GA girls test Saints for three quarters

Posted 12/28/15

Germantown Academy’s Erin Lindahl drives past fellow senior Morgan Lenahan, who just transferred to Neumann Goretti this year from Haddon Township, N.J. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption] by Tom …

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GA girls test Saints for three quarters

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Germantown Academy’s Erin Lindahl drives past fellow senior Morgan Lenahan, who just transferred to Neumann Goretti this year from Haddon Township, N.J. (Photo by Tom Utescher) Germantown Academy’s Erin Lindahl drives past fellow senior Morgan Lenahan, who just transferred to Neumann Goretti this year from Haddon Township, N.J. (Photo by Tom Utescher)[/caption]

by Tom Utescher

The Germantown Academy girls almost made it through to the holiday break without a loss, but last Wednesday the Patriots stumbled over a major obstacle they had placed in their own path. Never a program to shy away from powerful opponents, GA had scheduled a December 23 home game against the top-ranked team in the region, 2015 PIAA state champion Neumann Goretti High School.

Owning an 8-0 mark at the start of the contest, the Patriots slipped behind 23-15 over the course of the first two quarters. Playing some inspired basketball in the third period, they drew within two points of the Saints by the close of the quarter, with the tally at 31-29.

The Saints stomped on the gas pedal after that, allowing Germantown just one field goal in the fourth frame and capitalizing on steals to pull away to a 48-31 victory.

With a boys game to follow, the GA gymnasium was packed, and the school used the occasion to honor two of its former girls’ team greats, guards Caroline Doty (’08) and Maggie Lucas (’10). Doty, who became a starter for national powerhouse UConn, now works for Nike in Portland, Ore. Lucas, who went on from GA to star at Penn State and then join the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, is back at GA as an assistant coach during the off-season for the pro’s.

For the past several years, the high school program at Neumann Goretti has enjoyed the national limelight, finishing the 2014-15 campaign as the undefeated number-one team in the nation. Now, for the second year in a row, Neumann Goretti has had four players sign with Division I colleges. The Saints have lost exactly one game since the start of the 2013-14 season (the 2014 state final), and this season they ascended to 6-0 with the win at GA. After that, they were ranked eighth in the MaxPreps national girls basketball poll, and they’ve been rated as high as fifth by USA Today.

Syracuse signee Alicia Kebbe, a high-leaping, slick-handling 5’10” combo guard, scored a game-high 19 points at GA for the Saints, who marked down nine points for Kamiah Smalls (James Madison) and eight for a third senior, Jada Russell (Longwood).

GA senior guard Erin Lindahl, who will play for Emory University near her childhood home in Georgia, chalked up 13 points, and sophomore guard Cat Polisano, the only Patriot player to score in the fourth quarter, finished with six.

“We knew that they were a super-athletic team, very fast and aggressive,” Lindahl said of the Saints. “We tried to implement plays using back-screens and back door cuts so maybe we could catch them a little off guard.”

They experienced little success with this in the first quarter, when a lone field goal by forward Lilly Bolen and two free throws by fellow junior Abby Starzecky were reflected in a 9-4 tally that favored the visitors. Kebbe opened with a pair of buckets in the first frame and them added nine points in the second quarter. She nailed one three-pointer during the period while Russell drained her second trey of the game.

Still, GA was able to unlimber its offense in the second stanza, when Neumann Goretti enjoyed a more modest 14-11 advantage. Lindahl started out with a three-pointer, and the Patriots received regular field goals from Polisano, senior guard Kendall Grasela, and sophomore forward Alexa Naessens. Senior forward Lauren Oeth added a pair of free throws.

Being on the short end of a 23-15 halftime score would not be a daunting proposition against most opponents, but an eight-point shortfall is not easy to eliminate against a team like the Saints.

A large crowd of colorfully clad GA fans felt their team was back in business when the Pats quickly trimmed five points off the NG lead with a drive by Polisano and a ‘three’ from the keytop by Lindahl. Smalls got two back for the visitors on a rebound conversion, then Lindahl penetrated to the basket and drew fouls. She sandwiched a three-for-four effort at the free throw line around a lay-up by the Saints’ Kebbe, making it 27-23 midway through the third round.

Two minutes later, the senior guard scored a lay-up off of a pass from Oeth, and it was now a two-point affair. A basket in transition by visitor Minika Glenn was answered by two Bolen free throws, then two made foul shots by Chyna Nixon had Neumann Goretti up by four points with 11 seconds to go in the period. The persistent Lindahl finished out the frame with a lay-up that created a 31-29 tally for the start of the fourth quarter.

The previous weekend, GA ballhandlers had faltered at times under intense defensive pressure before claiming a close victory over Baltimore’s McDonogh School. For much of last Wednesday’s game, they did a better job of coping when the Saints tightened the screws.

“We work on ball handling every day, and Maggie Lucas really helps us with that,” Lindahl said. “We go over things that led to turnovers in games and try to correct them.”

Neumann Goretti, which normally nets a lot of points on perimeter shooting as well as on the drive, was not faring well at the three-point line up to the three-quarter mark. In the fourth quarter, the Saints focused more on ramping up their defense and transforming turnovers into lay-ups in transition.

NG freshman Jabria Ingram would score all of her six points in the fourth round, launching the period with a lay-up-and-one. Kebbe then beat the defense down the floor to put the visitors up by seven, 36-29. After a time-out, GA had Polisano score from the paint, but after that, no more points appeared on the home side of the scoreboard.

Ingram bagged a three-pointer for the Saints, and Kebbe scored on a breakaway for a double-digit margin at 41-31.

For the most part, the Saints weren’t taking the ball away from GA on the dribble, they were stealing it on passing attempts. They had the passing lanes covered and the Patriots, trying to jump-start their offense as they fell further behind, impatiently forced the ball inside. It was risky, and they paid the price.

“We kind of had to do it,” Lindahl said. “They’d go on runs, taking advantage when we’d have little mental lapses. It was tough to keep coming back from that.”

With two minutes remaining, the Saints got into the foul bonus. They made five of eight free throws down the stretch, while also having Smalls score off of a steal.

The Patriots had acquitted themselves well for the most part, simply getting overpowered at the end. With their 14-8 showing in the third period, they became the only team all season to outscore the Saints in any quarter other than the fourth. The experience should serve them well as they take on strong out-of-state ball clubs at the Naples (Fla.) Holiday Shootout, which runs December 29-31.

Among the Patriots’ eight victories up to this point is a 44-25 win over Episcopal Academy, a close runner-up to champ GA in the Inter-Ac League last season.

“We’ve been working very hard and I’m proud of how we’ve done so far,” Lindahl said. “We’re good friends off the court, and that plays into how well we work as a team. Our court vision is good and we know each other’s tendencies. We’ve been putting a lot of emphasis on defense, so that we can turn up the heat on other teams.”

Seniors Lindahl, Grasela and Oeth have played together at school, in summer leagues, and on club teams for years, and their classmates Maeve Connor and Leena Kardacz round out a solid 12th-grade core for the squad.

Another key to the Patriots’ success this year is the depth they’ve developed by making young players like Polisano, Naessens, and freshman Rachel Balzer an integral part of the franchise.

“As leaders,” Lindahl explained, “we try to foster an environment where the young players feel welcome, and where they feel prepared and confident when they come on the court.”

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