Shooting guard Vicky Tumasz is transferring into Chestnut Hill College as a junior. At North Penn High School, Tumasz played for Maggie DeMarteleire, who daughter Jackie was head coach at CHC for four seasons. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

With only this Tuesday’s slate of contests left on the 11-game regular-season schedule in the NCAA women’s hoops league, it appears that tiebreakers are almost certain to come into play to determine which eight of the 12 teams will continue on into the playoffs.

With win/loss records descending in order from 9-1 to 6-4, the top four teams have secured playoff spots. The squad with the 6-4 mark is Team Purple, which includes former Germantown Academy standout and current St. Joseph’s U. player Jaryn Garner.

Last Tuesday Garner stayed on the sidelines with a minor injury, and with high-scoring forward Chelsea Woods (another SJU athlete) also missing, Purple bowed 59-33 to a Hunter Green team that has been mathematically eliminated from the playoff picture.

Garner took the court on Thursday and produced nine points, and with Woods also returning and pouring in 34, Purple won a close game over Team Sky Blue, 64-60.

One place ahead of Purple at week’s end was 7-3 Team Pink, featuring 2016 Penn Charter grad Hannah Fox. Her team was off to the races on Tuesday, getting 15 points from Fox and ringing up 90 points altogether to drop Team Kelly Green, which managed 35 points. Recent Mount St. Joseph Academy grad Sarah Wills scored three points for the Kelly club, which includes a number of her future Delaware Valley University teammates.

Fox, who will play for Division III power Amherst College, deposited six points two nights later in a 79-52 win over Team White. Also on Thursday, Kelly Green gave a better account of itself in a 65-52 loss to Team Black, which has two Mount St. Joe grads on the roster.

Freshman Caitlyn Cunningham did not score in this contest, but fellow former Mountie Kelsey Jones, a senior, had five points. On Tuesday, Jones had produced a conversion rate of 100 percent on three three-point shots and a pair of free throws for 11 total points as Team Black (all Philadelphia University players) subdued Sky Blue, 62-44.

After an 0-5 start in the summer league, Black has won five straight games, but head-to-head it lost to each of the other two teams with 5-5 records, Team Royal Blue and Team White.

Sky Blue, which includes 2016 PC grad Ayanna Matthews and Chestnut Hill College junior Vicky Tumasz, hurt its playoff prospects with a pair of losses last week. In the tussle with Team Black, Tumasz had three points and Matthews scored two, while in Thursday’s setback at the hands of the Purple pack, Tumasz registered six points (two treys) and Matthews chipped in with two.

Sky Blue ended the week embroiled in a three-way tie for eighth place with Team Orange and Team Red (all 4-6). Each of these three squads went 1-1 against the other two. Orange, which lists two 2016 GA grads on the roster, knocked off Sky Blue in the middle of the season, but had been forced to forfeit to Red on the league’s opening night due to a lack of players.

After an 0-3 start, Orange has worked its way back to 4-6, thanks in part to the efforts of former Patriot guards Kendall Grasela and Erin Lindahl.

Grasela was away on a family vacation last week, when the Orange organization had to face league leader Team Gold (9-1) and second-ranked Team Maroon (8-2). Lindahl (who’ll attend Emory University) logged four points in a 49-35 Tuesday tilt against Maroon, which is composed of players from the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.

Last summer the USiences franchise finished as the league runner-up after staging a semifinal upset of 2014 champion Team Gold. Gold’s lone 2016 loss came when a number of key performers were absent and caused a forfeit on June 23 forfeit. Otherwise, the league leaders have not faltered, and they took down Team Orange on Thursday, 80-57. Lindahl contributed 11 points to the losing cause.