Falling to the hardwood, Penn Charter’s Mireyah Davis (white uniform) tries to keep possession of the ball while surrounded by Germantown Academy players (from left) Lauren Oeth, Lilly Bolen, and Kendall Grasela. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption] by Tom Utescher When the Germantown Academy girls basketball team travelled to Penn Charter last Wednesday, there was more on the line than simple bragging rights in the traditional universal sports rivalry between the two schools. Coming in at 5-0 in the Inter-Ac, the GA Patriots wanted to win to retain sole possession of first place in the league. Entering the game with a 4-1 mark, Penn Charter was tied in the Inter-Ac loss column with the Academy of Notre Dame. A win for the PC Quakers would create a three-way tie atop the league standings, since GA had been responsible for Notre Dame’s lone loss (53-32), and the Irish had beaten Charter on December 22 (53-35). Instead, a 54-41 GA victory kept the Patriots alone atop the Inter-Ac while Penn Charter slipped to third place, with two losses to Notre Dame’s one. Both teams appeared to feel the pressure stemming from the circumstances surrounding Tuesday’s game. A bit overanxious, especially in the first half, the Patriots and Quakers did not play up to their potential. The contest was tied 20-20 early in the third period, then GA went on to open up a 37-30 lead by the end of the segment. Enjoying the foul bonus for the entire fourth quarter, the Patriots scored all of their points from the free throw line as they increased their lead to win by 13. At a time when some of her older teammates looked a bit jittery in the first half, GA’s 6’1” sophomore, Alexa Naessens, came off the bench to give a steady performance in the paint. She scored 10 of her game-high 17 points in the first half, while senior guard Erin Lindahl, who has led the Patriots’ offense in a number of big games this season, posted eight of her 10 points after the intermission. Another senior in the Germantown backcourt, Kendall Grasela, scored steadily throughout the game to accumulate 11 points, while Naessens and senior forward Lauren Oeth (two points) each grabbed 10 rebounds. Penn Charter junior forward Mireyah Davis used her quickness inside to score and draw fouls, netting half of her team-high 16 points on 8/14 free throw shooting. Senior guard Hannah Fox hit three three-point field goals and totaled 14 points for PC. Both teams have used the three-ball to make an impact during other games this season, but it wasn’t a big factor here. Fox’s three triples came in three different quarters, and each squad hit two of its four total treys during the third quarter, so neither side enjoyed an advantage in this aspect of the game.
Unable to keep their game faces on are two area basketball coaches, Penn Charter assistant Colleen Magarity and her father, Germantown Academy assistant Joe Magarity. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption] A side attraction to this key Inter-Ac encounter was a father-daughter coaching match-up between the two schools, with Joe Magarity serving as an assistant coach for Germantown Academy, and his daughter Colleen playing the same role for Penn Charter. Joe was the proprietor of well-known auto dealerships in Chestnut Hill and Flourtown, while Colleen, the new head lacrosse coach at PC, attended GA and won multiple NCAA titles in lacrosse at Northwestern University. As the game got underway, PC’s Davis was fouled on a shot but missed both attempts. More than three minutes in, she scored on a baseline drive and then made a free throw awarded on the play. The foul was already the second of the day for GA’s Oeth, who was replaced by Naessens. The 10th-grader put in the first field goal for the Patriots, but it was sandwiched between buckets by Charter junior guard Lexi Hnatkowsky and Davis, resulting in a 7-2 PC lead. Naessens scored on an inbounds play and then made two free throws, but late in the period a made foul shot by sophomore Grace Stansfield had PC up 8-6 at the quarter. Fox notched one of two free throws for the Quakers early in round two, sent to the line by GA’s fifth team foul. “We wanted to start the game aggressively,” said PC head coach Joe Maguire. “We always tell the girls to attack the basket because usually something good’s going to happen – you score or you draw a foul.” A transition pass by Grasela set up Lindahl for her only two points of the first half, then Grasela canned a trey from the right wing to give the visitors their first lead of the contest, 11-9. The Pats hadn’t fared well with their other outside attempts. “I think the idea of the rivalry affected us somewhat,” said GA mentor Sherri Retif. “We missed some shots, and we got in early foul trouble again [it had happened against Notre Dame the previous Friday]. They were playing a zone and we were actually getting some good looks. We had a height advantage and they packed it in a little bit to counter that, so we had chances on the outside. We didn’t take bad shots, but they just weren’t falling for us. Fortunately, we had Alexa come in and have a double/double for us.” Quakers senior guard Ayanna Matthews tied it at 11-all with a drive down the lane. Guarded by Lindahl, Matthews would be held to one free throw the rest of the way for a total of three points. GA inched ahead again, but PC’s Fox scored a transition lay-up and then knocked down a “three” from the right side to put Penn Charter up 16-13. Naessens rode to GA’s rescue once more with two scores from the paint, one of them off of a precise pass by junior forward Lilly Bolen. A little later, the Quakers committed the cardinal sin of fouling a three-point shooter just before the buzzer. With four-tenths of a second left on the clock, Patriots sophomore Cat Polisano (six points total) made one of her three free throws, and the halftime score favored GA, 18-16. When play resumed, PC’s Davis had her best offensive quarter, depositing two lay-ups and four free throws. “She’s our main rebounder, and she usually has to play against two or three “bigs” for the other teams,” Maguire noted. “It can be a little frustrating for her, but when she keeps her head she scores and draws fouls.” With Fox and Hnatkowsky each bagging a three-pointer, Charter scored 14 points in the third round, but five different players chipped in to give GA 19. The PC three-balls were matched by Lindahl and freshman guard Rachel Balzer. Naessens notched two field goals and a free throw, and Bolen and Oeth also produced in the paint. The Patriots’ Retif related that at halftime she’d told her charges “be patient and get good shots, and communicate on offense. We also changed our offense to focus on getting the ball inside more. I think we were a little more relaxed in the second half.” From a 37-30 tally at the end of the third quarter, a Lindahl “three” made it a 10-point game at the start of the fourth. That was the last field goal GA would get – or need. During last six minutes, the Patriots (who were in the double bonus for the final four minutes) would shoot 14-for-22 at the free throw line, with Grasela going six-for-eight. After the teams exchanged points up to 43-33, the visitors spread it out with four points from the line. Next, PC’s Fox drew both points out of a one-and-one and then canned a “three” from the right flank. The Quakers called time out with 2:42 on the clock, back within nine points at 47-38. Charter couldn’t come up with another field goal after that, though, and was outscored 7-3 from the foul line the rest of the way. During the last stanza, GA’s Oeth and PC’s Stansfield both fouled out of the game. The Patriots weren’t affected as much by this as the short-staffed Quakers. A few weeks earlier, Charter had lost a freshman guard who’d been seeing some meaningful minutes. “Emma Maley had been shooting pretty well for us, but then she broke her collarbone and she’s out for the season,” Maguire explained. “That pretty much left us with six everyday players, so eventually they get tired when we play a deep team. I think you saw that with some of our turnovers in the second half.” UPDATE: On Friday the top three Inter-Ac teams maintained their positions in the standings by completing home/away season sweeps against league rivals. On the road, GA (7-0) marked down 16 points for Lindahl and got past 2015 Inter-Ac runner-up Episcopal Academy, 49-46. At Baldwin School, Fox exploded for 29 points to propel Penn Charter (5-2) to a 64-42 triumph, while host Notre Dame (7-1) topped Agnes Irwin, 47-36.