Kelly Green retains NCAA Summer League title

Posted 8/8/11

by Tom Utescher Former Mount St. Joseph standouts Elle Hagedorn (Harvard ’13) and Sarah McGorry (Lafayette ’12) chalked up 19 and 15 points, respectively, to help their Kelly Green team repeat as …

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Kelly Green retains NCAA Summer League title

Posted

by Tom Utescher

Former Mount St. Joseph standouts Elle Hagedorn (Harvard ’13) and Sarah McGorry (Lafayette ’12) chalked up 19 and 15 points, respectively, to help their Kelly Green team repeat as Philadelphia NCAA Summer League champions. In last Thursday’s title bout, the Green group secured an 89-70 victory over a Purple franchise featuring Germantown Academy alum Cathy (Hebling) Peduzzi.

[caption id="attachment_8020" align="alignleft" width="246" caption="In NCAA League action, Mount St. Joseph graduate Elle Hagedorn soars towards the basket. (Photo by Tom Utescher)"][/caption]

The game high of 25 points was recorded by former Girls Inter-Ac League star Katie Kuester (Notre Dame/St. Joseph’s U.), who helped Kelly Green remain in front after the top-seeded squad built up a 56-43 halftime lead. In the semifinal round two nights earlier, top-seeded Kelly knocked off Teal, 57-43, while Purple prevailed over the Gold ballclub, 81-68.

The only loss suffered by Kelly Green all summer came against the Teal team early in the regular season, when Kelly was missing three guards. One of them, Notre Dame grad Devon Kane (Villanova), scored eight points in Tuesday’s semifinal and played tenacious defense. Teal’s Ashley Morris, who rang up 31 points against the Green team in their first encounter, was limited to seven points (all second half) in the playoff rematch.

A baseline jump shot by former Mountie McGorry figured into an 8-8 tie a few minutes into Tuesday’s tilt, then a 10-foot jumper and a three pointer by Kuester moved Kelly Green ahead for good. Netting seven of her nine total points in the first period, McGorry led all scorers at the interlude. She hit the second of two free throws for the final point of the half, making it 29-18.

At the outset of the second round two three-pointers by Kuester and one by Meg Pearson (Archbishop Carroll/Villanova) kept Kelly in control. With fewer players on hand, Teal tired as the teams approached the stretch run. They hit a pair of treys at the end for the 57-43 final, but before that they trailed by 20 points with a little over a minute to go.

alumna Hagedorn scored off a rebound in the first half and added a three-pointer in the second for five total points, and she helped contain Teal’s transition offense, which had hurt Kelly Green significantly in the regular season bout between the teams. Kuester led a balanced offensive performance for the winners, depositing a dozen points.

The outcome of the second semifinal wasn’t in doubt for long. Purple led by as many as 25 points in the first half, and the frame ended with a 49-29 tally. The Gold players had one late rally left in them, though, drawing within 10 points of the leaders (75-65) with four minutes to go. Purple passed the ball around, making the Goldies foul and outscoring them 6-3 down the stretch.

Former GA standout Peduzzi had one of her most productive nights of the summer, scoring 14 points for the winners. It proved to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Purple, though, as former Cheltenham High School forward Ashley Gale (who just graduated from La Salle U.) went down with a severe knee injury in the middle of the second period. She’d had a spectacular game up to that juncture, scoring 22 points.

The league championship was supposed to be determined by a best-of-three games series, but due to various other commitments the Purple team would have had so many players missing by the second week of August that the format was changed to a single-game final on Thursday evening.

Kelly coach Ted Hagedorn (father of Elle) remarked that in the early going “the shooting by both teams was fantastic. We started out making four straight three-pointers, and the Purple team was staying right with us. These were open shots; both teams played tough defense.”

Kuester scored 16 points in the first period and Hagedorn, in her best outing of the summer, struck for 13. Recent Catholic Academies League product Lindsay Fluehr (Nazareth/Scranton), the only non-Division I player on the court, canned a pair of three-pointers for Kelly Green in the opening frame.

Purple was up 21-20 in the initial seesaw battle, but later in the first half Kelly Green began to engineer some defensive stops and got loose on the offensive transition, as well. With Gale out of commission for the Purple, the Green team also enjoyed a size advantage close to the basket.

Up by 13 at the half, Kelly kept ahead of the Purple by limiting their outside shooting, which came mainly from a pair of guards from St. Joseph’s, Erin Shields (23 points total) and Shelby Smith (21). Kelly Green’s 6’4” Emily Homan, a future Lafayette teammate of McGorry, scored most of her 14 points after the interlude, and Pearson also reached double figures with 10 points in the victory.

