by Tom Utescher

In last weekend’s quarterfinal round in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools girls basketball tournament, highly-seeded teams were falling like snowflakes in the January 23 blizzard.

Two-time Friends Schools League champion Friends Central, the PAIS three seed, was edged at the buzzer, 48-47, by number six Mercersburg Academy.

Second-seeded Penn Charter, who is hosting the tourney semifinals and finals this coming weekend, will be in the bleachers after being upset by seventh-ranked Abington Friends, 43-36.

The biggest surprise occurred at Germantown Academy on Saturday evening, where the top-seeded Patriots, the undefeated Inter-Ac League champions, were defeated in the PAIS tournament for the third year in a row by Shipley School, 56-50.

The last two years, GA had succumbed to Shipley in the championship game, but this year the teams met two rounds earlier. Shipley had played beneath its talent level for much of the season and came into the tournament seeded eighth with an overall record of 12-9.

The Gators eliminated number nine Springside Chestnut Hill, 63-41, in an opening round game last Wednesday while Germantown enjoyed a bye. Running into a Shipley squad that was hitting its stride at the right time, the Patriots made their earliest exit from the tournament since GA first entered the event in 2009. Little more than a week earlier, Shipley had lost to Friends Central by 28 points in the Friends Schools League tournament semifinals.

With a little over four minutes to go in Saturday’s PAIS quarterfinal, GA led for the last time, 48-47, as senior guard and Inter-Ac MVP Erin Lindahl scored off a rebound to finish out her 20-point night. Sophomore guard Cat Polisano, junior forward Lilly Bolen, and sophomore forward Alexa Naessens registered eight, seven, and six points respectively. Freshman guard Rachel Balzer scored five points and senior guard Kendall Grasela added four to complete the scoring for GA.

The Patriots finished the season 24-3, its two previous losses having come against Philadelphia’s Neumann Goretti High School, a national top-10 team, and Florida’s Lake Highland Prep, which just won its second straight state title in a blowout.

Shipley freshman guard Lauren Ross, who’d had a relatively quiet six-point day against SCH in the middle of the week, erupted for 20 points on Saturday, and she was followed by junior Yndiah Bobo, with 14, junior Maya Overton, with 10, and senior Courtney Redcross, with 8. Redcross, a bruising power forward, has signed with Northeastern University.

Although GA’s week didn’t end well at all, the Patriots had enjoyed themselves on Tuesday, when they completed a 12-0 run through the Inter-Ac with a 62-33 victory over visiting Baldwin School. Although GA won the league last year and in 2012 and 2011, the Patriots had not achieved a 12-0 sweep since 2010. That was the senior season of Maggie Lucas, who went on to Penn State and the WNBA, and was an assistant coach back at GA this winter.

After a Senior Day presentation before the Baldwin game, GA started all five of its 12th-graders: Lindahl, Grasela, guards Maeve Connor and Leena Kardacz, and forward Lauren Oeth. Oeth, the Patriots’ most seasoned post player, was immediately replaced by Bolen. The senior had injured a knee the previous Friday, but was expected to return for at least part of the PIAS tournament.

Although GA didn’t push its lead into double figures for good until the middle of the second quarter, it never felt like the outcome of this game was in doubt. A three-pointer by Lindahl and a shorter jumper and a lay-up by Bolen helped GA carve out a 13-7 advantage by the end of the first eight minutes. Baldwin had a 2-6 advantage in team fouls at one point in the opening period, but the Bears soon caught up with the Patriots in that negative category, and surpassed them in the second quarter.

The visitors didn’t lose much more ground on the scoreboard early in the second period; midway through the round, Kejohna Hammond knocked down a “three” that had Baldwin eight points back at 22-14. However, from there Germantown closed out the half with an 13-2 surge that included treys by Lindahl and Balzer.

The Patriots scored the first eight points of the third quarter and cruised home from there, winning by 29. Lindahl and Naessens (seven rebounds, four blocks) shared a game-high total of 13 points, and they were joined in double figures by Grasela, who posted 10 points along with six rebounds and five assists. Virginia Commonwealth signee Danielle Hammond led the Bears with 10 points and 15 boards.

