Sophomore guard Carmen Williams brings the ball up the court for Penn Charter. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

In the Gwynedd Summer League last week, Penn Charter played its two games back-to-back on Tuesday evening, with mixed results. Scoring difficulties in the first half put the Quakers in a deep hole against a good Lansdale Catholic High School squad. The Crusaders didn't exactly set the scoreboard on fire either, but they turned a 14-4 halftime lead into a comfortable 32-14 victory over PC.

In the nightcap, it was Penn Charter that got the drop on its rival in the early minutes, going up 13-5 on Methacton High. After that, though, the Warriors rallied to take a one-point lead right at the end of the half. It was a dogfight the rest of the way, and Charter got in the last bite as a three-pointer by rising freshman Kaitlyn Hnatkowsky sealed the win for the Quakers, 35-32.

The Quakers just couldn't seem to find solid footing as they opened the evening against the aggressive Crusaders. Lansdale was up 9-0 when Charter first got on the board with a rebound conversion by sophomore India Barnes. A midrange jumper by her classmate Kait Carter followed to make it 9-4, but PC didn't score again in the first half and was down by 10 points at the break.

When play resumed, Carter hit the first of two free throws and then junior Emma Maley made a lay-up after rebounding her teammate's second shot from the stripe. Those gains were quickly erased through a three-point field goal by LC, which then kept the margin in double digits the rest of the way. Sophomores Carmen Williams and Lizzie McLaughlin put in jump shots and freshman Kaitlynn Haughey hooped a three-pointer at the end, but Charter still fell by 18 points.

Penn Charter sophomore Kait Carter (foreground) drives to the basket. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

As the second game got underway, Williams and Maley hit from the floor, Carter notched two free throws, and McLaughlin and middle-schooler Kelsey Bess each bagged a three-point bucket to push PC well ahead in a hurry. Bess added a free throw to make it a 13-5 affair, but Methacton then started a rally with a three-pointer.

The Warrior defense also limited the Quakers to a single "three" (by Bess) the rest of the half, and a baseline shot in the final half-minute gave Methacton a 17-16 edge at the intermission. Working mostly in the paint on offense, the Warriors went up 28-23 with under nine minutes remaining in the game, but Charter got right back in it by sandwiching three-pointers by Haughey and ninth-grade classmate Ava Coyle around a lone free throw for Methacton.

This brought the Quakers back within a point of the leaders (29-30) with five minutes to go, and the Warriors missed the chance to build up their lead again when they came away with nothing on consecutive one-and-one chances at the foul line.

Williams drove in and scored on a scoop shot, then converted a free throw awarded on the play to move PC ahead with 2:35 on the clock. With a little over a minute to go, Methacton tied it, 32-all, on a lay-up off of an inbounds pass. Charter came down the court and worked the ball around, then Hnatkowsky let fly for a successful three-point shot with half-a-minute left. This decided the issue, as the Warriors were unable to score again.

A balanced Quakers scoring attack was led by Bess, with seven points, Carter, with six, and Williams, with five. Overall, PC had seven different players connect from the three-point line during the game.