GA freshman Elle Stauffer (center) drives against Archbishop Ryan's Megan McLaughlin (left) and Danielle McCurdy (right). (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

In two appearances at their own annual Make-A-Wish Basketball Showcase last weekend, the girls of Germantown Academy faced one significantly taller team and one noticeably smaller squad.

In a demonstration that height doesn't always rule the basketball court, the Patriots romped past the big Blue Storm of Mercersburg Academy on Friday, 70-23, but then lost to the compact and quick Archbishop Ryan High School Ragdolls on Saturday night, 60-50.

GA (4-5 overall, 1-1 Inter-Ac League) took a 22-3 lead on Mercersburg (1-5) in the first quarter and never looked back toward their guests, whose size was largely negated by sub-par ball-handling skills.

Slick shooting led to a game-high 22 points for Patriots sophomore guard Rachel Balzer, while ninth-grade point guard Maddie Vizza scored 13. Fellow freshman Jaye Haynes had eight points and six rebounds, and senior forward Lilly Bolen (who has committed to Tufts University) posted seven points and a team-high seven rebounds.

Earlier on Friday, Ryan had knocked off Penn Charter, 58-48. As usual at the Make-A-Wish Showcase, there was no regular tournament bracket with semifinals and finals, but rather four pre-scheduled games. This is done so that Inter-Ac League members GA and PC do not end up playing one another, since they're already scheduled for a home/away series in league competition.

This was the 20th edition of the tournament at GA, and, as in past years, the event benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the well-known organization which grants ‘wishes’ to children with life-threatening medical conditions.

On Friday evening the Mercersburg Blue Storm certainly looked formidable in warm-ups, with one player listed at 6'3", two at 6'2", and one at six feet even. The shortest of the quartet was Isiuwa Oghagbon, a Division I college recruit.

As a Texan might say, this turned out to be a case of "big hat, no cattle." On this occasion, at least, the visitors didn't seem equipped to deal with GA's quickness and athleticism, and another factor working against the mid-state club was that the Patriots were coming off of a stinging Inter-Ac League defeat at Episcopal Academy three days earlier.

GA is the two-time defending league champion, but Episcopal had won the Inter-Ac in 2013 and 2014, and in the recent mid-week meeting the Churchwomen recovered from being on the short end of a 15-9 opening quarter to down the Patriots, 56-49.

Another thing that helped Germantown a few days later at Make-A-Wish was that 6'1" junior Alexa Naessens had just been cleared to return to the court following a concussion. Before anyone can write-off Mercersburg entirely, though, it should be remembered that GA also beat them handily in December of 2015 and the Blue Storm came back several months later to win the Pa. Independent Schools Tournament, defeating a Shipley School team that had knocked out GA.

While Mercersburg brought greater size to the court, GA had the better of the guard play, and not by a little. The Patriots built a modest 5-0 lead over the first three minutes, then pulled away sharply to go up 19-0 before the visitors got on the board with 53 seconds left in the opening quarter.

Two minutes into the second period, Germantown was already ahead by 30 points (33-3), and there was never a hint of a Blue Storm comeback after that. Balzer accounted for half of GA's six three-pointers in a 40-3 first half.

The next day the Patriots would become the fifth victim for Archbishop Ryan in the Ragdolls' five outings this season. They're succeeding with a non-traditional structure that essentially has everyone performing as guards. The nominal post player, sophomore Monee Moore, looks to be no more than 5'9" tall, but uses quickness and leaping ability to get position inside and outrebound many taller opponents.

There are also a number of Ryan players who can strike reliably from three-point range, and that's how Saturday's game at GA began. The only starting senior, Amanda Lawson (headed for Penn but not to play hoops) bagged a trey from the left wing and then the Ragdolls' most prolific markswoman, junior Annie Cashman, got going from the top of the key.

A baseline jumper by senior Abby Starzecky and a transition lay-up by Balzer brought GA back to 4-6 about 90 seconds in, but the Pats would not sink another field goal for nine-and-a-half minutes. Ryan raised the pace of play to the tempo it desired, and the GA players rushed shots and missed, as well as getting snared in half-court traps.

With just under two-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, the Ragdolls spread the score to 35-10 with a "three" from the left flank by sophomore Shayne Glenn, whose older sister, Shannon, is starting as a freshman at Chestnut Hill College.

A score off an inbounds play by freshman forward Elle Stauffer had been GA's only field goal since the opening minutes of the game, but now Bolen grabbed a loose-ball rebound and drove in to score. That basket was matched by Ryan junior Caela Russell (who would ring up 10 of her game-high 17 points in the first half), but a three-pointer by Bolen and a short jumper by Vizza gave Germantown the last five points before the break.

Still, the Ragdolls had accumulated a 20-point lead (37-17), and had done it largely without starting sophomore guard Taliyah Rahman, who left the game with an ankle injury just two-and-a-half minutes into the action.

The Patriots showed some pluck as they tried to come back in the second half, but observing the progression of the scoreboard and the clock revealed that they just weren't narrowing the gap quickly enough.

GA let the Ragdolls tack two more points onto their lead at the start of the third quarter, then had Balzer hit her lone three-pointer of the night. The hosts added lay-ups by sophomore guard Shannon Topley, Balzer and Naessens while Ryan got one field goal from Russell, making it 41-26 with five minutes left in the period.

There had been no more progress for the Pats by the end of the quarter, though. Senior Megan McLaughlin, a Ryan reserve guard, made a three-pointer and a shorter shot to negate the five points GA got from a Topley field goal, two free throws by Stauffer, and a made free throw in the final minute by Naessens.

After the fourth round began at 46-31 each team added two points, then Bolen's 'three' from the keytop made it 48-36, with six minutes left. Three minutes later, the Ragdolls were back up by 14 (56-42) when the Patriots began their final push with two free throws by Naessens. Next, Ryan's 10th team foul sent Moore to the bench with her fifth personal, and Stauffer made the two free throws with 1:56 on the clock.

A steal by freshman Maddie Burns (a Norwood Fontbonne Academy grad) led to a transition lay-up by Topley, and then when Bolen got the ball under the right side of the basket and used a spin move to pop in a baby jumper, GA was within six points of the leaders (56-50) with a little over a minute to go.

After McLaughlin made the first of two free throws for Ryan with 1:01 on the clock, GA labored through an offensive possession which was sort of a microcosm of its shooting difficulties all evening. The Patriots gave themselves multiple chances on this single trip by grabbing three offensive rebounds, but they missed all the shots - three jumpers followed by a lay-up.

At the other end Russell knocked down the second of two foul shots, and now the Ragdolls' lead was back up to eight points with only 29 ticks to go. Back on offense, GA couldn't find the hoop on two three-point tries, and the second miss was rebounded for the Ragdolls by Glenn. She was fouled and made a pair of double-bonus free throws with four seconds left, setting the final margin at 10 points.

One point behind Ryan high scorer Russell was Cashman, with 16 points, and the Ragdolls also received eight points each from Moore (nine rebounds) and Glenn, six from McLaughlin, and five from Lawson. Bolen led GA with 14 points and 15 boards, while Naessens registered eight points and Balzer and Stauffer each scored seven. Six points apiece for Starzecky and Topley and two for Vizza rounded it out for the Patriots.