of the girls. We went through our ups and downs this season. We played some good basketball too.
“We played four months of basketball, and we brought our younger players along, so they got experience. They’ve been with us through all of districts and to states, and they saw what it’s like to play into March, to be a part of March Madness.”
The Falcons closed out the season with a 14-14 record.
“I think a lot of people wrote us off after Jae Jackson went down because she brought a lot to our team,” Nicholson said. “We had to change so much of what we were doing because we didn’t have Jae anymore.
“We went through the highs and lows just trying to find what would work with the players we had, and they finally started making some connections and doing a lot of positive things together. It was a good run, it was a real good run.”
(12-3) ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 54, (1-3) UPPER DUBLIN (43)
The defending state champions buried nine three-pointers en route to the big win. The Patriots led 15-9 at the end of one quarter, but the Flying Cardinals rallied to make it a 22-20 game at halftime. The Patriots took a 37-31 lead into the fourth quarter and added to that lead in the final quarter.
Junior Regan Gallagher led the Flying Cardinals with 19 points while senior point guard Curtrena Goff had 10 points. Lauren Rothfeld added nine points for the Flying Cardinals, who closed out their season with a 25-3 record.
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