|
|
GA girls win low-scoring battle over Charter
by TOM UTESCHER
For the girls’ hoop squad at Germantown Academy, last week’s
schedule featured a flurry of activity as the Patriots engaged in two
Girls Inter-Ac League contests and two tough non-league tilts. GA prevailed
in each one, defeating, in order, Penn Charter (37-19), Peddie School
(44-36), Agnes Irwin (56-36), and St. Basil’s Academy (49-47).
In addition to boosting GA’s season record to 19-4 (3-0 Inter-Ac),
last week’s wins gave head coach Sherri Retif 400 career victories.
Prior to taking charge of the Patriots, she piloted programs at Ursuline
Academy in New Orleans and at Sun Valley High School in Delaware County,
and her combined record now stands at 400-116.
The storied athletic rivalry between Germantown Academy and Penn Charter
has produced numerous knock-down, drag-out contests, but last Tuesday’s
girls basketball game won’t be joining that list. There was little
intensity evident here, either for defending Girls Inter-Ac Champion GA,
or for the visiting Quakers (12-9, 2-2), the third-place team in 2005.
For GA, the Penn Charter game fell in the middle of a series of demanding
non-league tilts. The previous Friday, GA gutted out a 48-45 victory over
a Hun School team powered by a Perth Amboy post-grad, and the next day
the Patriots fell, 63-54, to South Philly powerhouse Neumann-Goretti.
On deck the day after Charter was Peddie, a team led by a Duke recruit
and eager to avenge a humbling loss to the Patriots in GA’s holiday
tournament. On Saturday, Germantown would square off against St. Basil’s.
Penn Charter, aspiring to move into one of the top two spots in the league,
has been beset by physical maladies for a second straight season. Last
winter, forward Julie Bown sat out the Inter-Ac campaign with her leg
in a cast. Bown is back as a senior this year, but sophomore center Caroline
Huber broke her wrist early in the season and only recently returned after
missing most of December and January.
PC also played without ailing point guard Bridget McDugall in a January
13 loss to Episcopal, a club Charter beat last year. As in so many seasons
past, the league’s marquee match-up should be the one between Germantown
and Notre Dame, slated for 5 p.m. on February 7, at GA.
Last Tuesday’s game started with the first of three steals for
GA guard Colleen Magarity, who went downcourt for a lay-up. PC’s
Nora McGurkin, a sophomore guard out of Norwood Fontbonne Academy, nailed
a three-pointer to move the Quakers in front, 3-2, but the visitors didn’t
score again until the second minute of the following quarter.
In between, GA rang up 14 straight points, a spree made up of two three-pointers
and two lay-ups by Caroline Doty (15 points, eight rebounds, five assists),
a “three” by Tori Machikas (seven points), and a pair of free
throws by Jesse Carey (four points). Hitting back-to-back field goals
on just once all day, Charter couldn’t get back in the running.
Rounding out GA’s total were two points apiece from Meredith Carber,
Bri Cowden, Laura Karbach, and Jenna Washabaugh, and one from Lindsay
Freid. Bown and senior guard Virginia McMunigal (seven rebounds, two steals)
paced Penn Charter with six points apiece. Huber and Audra Hugo (four
rebounds) each added a field goal for the Quakers.
The next day against Peddie, GA was up 33-24 at the three-quarter mark,
but Doty rolled her ankle late in the period and sought the trainer for
a tape-job. The visiting Falcons seized this opportunity, creeping closer
during the fourth frame until they trailed by just one point at 35-34.
The Patriots were now in the one-and-one bonus, though, and Doty reentered
the game. Down the stretch, Peddie compounded its problems with a technical
foul, and Germantown was able to widen the gap once more to win by eight.
Doty (13 points), Freid (11), and Carey (eight) led the hosts’ offense,
while Peddie star Bridget Mitchell fired a game-high 22.
Two days later at Agnes Irwin, GA romped to a 41-12 halftime lead and
then coasted to a 56-36 decision as Doty chalked up 22 points.
The following morning in the Super Saturday showcase at Archbishop Carroll,
the Patriots had their hands full with Catholic Academies frontrunner
St. Basil’s. Freid topped all scorers in the first half, when she
registered 15 of her game-high 17 points, but the disciplined, poised
Panthers led at the break, 23-21.
GA edged ahead by the end of the third period, 33-32, then Basil’s
came back to lead 43-41 with under four minutes left. Germantown jumped
ahead 47-43 on back-to-back three-pointers by Doty (nine points, seven
rebounds) and Carey (10 points, six assists, five rebounds).
The Panthers’ Christine McCullom (nine points, five rebounds) recouped
two points from the foul line, but Carey responded in kind with half-a-minute
to go. Although St. Basil had the last word with a baseline jumper at
the buzzer by Allie Fedorowicz (15 points), the Patriots emerged with
a two-point victory.
|
|