Peduzzi put in six points for the Purple, which got a dozen from Dana Albalancy and eight from Nicole Curry.

Former Mount St. Joseph standouts Elle Hagedorn (Harvard ’13) and Sarah McGorry (Lafayette ’12) chalked up 19 and 15 points, respectively, to help their Kelly Green team repeat as Philadelphia NCAA Summer League champions. In last Thursday’s title bout, the Green group secured an 89-70 victory over a Purple franchise featuring Germantown Academy alum Cathy (Hebling) Peduzzi.

The game high of 25 points was recorded by former Girls Inter-Ac League star Katie Kuester (Notre Dame/St. Joseph’s U.), who helped Kelly Green remain in front after the top-seeded squad built up a 56-43 halftime lead. In the semifinal round two nights earlier, top-seeded Kelly knocked off Teal, 57-43, while Purple prevailed over the Gold ballclub, 81-68.

The only loss suffered by Kelly Green all summer came against the Teal team early in the regular season, when Kelly was missing three guards. One of them, Notre Dame grad Devon Kane (Villanova), scored eight points in Tuesday’s semifinal and played tenacious defense. Teal’s Ashley Morris, who rang up 31 points against the Green team in their first encounter, was limited to seven points (all second half) in the playoff rematch.

A baseline jump shot by former Mountie McGorry figured into an 8-8 tie a few minutes into Tuesday’s tilt, then a 10-foot jumper and a three pointer by Kuester moved Kelly Green ahead for good. Netting seven of her nine total points in the first period, McGorry led all scorers at the interlude. She hit the second of two free throws for the final point of the half, making it 29-18.

At the outset of the second round two three-pointers by Kuester and one by Meg Pearson (Archbishop Carroll/Villanova) kept Kelly in control. With fewer players on hand, Teal tired as the teams approached the stretch run. They hit a pair of treys at the end for the 57-43 final, but before that they trailed by 20 points with a little over a minute to go.

MSJ alumna Hagedorn scored off a rebound in the first half and added a three-pointer in the second for five total points, and she helped contain Teal’s transition offense, which had hurt Kelly Green significantly in the regular season bout between the teams. Kuester led a balanced offensive performance for the winners, depositing a dozen points.

The outcome of the second semifinal wasn’t in doubt for long. Purple led by as many as 25 points in the first half, and the frame ended with a 49-29 tally. The Gold players had one late rally left in them, though, drawing within 10 points of the leaders (75-65) with four minutes to go. Purple passed the ball around, making the Goldies foul and outscoring them 6-3 down the stretch.

Former GA standout Peduzzi had one of her most productive nights of the summer, scoring 14 points for the winners. It proved to be a Pyrrhic victory for the Purple, though, as former Cheltenham High School forward Ashley Gale (who just graduated from La Salle U.) went down with a severe knee injury in the middle of the second period. She’d had a spectacular game up to that juncture, scoring 22 points.

The league championship was supposed to be determined by a best-of-three games series, but due to various other commitments the Purple team would have had so many players missing by the second week of August that the format was changed to a single-game final on Thursday evening.

Kelly coach Ted Hagedorn (father of Elle) remarked that in the early going “the shooting by both teams was fantastic. We started out making four straight three-pointers, and the Purple team was staying right with us. These were open shots; both teams played tough defense.”

Kuester scored 16 points in the first period and Hagedorn, in her best outing of the summer, struck for 13. Recent Catholic Academies League product Lindsay Fluehr (Nazareth/Scranton), the only non-Division I player on the court, canned a pair of three-pointers for Kelly Green in the opening frame.

Purple was up 21-20 in the initial seesaw battle, but later in the first half Kelly Green began to engineer some defensive stops and got loose on the offensive transition, as well. With Gale out of commission for the Purple, the Green team also enjoyed a size advantage close to the basket.

Up by 13 at the half, Kelly kept ahead of the Purple by limiting their outside shooting, which came mainly from a pair of guards from St. Joseph’s, Erin Shields (23 points total) and Shelby Smith (21). Kelly Green’s 6’4” Emily Homan, a future Lafayette teammate of McGorry, scored most of her 14 points after the interlude, and Pearson also reached double figures with 10 points in the victory.

Peduzzi put in six points for the Purple, which got a dozen from Dana Albalancy and eight from Nicole Curry.

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