PW and Neshaminy both notched impressive wins at the Hoops for Hope Classic at Cabrini University on Sunday. PW/Archbishop Carroll photos provided courtesy of Larry Small. To view game action photos, please visit the photo gallery at the following link: https://solsports.zenfolio.com/p824660377 (Reese Zemitis photo courtesy of Neshaminy Basketball)
PLYMOUTH WHITEMARSH 38, ARCHBISHOP CARROLL 29
The Colonials picked up their 15th win without a loss on Sunday at the Hoops for Hope Classic at Cabrini University, and this one over a Carroll squad atop the PCL standings might well have been the most impressive.
If there were any doubts that PW could play with the “big boys,” those were quickly put to rest as the Colonials opened up a 16-3 lead over the Patriots after one quarter.
“We really prepared hard for this game – both coaches and players,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “I thought that 16-3 was a reflection of being very prepared going into it.
“Our press kind of worked. Defensively, in the first quarter, they got one Grace O’Neill transition basket, and she got a foul shot too. Other than that, I thought we did an excellent job even when they broke the press. The girls all know each other, and I know that Carroll is a Comets program in a sense, and some of our girls played for the Comets in the past, so we know some of their defensive tendencies.
“When we talked to the team before the game, I told them I thought the first real world five minutes and the last real world five minutes of the game would be very telling. For the first five minutes real world to go that well was great.”
In the Colonials’ big first quarter, Jordyn Thomas led the way with six points and Lainey Allen added four. All five starters had a basket in the quarter.
The Patriots ‘outscored’ the Colonials 7-3 in the second quarter, but the Colonials still took a 19-10 lead into halftime.
“I thought it was good defense at both ends of the floor,” Dougherty said. “The struggle for us in the second quarter – we got called for two offensive fouls for strong post moves, and we were frustrated by that.
“We were mixing defenses a lot in the second quarter. They’re such a talented group of kids and a well-coached team that I thought if every time down the floor we could throw a different defense at them – that kind of stalled them a little bit.”
The two teams exchanged baskets in a second half that saw both teams score 19 points. Allen scored six of her team’s 10 points in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Colonials buried 7-of-10 from the foul line.
“I’m really, really pleased with the free throw shooting in the second half under pressure,” Dougherty said. “Kids really stepped up when they needed to.”
Defense highlighted the performance of both squads.
“It’s been a big challenge with this group of kids that we have – they’ve been playing in so many playoff games over the past few years, and we tell them – ‘In the second half, you’re playing defense 50 feet away from us. You’re not going to hear us telling you what to do,’” Dougherty said. “So in the second half, we just started switch, switch, switch except for one. The one we didn’t switch was (Kaitlyn) Flanagan guarding Grace O’Neill, and she just did an outstanding job.
“One of the really clutch plays – O’Neill is trying really hard to get to the basket, step back and get to the basket, and she does her move, and Flanagan blocked her shot and takes the ball. I thought that was really a special play in the second half, and it took the air out of them a little bit. O’Neill had made two 3s in people’s faces, and they got it to eight and then they got it to six, so Flanagan’s defense was really special.”
Another big play was delivered by Fiona Gooneratne off the bench.
“Abby Sharpe got in foul trouble, and Gooneratne came in, and every time she would touch the ball, they would trap her or foul her, and if it got called, it got called,” Dougherty said. “She went to the free throw line and hit the front end of a one-and-one, and that stretched it back up, so that spot in the game when Fiona hits those two foul shots in the one-and-one was a big calming thing.”
Allen – whose 12 points led the Colonials – earned player of the game honors.
“I don’t know how many rebounds she had, but she played like a female Shaquille O’Neil,” Dougherty said. “She had kids hanging on her arms, hanging on her back. It was really impressive. She just got this determined look on her face like – ‘This is my game, I’m going to take it over.’
“In the second half, she had eight points, she was 4-of-5 from the foul line. Her toughness and tenacity down low in the second half was the scoring we really needed.”
Also for the Colonials, Thomas added eight points, Flanagan had seven, and Sharpe contributed six points.
The Colonials are seeded first in the latest District One 6A power rankings, but their work is far from finished.
“We told the kids before the game – ‘Today is not the final exam, today is just a quiz. Let’s learn as much about ourselves as anything else. How do we react to situations like this?’” Dougherty said. “There was a lot for us to learn from too. We had some turnovers caused by their pressure and the pressure of the game too – just how badly we wanted to win. Once you start experiencing that pressure in the fourth quarter, you have to learn to take a deep breath, know what your options are and try to avoid turnovers like that.”
Plymouth Whitemarsh (15-0, 10-0 SOL) will host Lower Moreland on Tuesday and then travel to Abington on Thursday for a showdown with the Ghosts in a battle for the division’s top spot.
Plymouth Whitemarsh 16-3-10-9 38
Archbishop Carroll 3-7-11-8 29
Plymouth Whitemarsh (38) – Kaitlyn Flanagan 2 3-4 7; Fiona Gooneratne 0 2-4 2; Erin Daley 1 1-2 3; Abby Sharpe 3 0-0 6; Lainey Allen 4 4-5 12; Jordyn Thomas 4 0-0 8. TOTALS 14 10-15 38.
Archbishop Carroll (29) – Brooke Wilson 1 2-2 4; Taylor Wilson 3 0-2 6; Grace O’Neill 5 1-2 13; Maggie Grant 2 0-0 6. TOTALS 11 3-6 29.
