Scoring 19 points in a game at Hill School last Tuesday, senior guard Hannah Fox (center) established a new Penn Charter career scoring record. Celebrating the occasion with her are PC head coach Joe Maguire and assistant Colleen Magarity.

by Tom Utescher

Four girls teams from the area were in action in the annual high school basketball extravaganza known as the Play-by-Play Classic last Sunday. Most of the action in the 21-game extravaganza took place in its familiar setting at Philadelphia University, and this year the showcase took on the name of former Germantown Academy great Maggie Lucas.

On either side of the noon hour, Germantown Academy vanquished Villa Maria Academy, 54-28, and Mount St. Joseph dispatched Archbishop Carroll, 55-41. These match-ups would’ve been quite competitive just a few years back, but recently both Villa and Carroll have fallen on hard times.

In an official Inter-Ac League game just after the dinnertime, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy won an exciting clash with Agnes Irwin School, 45-43. There was nearly a clean sweep for the four area squads, but in the very last game to be completed, Penn Charter fell in overtime to Bonner Prendergast High School, 54-51.

In one of the morning contests at the Play-by-Play, the GA Patriots romped to a 23-5 advantage over Villa in the first eight minutes, and things didn’t get much better for the Hurricanes after that. Junior Lily Bolen accumulated 15 points and sophomore Cat Polisano scored nine as Germantown raised its overall record to 13-2.

Sophomore Alexa Naessens chalked up seven points and nine rebounds, junior Abby Starzecky had six points and six boards. Seniors Erin Lindahl and Kendall Grasela had five and four points, respectively, with Grasela also providing the Pats with five assists and five steals. Erin DiDonato put up a team-high 12 points for the 5-6 Hurricanes.

In a 1:00 PM bout the MSJ Magic (12-2) steadily pulled away from Carroll (5-6) over the first 24 minutes. Nine points from Libby Tacka and six from fellow senior Caitlyn Cunningham had the Mounties leading 19-11 at end of the opening quarter. They were up 28-15 at halftime and 45-22 at the three-quarter mark. When the Magic aired out their bench the Patriots were able to trim nine points off their deficit in the final period.

When Tacka’s individual total reached 15 points Mount head coach John Miller pulled her off the floor. She was now just three points away from reaching 1000 points in her high school career, and the future West Point cadet would be able to attain the milestone on her home court just two days later.

Cunningham finished with 13 points, senior Sarah Wills had 10, and junior Ashley Smith churned out nine points, 10 rebounds, and three assists. Carroll was paced by junior Bella Sorrentino, with 14 points.

Springside Chestnut Hill took the court at 7:00 PM in a match-up that really meant something. The Blue Devils had been swept home and away by Agnes Irwin last winter, and they were able to return the favor this season, as Sunday’s close win followed a 56-41 SCH victory over the Owls in Chestnut Hill three days before Christmas.

The scoreboard clicked over slowly as the Blue Devils built a 7-5 lead by the end of the first period. The Owls forged ahead to a 20-17 halftime advantage, then the momentum swung back to SCH, which was up 27-25 for the start of the fourth quarter.

Early in the final round, a three-pointer by Irwin’s Alex Blomstrom (who would register a game-high 22 points) gave the Owls a 32-31 edge, then SCH set out on a 12-3 run mostly powered by senior Essence Walden and junior Chloe Burns. Sophomore Emily McNesby added a flawless one-and-one, spreading the score to 43-35.

However, Burns would soon leave the floor with her fifth foul, and the Owls generated an 8-1 rally. Irwin eighth-grader Katie Anderson (13 points) found it easy to penetrate into the paint, and her transition lay-up with seven seconds left cut the SCH lead to a single point at 44-43.

The Blue Devils needed to call a time-out to figure out how to inbound the ball from the baseline, and they eventually got it in to freshman Mo’ne Davis. She was fouled and went to the line in a double-bonus situation, making the first of her two shots to put the final point on the board with five seconds to go. Senior Lindsay Hiner had a team-high 12 points for the Blue Devils (5-4 overall), while Walden finished with 10 points and McNesby with eight.

Last up at the Classic was Penn Charter. If anyone thought that sharpshooter Alyssa Monaghan’s transition from Bonner Prendergast to St. Joseph’s University meant that the Pandas would no longer thrive at the three-point line, they were mistaken. They started the game with two lay-up and ended the half with another one, but in between the Pandas drained six treys, three coming from sophomore Nyah Garrison.

