PC summer hoops splits with Boyertown, Gwynedd

Posted 7/17/17

Laila Hamiter of Penn Charter (foreground) protects the ball from the prying paw of a Boyertown Bear. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher With out-of-town AAU tournaments in full swing in early …

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PC summer hoops splits with Boyertown, Gwynedd

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Laila Hamiter of Penn Charter (foreground) protects the ball from the prying paw of a Boyertown Bear. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

With out-of-town AAU tournaments in full swing in early July, many basketball teams playing locally in summer leagues operated with depleted rosters last week. In the Gwynedd Mercy Academy League, Penn Charter and each of its two opponents last Tuesday night had important players missing. Knowing a lot of its top talent would be absent, Germantown Academy didn't even schedule any league games during this stretch.

With the players that were on hand, though, PC wound up having two competitive contests, getting edged by Boyertown High School in its first game, 34-30, and then winning the nightcap over league host Gwynedd Mercy, 26-23.

Boyertown was missing almost all of its post players, but had some guards that connected from the three-point arc. After the Bears went up 12-7 a little more than midway through the first half, Charter rising sophomore Carmen Williams scored back-to-back field goals to get PC back within one point of the Berks County bunch. However, Boyertown closed out the first half with a 7-2 run and led 19-13 at the break.

The Bears picked up the first point of the second half from the free throw line, but then were held scoreless by Penn Charter for more than a dozen minutes. The Quakers' Williams scored eight of her team-high 12 points in the second half, and her final field goal, a short bank shot from the right side, had her team ahead 27-20.

Boyertown's offense finally revived with a driving lay-up with six minutes left in the game. PC would add just three points the rest of the way on a trey by sophomore Hayley Hunt. The Bears used two triples of their own, along with a lay-up and some free throws to edge ahead 32-30 in the stretch run.

The Quakers started up the court for the final time with 15 seconds left, but after they worked the ball around on the outside, they committed an offensive foul trying to penetrate to the basket. Thanks to another PC foul, Boyertown would pick up the final points of the night from the free throw line for a 34-20 win.

Middle-schooler Kelsey Bess scored six points for Charter, Hunt and sophomore India Barnes had five, and incoming freshman Laila Hamiter had two.

Penn Charter's Lizzie McLaughlin intercepts the ball and reverses the flow of the play. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

The scoreboard turned over very slowly as PC's bout with Gwynedd Mercy got underway; midway through the first half the Monarchs owned a modest 3-2 lead. Freshman Janae Stewart had provided those early points for the Quakers, and the rest of their first-half offense came from Williams on three field goals and two free throws.

When the sophomore put in sort of a driving hook shot and added a free throw with 1:47 left in the first half, Charter led 10-6. Gwynedd scored directly off of an inbounds play, added a pair of free throws with half-a-minute left, and then bagged a long three-pointer from above the keytop right at the buzzer, taking a 13-10 advantage into the halftime huddle.

Gwynedd opened the second frame with another trey, then PC got going with a lay-up by Hunt that was set up by a pass from sophomore Lizzie McLaughlin. A rising ninth-grader, Molly McMahon, was tasked with the ballhandling duties at the top of Penn Charter's offense set for most of the evening.

After a free throw had the Monarchs ahead 17-12, McLaughlin tossed in a "three" and sophomore Troi Rutherford scored in transition to tie the contest at 17-all. From there on, the teams were never more than two points apart until the very end of the game.

When Bess converted on an offensive rebound to give the Quakers a 24-23 edge, Gwynedd called time-out with 31 seconds left. The Monarchs' plans went awry when Williams pried the ball loose from one of their guards and took it across midcourt. Drawing a foul, she would end up making both of her shots on a one-and-one, putting the 26-23 final on the board with 2.7 seconds on the clock.

Hitting double digits once more with 11 points, Williams was followed by Stewart, with four points, McLaughlin, with three, and by Barnes, Bess, Hunt, and Rutherford, with two points apiece.

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