GA freshman Maddie Burns (left) and her older sister, SCH senior, Chloe Burns (Photos by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

Chestnut Hill's basketball-playing Burns sisters both attended Norwood Fontbonne Academy, but after that their paths diverged.

Chloe chose Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, where she is now a starting senior forward who has committed to the University of Scranton. Maddie, a guard, has become one of four freshmen to make the varsity squad at Germantown Academy this season.

Their two teams met in an Inter-Ac League clash at GA last Tuesday afternoon, and this round went to the younger sibling, Maddie, who scored two points as the host Patriots progressed to a 70-47 victory. Contributing four points to the Blue Devils' cause, Chloe rarely came into contact with her sister out on the court, due to substitution patterns and the fact that they play different positions. In fact, prior to last Tuesday, the siblings had never played against one another in official game.

GA sophomore guard Rachel Balzer tossed in five three-pointers and posted a game-high 18 points along with five rebounds, while senior forward Lilly Bolen (who has chosen Tufts University) also pulled down five rebounds to go with her 15 points. Junior forward Alexa Naessens, with nine points and 12 rebounds, and freshman guard Jaye Haynes, with eight points and five boards, were also among the 10 scorers for the Patriots, who improved to 9-7 overall and 3-1 in the Inter-Ac.

Springside Chestnut Hill (5-8, 2-2) received a team-high 14 points from junior Nya Searight, a transfer from John W. Hallahan High School who is always a tough battler in the paint. Junior Destiny Rogers produced eight points for the Blue Devils, sophomore Caroline Clark finished with seven, and fellow 10th-grader Kara Kniezewski (who attended Norwood like the Burns sisters) hit a pair of three-point buckets for six points.

Coming into the season, GA had already lost a strong senior class from 2015-16, and in an early practice an ACL tear cost the Patriots the services of Cat Polisano, a tall junior guard who had just made a verbal

commitment to Fordham University. Next, the season had barely got underway when the 6'1" Naessens suffered a concussion and was required to sit out for a number of games under she cleared under the established protocol.

The Patriots were 4-7 when they arrived at the holiday break, and one of the games Naessens missed was a 56-49 Inter-Ac League loss to Episcopal Academy. This stretch also included out-of-state games with the likes of North Carolina number one Millbrook High School and local bouts with PIAA power Neumann Goretti and undefeated Archbishop Ryan.

"I think frontloading our schedule with that tough competition helps us get better quicker," said veteran GA head coach Sherri Retif.

"Losing Cat and then having Alexa out was sort of a one-two blow early in the season," the coach noted. "Although Rachel played a last year [as a freshman], the only real longtime varsity players we had out there were Lilly and Abby [Starzecky, a senior guard]."

Sophomore Shannon Topley and freshman Maddie Vizza took over the point guard chores that Polisano would have performed.

"I think we needed to have a number of people step up," Retif said. "Early in the season we were letting some teams put up a lot of points on us, but I'm proud of the way the defense has been coming together now."

The Patriots lost their opening game late last month at the Boo Williams Christmas Classic, but they won their other two outings at the Virginia tourney and subsequently they would take a four-game win streak into last Tuesday's tilt against SCH.

Speaking of the Blue Devils, Retif observed, "They have a couple of transfers who are playing a lot, and we knew that Chloe Burns would be solid for them. We were caught a little off-guard when Maddie Vizza had to stay home today with a stomach bug, but I thought that Shannon did an excellent job running the point against their pressure, along with Rachel."

GA set the tone for an inside/outside offensive approach by starting out with a lay-up by Naessens and a three-pointer by Balzer, giving the Pats a 5-0 lead before SCH got on the board with a free throw by Searight. Each GA player would deposit two more field goals in the first quarter, Naessens from in or near the paint, and Balzer from the three-point loop.

Germantown led 21-1 by the time the Blue Devils scored from the floor for the first time, this on a drive by Clark with two minutes left in the period.

SCH's Chloe Burns scored the first and last points of the second stanza on lay-ups and fellow former Norwooder Kniezewski bagged a trey, but Balzer continued to produce for GA (she led all scorers at the half with 14 points) and Starzecky (four points, eight assists total) joined the point production for the hosts. It was not a runaway like the first quarter, but GA still widened its lead, and was ahead 40-15 at the half.

Second-year SCH head coach Matt Paul stated succinctly, "They have good players, they're well coached, they put pressure on us, and we didn't handle it very well.

"We tend to start slow," he continued, "and against a good team you're going to get down and have a hard time winning. You give a team like GA lay-ups and open looks at the three-point line, and they're going to beat you."

Bearing in mind that the Patriots had a commanding lead at halftime and gave their reserve players a lot of court time after that, Springside Chestnut Hill did perform better in the last two quarters, actually ending up with a 32-30 scoring edge for the second half.

"I think we settled down and played the game of basketball better in the second half, instead of playing against the score," Paul said.

Searight scored 10 of her 14 points after the intermission (she also had a total of eight rebounds and three assists), and fellow junior Joelle Bridges, a guard, put in a pair of three pointers.

"I'm not happy with some of our results, but overall I'm happy that we're making progress," the Blue Devils' coach explained.

Importantly, the team is taking care of business against the league opponents that it's expected to beat, such as Baldwin and Agnes Irwin. The Friday before their recent GA game, the Blue Devils knocked off visiting Baldwin, 77-42. SCH gave up 20 points to a talented eighth-grade guard for the Bears, Amaris Baker, but the hosts had four of their own players score in double figures, Searight (17 points), Clark (15), Burns (10) and Rogers (10)).

From the contest at GA, SCH was scheduled to head right into another Inter-Ac clash against the Academy of Notre Dame. Meanwhile, the Patriots were slated to take on Archbishop Carroll and Perkiomen Valley later in the week, and then would resume league play at Notre Dame on Tuesday, January 17.

Last Tuesday sophomore Steph DeAngelis added two points for SCH, while in addition to the GA scorers already mentioned, Topley posted six points (with five assists), freshman Elle Stauffer scored four, and senior Jess Sheridan and freshman Lindsay Putnam had two points apiece.