Playing for Team Red, Chestnut Hill College's Vicky Tumasz (with ball) encounters an obstacle on the way to the basket. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

A number of players with area ties swung into action last Thursday with the 2017 debut of the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League. The long-running league, which has been stationed at Hatboro's Kelly Bolish (AAU Renegades) Gymnasium for a number of years now, can trace its origin back into the mists of time to its very first season at Chestnut Hill's Water Tower Recreation Center.

This summer, area players appear on the rosters of five of the league's color-coded teams, although not all of them were in action last Thursday.

In attendance for Team Electric Green but sitting out with a minor injury was 2016 Penn Charter graduate Hannah Fox, who was part of Amherst College's NCAA Division III National Champion squad this past winter. In a few weeks, Fox will be traveling to Israel to play for the United States at the 20th Maccabiah Games.

Sarah Wills, a 2016 Mount St. Joseph Academy grad now at Delaware Valley University, played with some of her college teammates for Team Purple, which was involved in one of the closest games of the evening in the second round of games last Thursday evening.

In the first set of games on the three courts at the Bolish Gym, former Germantown Academy ('16) and current University of Pennsylvania guard Kendall Grasela emerged as the top point scorer of the night after putting up 27 points in a losing cause for Team Sky Blue. The roster here also features GA grads Olivia Gorman ('15, now at Wesleyan) and Erin Lindahl ('16, now at Emory), but they were not in action last week.

While Division I colleges cannot have more than two players on any one summer league team, the DII and DIII players can participate as a group, and for 2017 Team Red features six athletes from Division II Chestnut Hill College. The veterans are rising senior Vicky Tumasz, junior Ayanna Holloway, and sophomore Shannon Glenn, who was named Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Rookie-of-the-Year for 2016-17.

Guards Kaitlin Dougherty and Cassie Sebold are incoming freshmen, and an older player, Bianca Picardo, has just transferred in from New York University. The roster also includes recent St. Basil's grad Natalie Kucowski (Lafayette), the 6'3" cousin of Norwood Fontbonne and Springside Chestnut Hill grads Maddie and Audrey Hinchey.

Guarded by Team Pink's Ayotolani Oguntuase, Mount St. Joseph grad Sarah Wills (left) looks to pass to a Team Purple teammate. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

The third of the early games last Thursday involved Team Black, which is made up almost entirely of Philadelphia University players. Among them are two guards out of Mount St. Joe's, senior Kelsey Jones (who had to work a summer job last Thursday) and sophomore Caitlyn Cunningham.

Used to playing together, the Philly U. hoopsters on Team Black soon built a pretty much insurmountable lead over Team Sun, a franchise made up mainly of Division III players with a few Division I ladies sprinkled in. Sun recovered somewhat in the second half, but Black still won handily, 70-42, with MSJ alum Cunningham collecting 14 points and fellow guard Alynna Williams (Plymouth Whitemarsh '15) putting up a game-high 16 points.

On the adjacent court, Grasela's Sky Blue outfit was short-staffed and struggling a bit against Team Forest Green, which had seven West Chester University players all together as a unit, among others. After facing a 26-44 shortfall at the half, Sky Blue got back within 10 points of the leaders in the second period but ultimately succumbed, 74-59. It would have been much worse if not for a bravura performance by the GA grad, who bagged three three-pointers but scored most of her 27 points closer in.

The game next door on Court One was sort of an ersatz CACC conference clash between CHC-powered Team Red and a Holy Family-fueled Team Orange. Down 23-32 at the intermission, Red rallied to tie the game during the second half, then came up a little short at the end, losing 56-60. Glenn deposited 12 of her team-high 16 points in the second period, and she and Picardo (10 points) each netted two three-point field goals. Fellow Griffins Tumasz and Holloway had eight and two points, respectively.

In the late set of games, the contest on the center court pitted Wills' Purple pack, with its contingent of Del Val players, against a Team Pink populated chiefly by ladies from another DIII program, Penn State Abington. Wills' lone field goal of the contest was a three-pointer that proved to be the last basket of the first half and gave her squad a 25-21 lead at the break.

With a little over two minutes remaining in the second period Purple was holding onto a 47-45 advantage, then Pink rallied and had a 53-52 edge in the final minute. During the last 15 seconds Pink got to the foul line twice, going two-for-four to seal a 55-52 victory.