Penn Charter graduate Hannah Fox (left), who will enter Amherst College in the fall, guards Mount St. Joseph alum Kelsey Jones, who will be a senior at Philadelphia University. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Last week summer women’s basketball action commenced in the Philadelphia/Suburban NCAA league, and newly-graduated members of the Class of 2016 from area schools gave a good account of themselves on opening night last Wednesday.

Germantown Academy’s Kendall Grasela and Penn Charter’s Hannah Fox each scored 18 points in their league debut, and a third guard, Fox’s PC classmate Ayanna Matthews, rang up 17. Grasela and Fox will play at the University of Pennsylvania and Amherst College, respectively, while Matthews will attend Princeton University and will investigate the possibility of performing for the Tigers as a walk-on.

A number of other recent area grads who are signed up for the league did not play last Wednesday or Thursday, as they were engaged in “senior week” revels.

Fox played on Team Pink, which consists largely of former Suburban One League athletes. Penn Charter’s all-time leading scorer, Fox plunked in four three-pointers and her 18-point total was just one point off of the team high of 19 recorded by Upper Dublin High School product Lauren Rothfeld (Salisbury U. ’17).

They were able to overcome Team Purple, 72-65, despite a 32-point effort by powerful forward Chelsea Woods, who’ll be a junior at St. Joseph’s University.

Another St. Joe’s player, rising senior guard Mackenzie Rule, was on the Team Orange roster along with Grasela. Rule belonged to the squad that won the league last summer, but that team (Neon Green) has disbanded. This year’s Orange outfit includes a number of incoming college freshmen who were senior week celebrants, and only four players turned up for Wednesday’s league opener at the Kelly Bolish Gym in Hatboro.

Orange officially forfeited the game, then borrowed a fifth player and engaged in an unofficial contest so that it wasn’t a wasted trip for their quartet and members of rival Team Red. The Red squad is almost entirely composed of West Chester University women who are used to playing with one another, but they only edged out the Orange franchise by two points, 52-50.

Matthews played on Team Sky Blue along with Vicky Tumasz, a former North Penn High School shooting guard who is transferring into Chestnut Hill College as a junior. This ball club kept the scoreboard ticking over as they rolled over Team Kelly Green, 90-66. Kelly Green includes many players from Delaware Valley College, although one of them, incoming freshman and recent Mount St. Joe grad Sarah Wills, did not attend last week’s games.

In Sky Blue’s Wednesday win, the game high of 25 points belonged to Cheltenham High alum C.C. Andrews, who just graduated from St. Joe’s. Former PC Quaker Matthews wasn’t that far behind, with her 17.

Wills’ Mount classmate Caitlyn Cunningham was another new graduate who was off on vacation last week, but other members of her future team, Philadelphia University, were on hand. Philly U. plays together as a unit with the summer moniker of Team Black, and the roster includes another Mount grad, Kelsey Jones.

Jones is a point guard who is a rising senior, and she and her fellow Lady Rams opened up the NCAA League against Team Gold, which won the league in 2014 and was a semifinalist last year. Despite 15 points from junior guard Rachel Day and 14 from senior forward Jackie McCarron, Black succumbed to the Gold group, 63-52.

In the Black vs. Gold game the following evening, Fox and Jones played against one other; back in their youth, they had played together on a Fencor AAU team. Pink progressed to 2-0 in the summer season with a 63-51 win, as Central Bucks West alum McKenzie Carroll (Colgate ’19) led the way with 16 points and Fox added seven. McCarron and junior Erin Rafter put in 11 points apiece for Team Black.

Although Orange was now able to muster up an official team of five players (but no more), they went down 88-45 to a Purple pack that was once again paced by Woods, who scored 23. Shooting five-for-five from the foul line, Grasela led the Orange with 15 points, and this time she was competing against another former Germantown Academy player.

Jaryn Garner (GA ’12) had not been present for Purple on opening night, but she started at point guard on Thursday and wound up with six points. Garner has graduated from the University of Virginia, where she played for two seasons, but she’s beginning postgraduate studies at St. Joseph’s, and will play for the Hawks this winter. The NCAA has ruled that she has at least one year of eligibility left, and she will petition for a second one.

The closest of Thursday’s bouts concluded with a one-point victory for Matthews (nine points), Tumasz (five) and Sky Blue. Coming from behind against Hunter Green, Sky pulled even at 66-all when former Cheltenham Panther Andrews made one of two free throws with 90 seconds remaining.

Soon she was at the line again for a one-for-two stint, nudging her team ahead. On its final offensive possession, Hunter missed a three-pointer and then also whiffed on a pair of lay-ups, and Sky Blue won, 67-66.