GA freshman Jaye Haynes goes up for a shot against 6'2" Shipley sophomore Anna Camden. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

At the end of two of Pa. Independent Schools "final four" games last weekend, sophomore Rachel Balzer made two big three-point shots for Germantown Academy. The first one, in Friday's semifinal against Episcopal Academy, came right at the buzzer in a second overtime period, securing a 52-49 victory that moved the third-seeded Patriots on into the championship game on Saturday afternoon.

Balzer, GA's accomplished perimeter sniper and high scorer, made the second of her big treys in Saturday's championship game with six seconds left in regulation play. It brought the Patriots to within three points of Shipley School, but Germantown would've needed another triple to draw even, and instead a GA foul gave Shipley 10th-grader Lauren Ross the opportunity to add the last two points to her game high 27-point effort.

The Gators won, 52-47, to finish the season at 22-5 overall. GA, which received 15 points from Balzer and a team-high 17 from junior forward Alexa Naessens, wound up with a 21-10 mark. A year ago, Shipley had upset higher-seeded GA in the PAIS quarterfinal round and had gone on to finish as runner-up to Mercersburg Academy.

After last Saturday's game, GA head coach Sherri Retif noted, "We're not going to measure our season by this one loss. We had 21 wins and a league championship to celebrate, and a lot of good, magical moments.

"I couldn't be more proud of our players," she went on. "They're inspirational, they make it fun to come into the gym and work with them, and they'll run through a wall for you."

Friends Schools League champion Abington Friends had been the top seed for the indy schools tournament, and number two was Episcopal, which was co-champion with Germantown Academy in the Inter-Ac League. With the third seed, GA became one of the five teams that drew a bye for the first round of the PAIS bracket, and the Patriots then won a quarterfinal at home last Monday against number six Hill School, 56-32.

Shipley, seeded fourth for the tourney, had also drawn a bye, and then the Gators got by number five Penn Charter in overtime to reach the semifinal round.

In Monday's quarterfinal at GA, things got out of hand for the visiting Hill School Rams pretty quickly. Freshman guard Jaye Haynes hit two regular jumpers and then a three-pointer from a little left of the keytop to power the Patriots to a 7-2 lead.

Scores off of offensive rebounds by Naessens and by Haynes were followed by two free throws by senior guard Abby Starzecky, a lay-up by freshman guard Maddie Burns (a Norwood Fontbonne Academy alum), and a 15-footer by sophomore guard Shannon Topley (six points total) as the score climbed to 17-2.

Right at the end of the opening quarter, Hill picked up two points on foul shots by Alexa Giacche; her solid performance at the free throw line would be a bright spot for the Rams.

Otherwise, things didn't get any better for the Pottstown posse, as Germantown had the lead up over 20 points for halftime, 37-15. Playing even more of its reserves in the second half, GA added just two points to its margin over the last two quarters.

Close together in double-digit scoring were Haynes (12 points), Balzer (11) and Naessens (10), while freshman point guard Maddie Vizza finished with nine.

With half-a-minute to go, GA freshman Elle Stauffer left the floor with her fifth foul and four points in the book. However, the 5'10" swing player had done a lot to disrupt the Hill offense, tracking down loose balls like a bloodhound and using her long arms to corral 11 rebounds.

Both the Patriots and the Shipley Gators felt they had some unfinished business to take care of as the PAIS final four got underway at Malvern Prep on Friday. Shipley would seek to avenge a loss to Abington Friends in the FSL championship game, and the Gators achieved that goal as they knocked off the Kangaroos, 45-33, in the first of Friday's semifinals.

In the Inter-Ac, where the final rankings are determined by win/loss records in a double round of league games, GA and Episcopal had each gone 11-1 and split in their head-to-head meetings to become co-champions. Now the Patriots and the Churchwomen would get to play a third time.

In the Inter-Ac series between GA and Episcopal, the Churchwomen won at home on December 13, 56-49, and the Patriots prevailed in the January 24 rematch, 52-42. The Pats had been missing one of their starting "bigs" each time; Naessens was out of action following a concussion in December, and senior forward Lilly Bolen went down with a season-ending knee injury just four seconds into the January encounter.

Those weren't GA's only personnel problems. In pre-season practice guard Cat Polisano, a junior who has committed to Fordham University, tore her ACL and was done for the year. In January, reserve senior guard Jess Sheridan was sidelined by an ankle injury the day before Bolen got hurt.

"We ended the season with just two upperclassmen in uniform," pointed out Coach Retif, referring to Naessens and Starzecky. "We lost three of our captains, and our kids have had to fight through a lot of adversity."

In the first quarter of Friday's semifinal, Episcopal received eight points from junior forward Luca Mamula, but the period ended 13-13 as GA countered with two lay-ups and a baseline jumper from Stauffer and a lay-up and a three-pointer by Balzer.

After EA went ahead with a "three," Stauffer hit her fourth field goal and GA got a pair of free throws from her classmate, Haynes, who'd scored a lay-up in the opening frame. In the rest of round two, Haynes would tack on two more free throws and a basket in transition. Vizza bagged a three-pointer, and the half ended with two free throws apiece made by sophomores Topley and Taylor Putnam, affording GA a 28-22 advantage.

The Churchwomen held GA to four points in the third stanza to close the gap to one point (32-31), then they went ahead 37-34 halfway through the fourth quarter thanks to senior Elodie Furey (a 6'2" post player headed for Cornell) and junior guard Seanna McNamara.

