by Tom Utescher

The scope of the action in the high school summer hoops league at Gwynedd Mercy Academy was pared down from three nights to two last week, as a volleyball camp being held in the host school’s gym caused the action to be moved to Gwynedd Elementary down the road. Rosters were also reduced for a number of teams due to a large AAU club team tournament being staged in Scranton.

Penn Charter was not in action at all, while Germantown Academy and Springside Chestnut Hill each took to the court with an unusual assortment of athletes.

With only junior post player Alexa Naessens on hand from GA’s regular starting line-up, the Patriots bowed to Lansdale Catholic, 40-35, despite 10 points and six rebounds from the 6’1” forward. Younger players got more time and took advantage of it, led by incoming freshman Jaye Haynes with 10 points, five rebounds, and five steals. Her classmate Caitlyn Prior contributed eight points and three steals, and sophomore Gabby Hearn had eight points and five takeaways.

SCH was also missing a number of varsity veterans for its game on Thursday night, and the Blue Devils took a novel approach to filling some of the gaps. Matt Paul, who took over as coach in the middle of last season, has contacts at many schools through the sports camps and clinics that he has run for many years.

Emily Morrissey, a rising sophomore in the GA hoops program, actually played for Springside Chestnut Hill on this occasion. The other new face appearing for the Blue Devils belonged to Avery Myers, who is going into her freshman year at Penn Charter. A Wyndmoor native, she doesn’t even play basketball during the scholastic season – she’s a diver in the winter months.

These irregularities didn’t ruffle any feathers among the rival Mighty Ducks of Jenkintown High School, who quickly took a 7-1 lead and were never seriously challenged en route to a 58-25 triumph.

That first SCH free throw was provided by sophomore Colebe Oliver, and the initial field goal came from the borrowed Patriots player, Morrissey, who hit a lay-up off of a feed from Blue Devil sophomore Kara Kniezewski. The latter two each bagged a three-pointer later on, but the halftime lead of 23-9 belonged to Jenkintown, who ran the floor effectively for transition lay-ups and also shot well from the outside.

After the Ducks hit a midrange jumper to launch the scoreboard in the second period, Kniezewski and Morrissey canned back-to-back treys and Springside Chestnut Hill was briefly back within 10 points of the leaders, 25-15.

After that, though, it would be quite a while before the Blue Devils’ side of the scoreboard budged, and Jenkintown put the game out of reach by accumulating 27 points in a row for a 52-15 tally.

The Ducks finished up with a pair of three’s, while SCH added a 15-footer by senior Sydney Crawford, a third three-pointer from Morrissey (who totaled a team-high 11 points), and a transition lay-up by Oliver. At the buzzer, PC’s itinerant diver, Myers, banked in a three-point shot to put the final score on the board.