by Tom Utescher

Last Tuesday, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy suffered a 44-35 loss to Baldwin School, another team in the lower half of the Inter-Ac League girls’ basketball standings. Many people expected that when the Blue Devils went on the road again on Friday to take on undefeated, nationally-ranked Germantown Academy, the outcome would become clear very quickly.

Instead, SCH turned in one of its best performances of the year, and took a 38-34 lead into the fourth quarter. The host Patriots then asserted themselves, going ahead for good about 90 seconds into the period and proceeding to a 53-43 victory.

The two point guards, Mo’ne Davis for SCH and junior Maddie Vizza for GA, led their teams in scoring as each made five three’s and rang up 19 points. GA ratchetted up its record to 5-0 in the Inter-Ac and 18-0 overall, while SCH emerged at 1-4, 5-11.

Compared to the Baldwin game, Blue Devils head coach Flo Hagains said, “We came out with a whole different attitude.”

Perhaps the fact that the Patriots were so heavily favored just took the pressure off the Springside players, making them less nervous.

“We were definitely more relaxed - having fun, fighting for balls, hitting shots.” Hagains said. “We weren’t rushing shots and we weren’t stagnant like in some other games - we were moving around and picking where we wanted to be.”

Each team was missing one regular starter, senior Caroline Clark for SCH and junior Jaye Haynes for GA.

The game began with an exchange of long-range fire, with GA receiving two three-point field goals from Vizza and one from junior Lindsay Putnam, while SCH got one trey from Davis and another from senior Kara Kniezewski. GA pulled ahead, then a second “three” by Davis evened things up at 11-11 midway through the opening period.

The score seesawed up to 13-all, then Patriots junior Elle Stauffer deposited one of two free throws to have the hosts ahead at the end of the quarter, 14-13. SCH’s Layla Sawyer, a 6’1” freshman without a lot of previous basketball experience, had scored a pair of lay-ups and was playing with confidence on the inside.

“She did excellent; I’m so proud of her,” Coach Hagains said. “She can get nervous when she goes out there, but we’ve been working with her one-on-one every day. The more experience she gets, the more comfortable she’ll feel in a game. “Today, we couldn’t have asked for any more from her.”

Blue Devils freshman Layla Sawyer (right) guards an opposing post player from GA, sophomore Becca Booth. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

To start the second round, GA’s Stauffer grabbed a long rebound and romped downcourt to score. Davis tied it up with a three-pointer for the visitors, then she assisted on a lay-up by Sawyer. Coming off the Blue Devils’ bench, 8th grade guard Ava Chavez now netted a trey, putting Springside Chestnut Hill up 21-16 three-and-a-half minutes into the second round.

Two minutes before halftime, the visitors were still leading by five points (26-21), then GA got back-to-back scores from the paint by 6’3” sophomore Becca Booth. In the final seconds, a shot from three-point range by Davis rattled out of the rim, but her SCH squad was still ahead, 26-25.

It addition to their strong outside shooting, the Blue Devils had also fared reasonably well on the boards against a GA squad that had a definite height advantage overall.

“We boxed out and we got rebounds, and when we didn’t get a rebound we at least got hands on the ball,” Hagains commented.

The home crowd thought that GA would get everything sorted out in the halftime huddle and take charge during the third quarter, but it didn’t happen.

A little over 30 seconds into the period the Patriots’ Booth initiated the second-half scoring with a lay-up, then over the next six minutes the visitors put together a 12-5 run. It ended with a long trey from the left wing by Davis that set the score at 38-32.

Stauffer scored for Germantown on a drive to make it 38-34 at the three-quarter mark, and her bucket proved to be the beginning of a decisive 15-0 surge for the Patriots. Stauffer would hit a baseline jumper and two more lay-ups during this stretch, while Vizza bagged a three-pointer and made a lay-up in transition.

In addition to GA’s gaining more ball possession with a more assertive presence on the boards, SCH’s Hagains said, “The turning point was when they put the squeeze on us and were able to get the ball out of Mo’ne’s hands. They’re a great team and they have more basketball players than we have.”

For several stretches during the game, Springside Chestnut Hill had on the court at the same time three primary softball players from their 2017 and 2018 Inter-Ac championship squads.

The Patriots’ pivotal fourth-quarter spree finally ended with a lone free throw by Kniezewski, but the Blue Devils were not getting back in this one. The tally was now 47-39, and all of the remaining points for both teams were collected at the foul line. GA senior Rachel Balzer shot four-for-four from the stripe down the stretch as the Pats won by 10.

SCH got eight points apiece from Kniezewski and Chavez, six from Sawyer and two from junior Becca Arnold. GA’s Stauffer joined Vizza in double figures with 13 points, with Booth adding eight. Putnam finished with five points, Balzer had four and two points apiece were contributed by junior Maddie Burns and sophomore Jessica Moore.