Naessens drove the lane for GA and then she scored again on a breakaway, putting the Patriots in front, 38-37, after Balzer rebounded an EA miss and fed the outlet pass to her older teammate. Episcopal committed three straight fouls to put Germantown in the bonus and Balzer bagged two shots from the free throw line.

Early in the final minute, a foul shot made by sophomore Olivia Dirks and a transition score by McNamara brought Episcopal even at 40-all. In the last 25 seconds, a flawless one-and-one by GA's Vizza was answered by Furey after a shooting foul, and the contest went into overtime at 42-42.

In the initial four minute OT Vizza went three-for four at the foul line, but Furey hit four free throws for EA and McNamara added another. EA was up 47-45 when GA called time-out with 14 seconds left. Then from the top of the offensive set, Vizza handed the ball off to Haynes for a successful drive down the lane that led to second extra session.

Both teams struggled to score in the new overtime stint, and after Furey hit a lone free throw Haynes stuck a jumper from the left wing for a 49-48 GA edge. Early in the final minute there was a scramble for a loose ball in front of the GA bench, but after the Pats briefly gained possession they were called for travelling.

This led to a foul on EA's McNamara, who made one of two foul shots to tie the game, 49-49, with half-a-minute to go. When play resumed GA moved the ball around and it wound up in Balzer's hands up top. Pressured by the defense, she briefly lost hold of the ball with eight seconds left, but she regained her grip and then had to launch a somewhat off-balance shot from the three-point loop.

The ball dropped through the net just before the buzzer, and the Patriots were on to the finals. Haynes, with 16 points, shared game-high honors with EA's Mamula. GA got 10 points from Balzer, eight each from Stauffer and Vizza, four from Naessens, and two each from Starzecky, Putnam and Topley. Episcopal received 12 from Furey, 11 from senior Reilly Wright, and nine from McNamara.

In the first few minutes of Saturday's title bout, Shipley's compact but tough senior point guard, Yndiah Bobo (Clarion University) led her squad out to a 9-0 lead.

"Their physicality makes them a hard match-up for us," the Patriots' Retif pointed out. "We had a freshman playing against one of the most physical seniors on the court, and Lauren Ross is tough, too. When we grow and mature we'll match up better, but we were exposed a little bit out there tonight."

It was no coincidence that GA's Naessens, with her sturdy 6'1" build, ended up leading the offense, and she got GA on the board with a short jumper midway through the opening period. The Pats still trailed, 16-8, for the start of the second period.

Round two began with Naessens' fourth field goal of the game, and Vizza and Balzer would hit back-to-back three-pointers later on. A Stauffer jumper from the baseline sent Germantown into the locker room all-even at 18-18.

"I thought we did a good job responding to their early run, but we couldn't maintain it in the second half," Retif said.

Shipley head coach Sean Costello explained, "We didn't get stops in the second quarter, so we couldn't get out in transition. They went zone [on defense] and took us out of our game a little bit. But as our kids have done all year, they stuck with it and they were resilient, and we recovered at halftime."

Shipley's Ross would score 22 of her 27 points during the last two quarters, and GA found it very difficult to stop her from penetrating without fouling her. The Gators made a 7-0 run to start the third period before Balzer fired from the left elbow to get GA going.

The 10th-grade sharpshooter would add a "three" a little later as the Patriots worked their way back, but entering the final minute they were still down 31-27. A Shipley miss was rebounded by GA's Stauffer, who broke out to the right sideline, rampaged down the court with a Gator on her shoulder, then pulled up to hit a difficult baseline jumper with a hand in her face.

It was an impressive play for a freshman, and overall, this young forward has a dynamic playing style that will make her fun for GA fans to watch over the next three seasons. In fact, in the last weeks of the 2016-17 campaign, there were many occasions when Stauffer and classmates Burns, Haynes and Vizza were all out on the floor together.

After Ross put Shipley back up by four points near the end of the third, Vizza had the last word with a triple that tightened the score to 33-32.

The teams exchanged baskets at the dawn of the fourth quarter, then GA fouled to put the Gators in the bonus with five-and-a-half minutes to play. Shipley has a relatively short bench, but wisely, the Gators were able to avoid serious foul trouble while the Patriots could not.

Shipley's Costello related, "We played zone a lot earlier in the year with the idea of avoiding foul trouble, but against good teams late in the season you can't just sit in a zone. I thought that in the second half our kids did a really good job of playing a man while still helping each other with some zone principles. It worked out well."

Naessens held up her end for GA with three field goals and a free throw in the final eight minutes. Ross had a great quarter for the Gators, starting out with two field goals from the paint and then getting to the foul line to shoot nine-for-12.

Shipley was ahead 48-42 with less than half-a-minute to go when Vizza deposited a transition lay-up for GA, which called time-out with 20 seconds left. A few ticks later, Ross was on the charity stripe again to give her Gators a 50-44 lead.

Ga swung the ball around on offense until it reached Balzer on the right, and she fired from a few feet beyond the arc. Her shot fell with six seconds left, but GA fouled Shipley's Ross once more, and she stamped the 52-47 final in the book with 2.2 seconds on the clock.

After Naessens and Balzer on the Germantown Academy score sheet were Vizza, with eight points, Stauffer, with six, and Haynes, with one. Backing up the output of Ross, Bobo and 6'2" sophomore Anna Camden each chalked up a dozen points, and sophomore Elizabeth Taluto had one.