July 5, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

In summer hoops shrink, but succeed
by Tom Utescher

Although both the Mount St. Joseph Academy and Germantown Academy summer league basketball teams were short-staffed last week, they continued to perform well for the most part.

On Monday Germantown went past Neshaminy, 44-23, while the Mount split a pair of close games, edging Central Bucks East, 40-39, and losing to Archbishop Wood, 36-35. On Thursday neither squad had any subs available at all, but GA fought off a rally by William Tenant to prevail, 35-33, while the Magic rolled over Council Rock South, 52-18.

GA, as usual, was playing without standouts Caroline Doty and Jesse Carey, whose club team requires them to focus exclusively on AAU basketball in the summer. Prolific sophomore guard Maggie Lucas (who’d rung up 23 points in GA’s previous outing) was in attendance at Monday’s game, but was unable to play due to strained knee ligaments suffered in an auto accident (fortunately, a minor injury).

Germantown’s first two field goals were a three-pointer and a lay-up by Tori Thierolf, then Bri Cowden, Laura Karbach, and Alexa Gallagher joined in on offense as the Patriots progressed to a 14-4 lead midway through the first of the 20-minute (running clock) halves. Picking up another couple of points before the break, GA was up 25-13 over Neshaminy.

Scoring and drawing fouls on the transition, the Redskins drew back within seven points of the leaders (27-20) a few minutes into the second period. A trey by Karbach got Germantown moving again, and guard Jess Erb came to life for three lay-ups as the Pats pulled away to win by 21 points. The leading scorers for the victors were Cowden (13 points), Karbach (11), and Thierolf (nine).

In other Monday action, the Mount played back-to-back one-point games, winning the first and losing the second. In the opener, offense from Sarah McGorry, Laura Johnson, and Jen Sabia moved the Magic out to a 9-0 advantage over Central Bucks East.

A pair of three pointers closed up the score to 9-6 for East, which, like GA, is nicknamed the Patriots. The long ball sustained CB East for three-quarters of the game; they lobbed in six more treys during the contest, and the Magic’s inability to quash the outside threat enabled the Patriots to stay in contention until they finally began to diversify their scoring in the last ten minutes of the contest.

In the opening period, Mount St. Joe received eight points from McGorry, six from Sabia, and five from Johnson, while Elle Hagedorn put in a pair of free throws at the end for a 23-17 halftime lead. Early in round two the locals went up 30-20, but CB East made up ground with its outside shooting.

With 11 minutes left, the Patriots’ first lay-up of the night (off of a steal) got them within one of the leaders (34-33) and a little later they went ahead for the only time all night, 37-35. Driving lay-ups by Hagedorn and Johnson, with a free throw tacked on for Johnson, put the Magic back up 40-37 as the final minute approached, and East was only able to add a pair of free throws, with 55 seconds to go.

Sabia finished up with 11 points for the winners, who got eight apiece from Johnson and McGorry.

The Mount’s next opponent, Archbishop Wood, was missing center Ashley Robinson and swing player Lisa Strack. They play for the same AAU outfit as GA’s Carey and Doty, and thus were prevented from participating in summer hoops on behalf of their school squad.

Mount St. Joseph, with a full complement of players, stepped off to a 12-2 lead. Hagedorn, relatively quiet in the CB East game with six points, equaled that total in her team’s early outburst against the Wood, hitting three lay-ups. The Vikings still had on hand a number of seasoned players accustomed to the rigors of Catholic League basketball, and they stopped their slide about seven minutes into the contest. There was a fairly even exchange for the rest of the period, which ended with the Magic up 22-13.

The Mount players may have begun the effects of playing back-to-back games. Still, with Hagedorn pacing the attack the Magic carved out a 32-27 foothold, but the Vikings climbed back up to tie the bout at 33-33 with 3:36 to go.

Hagedorn scored on a drive, but Wood went ahead 36-35 on a three-pointer from near the top of the key. That would prove to be the final tally, as a missed jumper and a turnover on a walk hindered the Magic down the stretch. Hadedorn had 17 points, with McGorry and Colleen Caldwell adding six and four points, respectively.

Three nights later, only Caldwell, Sabia, Ryann Gallagher, Alexa Buchanan, Ryann Gallagher, and Maureen Gribb were available for duty for the Magic. Rival Council Rock South only had one more player, however, and the Magic rolled to a 20-5 halftime lead. Neither club could find the hoop at the outset; the game’s first points came on two free throws by Gribb with almost six-and-a-half minutes gone, and the initial free throw was deposited 30 seconds later by Rock South. A lay-up by Caldwell and baseline shots by Buchanan and Gallagher moved the Magic ahead for good, and Gribb led all scorers at the half with eight points.

The Mount continued to pass the ball expertly to open players in the paint, and as a result outscored the Golden Hawks 16-4 over the first ten minutes of the second half. Rock South had a little more scoring success after that, but still came up 34 points short at the end. The Magic got double-digit scoring from Gallagher (16 points), Gribb (14), and Buchanan (11), with Caldwell adding seven points and Sabia scoring four.

Like Mount St. Joe’s, GA had just five players on hand for its Thursday night game: Cowden, Erb, Gallagher, Maggie Ebbott, and Monica Schacker. Playing smart basketball at both ends of the floor, GA rolled to a 14-0 lead, powered by Cowden, Erb, and Gallagher. Tennent finally scrubbed the zero from its side of the scoreboard with a lay-up that came with 7:20 left in the half.

With two subs at its disposal, Tennent began to do a better job of physically challenging GA on the inside, and by the intermission the lead was back down to single figures, at 22-13. The Panthers continued to gather momentum as the second half progressed and the Patriots tired.

Finally, a three-pointer pushed Tennent ahead, 30-29, with a little over six minutes remaining. GA’s Cowden was fouled and made both free throws to nudge the Pats back in front, then a lay-up by Erb and a jumper from the right wing by Schacker added to the margin. The Panthers popped in another trey in the waning moments, but Germantown hung on, 35-33.