Bonner Prendie (8-1 overall) led Charter 24-13 at the half and increased its advantage to 16 points (31-15) early in the third quarter. PC began to revive when Lexi Hnatkowsky hit her second three-pointer of the night, then the Quakers junior earned two assists on transition lay-ups by senior guard Hannah Fox. A three-pointer and a drive down the lane later on by Fox got her team back within three points of the leaders (33-30) by the end of the period.

A few minutes into the fourth round, PC led by three (41-38), but just after midway point of the quarter BP had a 46-44 edge. A score on a spin move by junior Mireyah Davis and a converted rebound by Fox then moved Charter ahead 48-46, and an exchange of free throws made it 49-47 early in the final minute. Two Quakers turnovers led to a pair of Pandas each making one of two free throws, and the game proceeded into overtime at 49-49.

In the extra session, a lay-up by BP’s Garrison (17 points total) was matched by a baseline jumper by Hnatkowsky, but Penn Charter wouldn’t score again. Three-for-four foulshooting had the Pandas up 54-51 with 13 seconds left, and a final three-point shot by PC didn’t drop. Fox booked a game-high 20 points, and the Quakers (10-5) received 12 points from Davis, nine from Hnatkowsky. and six from junior Julie Webb.

All four area teams who appeared at Philly U. had seen their first action last week on Tuesday. On that day Penn Charter welcomed a new all-time leading scorer when Fox, who’s headed for Amherst College, rang up 19 points in a 57-28 non-league win at Hill School, extending her total to 1575 points. The previous record of 1573 belonged to guard Virginia McMunigal, a 2006 graduate who went on to earn a starting role at Cornell University.

Fox, who began to play on the Quakers’ varsity team as an eighth-grader, set the new standard in the same manner that she has accumulated many previous points at PC. She had equaled the old mark of 1573 early in the third quarter, then she picked off an opponent’s pass near midcourt and sped down for a breakaway lay-up.

On the same afternoon, Mount St. Joe suffered its first league loss of the season in a Catholic Academies match-up with visiting St. Basil. Both teams had already played fellow league member Gwynedd Mercy, the Mount winning by seven points and St. Basil losing by 14. However, the Magic had a healthy Kristen Lucas for their meeting with the Monarchs, whereas last week the senior forward was confined to the bench due to an ankle sprain. Host MSJ still looked to be on solid footing with a six-point lead over the Panthers late in the fourth quarter, but the visitors cut the lead to four points early in the final minute. St. Basil then tied the game at 37-all with a pair of free throws, and went on to deposit a buzzer-beating lay-up that toppled the Mount, 39-37.

MSJ’s Tacka had a game-high 17 points and Cunningham added eight points. Jules Gura rang up a dozen points for the Panthers, who received six apiece from Natalie Kucowski and Karen Lapkiewicz.

The same afternoon, both GA and SCH were mixing it up on the Main Line with Inter-Ac League rivals. The league-leading Patriots ran out to a 14-2 lead in the first period at Agnes Irwin, then cruised home to a 57-24 final. Lindahl topped a list of 10 GA scorers with 12 points, and was followed by Polisano, with 10 points, and freshman Rachel Balzer, with nine.

The Springside Chestnut Hill squad was playing a few miles away at Baldwin School, where the Blue Devils recovered from a 5-11 first-quarter shortfall and beat the Bears, 47-39. SCH’s Burns, who is a Norwood Fontbonne Academy grad, supplemented her 10 points on the stat sheet with eight rebounds and four assists, and Walden erupted for 15 points. Baldwin’s Virginia Commonwealth University signee, center Danielle Hammond, scored a game-high 19 points.

On Thursday, Mount St. Joseph got back in the win column in the AACA by subduing Villa Joseph Marie, 50-32. Cunningham led all scorers with 21 and Wills chalked up 16, while the Magic defense held each of the Jems to a total of eight points or less.

The next afternoon, SCH played host to the GA Patriots, who once again efficiently turned out a “W”. Germantown moved ahead by 11 points in the first quarter and then really put the pedal down in the second, zipping to a 37-10 halftime advantage. The final score settled in at 67-32. The victors got double-digit point production from Bolen (14), Balzer (12) and Lindahl (10). Hiner posted a game-high 16 points in the losing cause, and Davis scored seven.

Another Friday Inter-Ac clash had Penn Charter notching a big win over 2015 league runner-up Episcopal Academy. On the road, the Quakers buried themselves in a 10-24 hole over the first eight minutes, then regrouped and outscored EA during the next two quarters, 27-10.

A fourth-quarter draw resulted in PC taking home a 49-46 victory, as Fox flung in 21 points and had five rebounds and five assists. Charter juniors Hnatkowsky and Davis (13 rebounds) scored 11 and eight points, respectively.