3-point goals: AC – Grace O’Neill 2, Maggie Grant 2.
NESHAMINY 65, WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 60 (OT)
John Gallagher looked at his team’s schedule for the weekend and saw a gauntlet with back-to-back-to-back games against Central Bucks South, Central Bucks West and West Chester Rustin. The Redskins’ coach was hoping his team could win two out of three.
The Redskins did much better than that, winning an overtime thriller over Rustin at the Hoops for Hope Classic at Cabrini University to make it a clean sweep.
“This is a huge win for us,” Gallagher said. “We started the weekend 15th in the district (power rankings). I’m thinking to myself – if we go 2-1, maybe we could get up to 12th or 11th. The kids were thinking 3-0.
“West Chester Rustin is a fabulous team, extremely really well coached, and they were ranked fifth when we played them.”
When the dust had settled on Sunday’s overtime thriller, Rustin was eighth in the District One 6A power rankings while Neshaminy vaulted all the way to ninth.
“It’s a pretty good jump for us the last three games,” Gallagher said. “We want to get up as high as possible.
“We play Methacton next week which is another big challenge for us. CB East and Liz (Potash) are coming to our place Tuesday. I looked at these three games together because they’re back-to-back-to-back and hoping 2-1 best case scenario.”
Four players finished in double figures for the Redskins, and nobody’s performance loomed larger than the 17-point, 16-rebound effort of Reese Zemitis, who owned the paint and earned player of the game honors. Lola Ibarrondo led the Redskins with 18 points to go along with three steals, two assists and two rebounds.
“I’m really happy with Reese,” Gallagher said. “Lola had 18 points, and she was dynamite. She had a really big steal at the end.”
Anna Soska turned in a big performance off the bench, finishing with 11 points and eight rebounds.
“Anna Soska was buried on our bench when the season started out, and every time someone on our team goes down, she moves up a notch,” Gallagher said. “We had three girls down today. Another girl, Lindsay Little, who’s been playing well for us, was playing on one leg. She gutted it out.
“Anna was our first sub off the bench. She hit a big three, and she had monster rebounds late in the game that were just huge. I have to really consider playing her more, maybe going with a bigger lineup. She was the story of the game.”
Taylor Gurysh was the fourth player in double figures with 10 points, which included a 6-for-6 effort at the foul line. She also had six rebounds and three assists.
For the game, the Redskins buried 24-of-30 shots at the charity stripe.
“We’re really good at the foul line if we can get a lead,” Gallagher said.
Rustin led 18-12 after one quarter but managed just five points in the second quarter while the Redskins scored 17, which included 3-point baskets from Soska, Little and Iabarrondo. Neshaminy took a 29-23 lead into halftime and upped their lead to 42-34 heading into the final quarter.
“The last four games, we’ve been up five or six at halftime, and the third quarter hasn’t been kind to us,” Gallagher said. “Today we were up eight going into the fourth quarter, and they went off from the 3-point line.
“They’re extremely well-coached, well-spaced team. Laine McGurk is fabulous – she’s going to Drexel, and they had another girl hitting 3s on us. They just went crazy hitting a bunch of 3s, and they scored on a putback with 2.2 seconds in regulation to tie the game and send it into overtime.”
The Redskins won it at the foul line where they were a near perfect 10-for-11 in OT. Gurysh and Soska both were 2-for-2, Ibarrondo contributed a three-point play and also buried a pair while Zemitis was 3-for-4 at the line.
“Lola (Ibarrondo) stepped in the passing lane, got to the rim, got fouled and made the foul shot to put us up six,” Gallagher said. “They come down and hit a three, and they started fouling us.”
The veteran coach was understandably pleased with his team’s response after Rustin rallied to knot the score.
“I said to my coaches after the game – it’s almost better we had that situation,” Gallagher said. “I came over to the bench (after regulation), and Lola had her head down. I lifted it up and said, ‘Come on now, we’re playing one of the best teams in the district, and we’re tied.’ I would have taken that when the game started.
“We just went from there. They scored first, we answered and got a little bit of a lead. The steal by Lola was huge. I just can’t say enough about them.”
The Redskins went into overtime with Soska, Gurysh and Zemitis all with four fouls.
“That gave me cause for concern, but all three of them finished the game,” Gallagher said. “It was a good win against a really good team in districts. It helps us and keeps us moving in the right direction.”
McGurk led all scorers with 28 points while Riley Stackhouse added 12.
Neshaminy (11-3, 8-2 SOL) will host Central Bucks East on Tuesday.
Neshaminy 12-17-13-11-12 65
West Chester Rustin 18-5-11-19-7 60
Neshaminy (65) – Skylar Lall 1 0-0 3; Taylor Gurysh 2 6-6 10; Anna Soska 2 6-6 11; Lindsay Little 2 0-0 6; Lola Ibarrondo 4 9-13 18; Reese Zemitis 7 3-5 17. TOTALS 18 24-30 65.
West Chester Rustin (60) – Ava Panetta 1 0-0 2; Lola Flynn 4 1-3 9; Elizabeth McGurk 2 0-0 4; Laine McGurk 11 2-3 28; Laney Costin 2 1-2 5; Riley Stackhouse 4 2-2 12. TOTALS 24 6-10 60.
3-point goals: Neshaminy – Lindsay Little 2, Skylar Lall, Anna Soska, Lola Ibarrondo; WCR - Laine McGurk 4, Riley Stackhouse 2.
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