Before the Patriots got underway in their 6:00 PM PAIS quarterfinal four days later, Penn Charter had a Saturday afternoon engagement with Abington Friends. PC, who had beaten the Kangaroos by two points on the road earlier in the season, had joined GA in receiving a first-round bye in the Indy Schools tournament. Number seven Abington defeated 10th-seeded Agnes Irwin in an opening round bout, 52-41.

Led out of the gate by senior guard Ayanna Matthews and junior forward Mireyah Davis, Charter was up 10-2 over AFS after the first quarter.

Another senior guard and junior forward, Hannah Fox and Julie Webb, joined in on the scoring early in the second quarter as PC stretched its lead to 13 points at 17-4. After a time-out, the Kangaroos returned to the floor to shut out the Quakers for the rest of the half.

Outside shooting by junior Khadijah Hickson and freshman Casey Remolde helped bring the visitors back with four points by halftime, 17-13.

In the second half, AFS senior forward Alexa Middleton (who has signed with Monmouth University) became more of a factor after being hampered by foul trouble before the intermission.

Abington had pulled even by the three-quarter mark (25-25) and then forged ahead 34-27, early in the final frame. Fox knocked down a three-pointer to begin a Quakers comeback, then her fellow fifth-year varsity performer, Matthews, scored from closer in. Davis then drained two free throws to get PC back even at 34-all just past the midpoint of the period.

Remolde’s sophomore sister, Cheryl, hit a “three” of her own for AFS, and interior scores by Middleton and junior Jade Young moved the Kangaroos back in front for good. PC had to foul in the waning moments and Abington’s Young and senior Asia Turner combined to go five-for-six at the foul line. Cheryl Remolde also gave a strong defensive performance against Penn Charter’s prolific Fox, who finished with five points.

The senior guard, PC’s all-time leading scorer, still went out with a remarkable career total of 1813 points, and she will continue her hoops career at Division III national power Amherst College. On Saturday the Quakers received a dozen points from Matthews, 10 from Davis, three from Webb, and six from junior guard Lexi Hnatkowsky. They were third in the Inter-Ac League with a record of 8-4, and were 17-10 overall.

Abington Friends (21-6), runner-up to Friends Central in the Friends Schools League, was led at Penn Charter by Middleton, with 10 points. She was followed by Young (nine points), Cheryl Remolde (eight), Turner (seven), Casey Remolde (six), and Hickson (three).

Over at GA later on, senior forward Oeth still was not able to return to action for GA. A three-player post rotation involving Oeth, Bolen, and Naessens had served the Patriots well many times during the season when one or more of the big girls got into foul trouble.

Against Shipley, a perfect storm came together for Germantown; Naessens acquired three fouls in the first half and Bolen picked up two in a situation where there was no longer a third interior player to take up the slack. Oeth also happens to be one of GA’s most fundamentally sound and level-headed players overall, and these qualities were also missed.

Shipley rolled to a 19-8 lead over the course of the first quarter, and was still leading by double figures late in the second, 25-15. GA’s Lindahl finished out a 10-point half with a three-pointer, then the Patriots got another triple from the freshman, Balzer.

Gators ninth-grader Ross scored on a drive (she would lead all scorers at the break, with 11), but Balzer stuck a 15-footer with five seconds to go for a 27-23 count at halftime. Polisano and Lindahl hit from the three-point line in the third quarter, and the Gators’ Overton answered by finding the net twice from the arc. Shipley took a 43-40 lead into the final frame and continued to play a smart, disciplined game.

A “three”, two free throws, and a converted rebound by Lindahl bumped the Pats ahead in the middle of the fourth period, 48-47. The hosts would only manage two points the rest of the way through, and right after they gained their slim lead Bolen fouled out. On a number of occasions in the second half, Lindahl would be running wide open down the right wing in the offensive transition, but her fellow Patriots didn’t get her the ball.

After GA led briefly in the fourth quarter, a lay-up and free throw by Ross and two makes from the foul line by Redcross pushed Shipley back in front, 52-48.

GA’s last points came on a transition lay-up by Grasela as the clock dipped under 90 seconds remaining. Two Ross free throws for Shipley on separate trips to the line made it 54-50 with 34 seconds left. GA came down the floor and in a single offensive possession missed two lay-ups, a three-point attempt, and a short jumper. Fouled again with three seconds left, Shipley’s Ross hit two from the line for the 56-50 final.