An uneven outing for GA summer squad

Posted 6/30/14

Olivia Gorman (right), the lone rising senior on the Germantown Academy hoops squad, dribbles across the half-court line. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher In the Gwynedd Mercy summer league …

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An uneven outing for GA summer squad

Posted

Olivia Gorman (right), the lone rising senior on the Germantown Academy hoops squad, dribbles across the half-court line. (Photo by Tom Utescher) Olivia Gorman (right), the lone rising senior on the Germantown Academy hoops squad, dribbles across the half-court line. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

In the Gwynedd Mercy summer league last Wednesday, a change in opponents for Germantown Academy had unfortunate consequences. The Patriots had been scheduled to play Plymouth Whitemarsh, which had initially signed up for the league, but then quickly dropped out.

On this particular evening, PW’s spot in the schedule was taken by Jenkintown High School, one of the smallest public high schools in the state. The Drakes also happened to be missing their marquee player, Emma Dorsheimer, a 1000-point scorer who is heading into her senior season.

The result was a very lopsided contest, with GA accumulating 20 points before Jenkintown scored. When the tally reached 31-2 late in the first half, Patriots coach Sherri Retif asked the scoreboard operator to refrain from putting up any more points for her squad. The actual final score turned out to be 55-7, with senior guard Olivia Gorman and freshman forward Alexa Naessens depositing 10 points apiece to top a list of 10 scorers for the victors.

Gorman will be the only 12th-grader on the Pats’ 2014-’15 roster, and the lone senior on last year’s team, Margaret Anne Hubbell, stopped by to watch Wednesday’s summer league bout. She was bidding farewell to her former teammates before reporting this week to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Junior forward Lauren Oeth got the scoreboard rolling with a lay-up off of a rebound, and after Gorman and junior guard Kendall Grasela joined in, the tally quickly reached 9-0, causing the Drakes to call time-out three minutes into the action. However, there was little Jenkintown could do to stop this young but very talented Germantown ballclub.

Naessens came off the bench to hit a pair of lay-ups, a short bank shot, and a free throw, and the count rose to 20-0 before Ashley Kremp drove in for the Drakes’ lone field goal of the opening period. In the final seconds of the half, a free throw by Jenkintown’s Kayla Morrow set the score at 33-3 for the intermission.

The Drakes appeared more poised in the second half, but GA still kept pulling away, not really missing a step even when all of the players on the court were reserves instead of starters. Sophomore forward Lilly Bolen divided her eight points evenly between the two halves, and the Pats got six points apiece from Oeth and from sophomore guard Erin Lindahl.

Freshman Cat Polisano finished with five points and sophomore Abby Starzecky with four, and the winners’ total was rounded out with single field goals by Grasela, junior Leena Kardacz, and freshman Maddie Cooper.

Jenkintown received second-half field goals from Kremp and Morrin McSherry.

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