Seen here fighting to get to the basket, Plymouth Whitemarsh grad and Philadelphia University sophomore Alynna Williams (with ball) scored 52 points to lead Team Black to a pair of NCAA League victories last week. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The NCAA women’s summer hoops league went back into action last week following its holiday break, and while there was no change at the top of the team rankings, other ball clubs were shifting positions in the middle of the pack.

Powerful Team Gold continued to sit atop the standings with a 7-1 record, its only loss coming a few weeks back when a lack of player turnout caused the squad to forfeit a game.

Team Black, consisting entirely of Philadelphia University players, continued down the road to recovery after dropping its first five games of the 2016 season. The summer Rams improved to 3-5 by winning a pair of close contests, topping Team Purple, 69-65, on Tuesday, and going to overtime to overcome Team Orange two nights later.

A rising sophomore guard out of Plymouth Whitemarsh High School, Alynna Williams, led Team Black against Purple with a 28-point effort that included five three-point field goals. The winners also received seven points apiece from a pair of guards out of Mount St. Joseph Academy, Kelsey Jones (2013) and Caitlyn Cunningham (2016).

Team Purple’s second leading scorer, with 13 points, was 2012 Germantown Academy grad Jaryn Garner, a guard who began her collegiate career at the University of Virginia and will finish it at St. Joseph’s University, where she’s listed as an incoming senior.

Williams once again spearheaded the Team Black offense on Thursday, putting up 24 points (with four three’s) in the OT win over Orange. Jones scored six points and Cunningham scored two in this bout, which had the Orange team marking down 11 points for Kendall Grasela and eight points for another 2016 Germantown Academy grad, Erin Lindahl.

On Tuesday, the Orange outfit had received nine points from Grasela and four from Lindahl in a 56-48 victory against Royal Blue. The other GA alum, Garner, chalked up 19 points on Thursday when her Team Purple outgunned Team Kelly Green, 85-78. The Kelly Green roster includes a number of veteran and incoming players for Delaware Valley University, one of them being 2016 Mount graduate Sarah Wills.

One of the league’s Tuesday tilts saw 2016 Penn Charter grad Hannah Fox return to action to help Team Pink pound Team Red, 62-37. Fox tabbed nine points in that outing, while her former PC backcourt companion, Ayanna Mathews, registered seven points for Team Sky Blue in a different contest the same night. Despite the contribution of Matthews and the addition of five points by Chestnut Hill College’s incoming junior transfer, Vicky Tumasz, Sky Blue bowed to Team Maroon, 60-40. Maroon is made up of athletes from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, which plays in the NCAA Division II Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference along with Chestnut Hill.

Sky Blue Fell back to the .500 mark at 4-4 by the end of the week, thanks to a close loss to Team White on Thursday, 59-56. Matthews put up six points and Tumasz had two points against White, which features seven players from Division II Kutztown University along with a pair of St. Joseph’s Hawks.

Following a 56-46 setback at the hands of Team Maroon, Fox’s Pink team went into the weekend with a 5-3 record. The former Quakers star paced the Pink Pack with a pair of three-point buckets and 14 total points.