by Tom Utescher

Last Wednesday, a stretch of three basketball games in three days began for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, which played its final home game of the 2018-19 campaign against visiting Episcopal Academy.

The host Blue Devils led at the end of the first quarter, but by halftime EA had gained a three-point edge, and the Churchwomen went on to win, 50-34.

Before the game in Kingsley Gymnasium, SCH held a ceremony to recognize its three graduating seniors, guards Caroline Clark, Mo’ne Davis and Kara Kniezewski.

Following the summer of her well-known Little League baseball achievements between her seventh and eighth-grade years at SCH, Davis already became a member of the varsity basketball team as an eighth-grader. She has signed as a softball player with Virginia’s Hampton University.

Kniezewski, a Norwood Fontbonne Academy graduate, played basketball at SCH as a freshman, sophomore and senior. She took her junior year off to focus on developing her golf game, and that’s the sport that she intends to continue playing at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Caroline Clark also arrived at Springside Chestnut Hill as a ninth-grader and immediately earned a place on the Blue Devils’ hoop squad. She plans to play basketball at Babson College outside of Boston.

Back on Jan. 4, Springside Chestnut Hill lost at Episcopal, 45-27. In EA’s next Inter-Ac game, an ankle injury ended the season for sophomore shooting guard Amanda Purcell, who had been the high scorer for the Churchwomen in a number of games up to that point. SCH experienced a spate of injuries back in December, but the Blue Devils were relatively healthy late in the season.

They jumped ahead early last Wednesday with a drive by Clark and a lay-up by freshman forward Layla Sawyer off of a feed from Davis. Junior Raeleen Keffer-Scharpf got the visitors on the board, then Clark traded three-point field goals with EA senior Olivia Dirks, who will play lacrosse at Penn State. Clark closed out the quarter with another successful drive to put SCH up 9-5.

Episcopal evidently had a productive sit-down between periods; when the second quarter began baskets by Keffer-Scharpf and Dirks launched a three-minute 8-2 run by the Churchwomen. The home team’s points during this spell came from a lay-up by eighth-grader Ava Chavez, and later the SCH offense got going again with a trey from the left corner by Kniezewski.

More production by Kniezewski and Chavez followed, and with around a minute-and-a-half left in the second period a free throw and a driving lay-up by Davis had the home team ahead once more, 22-20.

That would turn out to be the Blue Devils’ last lead of the day. EA tied the contest on a drive by feisty freshman guard Bella Pisella, and seven seconds before halftime junior Cara Harty hit a three from the right wing, setting the score at 25-22 for the break.

Springside Chestnut Hill’s Clark netted one of two free throws when play resumed, and near the middle of the period she scored off of an offensive rebound. Those would be the only points added to the home side of the scoreboard during a 12-3 quarter for the Churchwomen. At the buzzer, a mid-range bank shot by visiting sophomore Allie Sillo sent the Newtown Square squad into the final period with a 37-25 lead.

While the scoring was more balanced in the fourth quarter, Episcopal gained by another four points to finish with a 16-point margin of victory.

Clark and Chavez each scored 10 points for the Blue Devils, who received seven from Davis, five from Kniezewski and two from Sawyer.

For EA, Dirks put up a game-high 12 points, with Keffer-Scharpf one point behind. Sillo scored eight points and Piselli logged seven, followed by Harty (five), sophomore Caroline McCreary (four) and freshman Riley Cassidy (three).

Unfortunately for Blue Devils fans, SCH saw its season end with losses on the road on Thursday and Friday. In a 61-49 setback at the Academy of Notre Dame, Clark posted 15 points while Davis scored 10 and Sawyer contributed eight. The next day in the opening round of the Pa. Independent Schools tournament, 12th-seeded Springside Chestnut Hill was eliminated by the number five team, Westtown School. The Devils succumbed, 65-51, despite a 23-point performance by Davis. Chavez added nine points for SCH, which closed out the campaign with an overall record of 8-18.