Alynna Williams of Team Black (left), a guard out of Plymouth Whitemarsh High School who'll be a senior at Jefferson University, guards Irisa Ye of Team Maroon (USciences). (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

The college summer league teams representing Jefferson University (Team Black) and University of the Sciences (Team Maroon) arrived at the middle of July tied for first place. Archrivals in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference during the regular season, the two squads faced one another in summer ball last Tuesday, when Maroon handed Black its first loss of the season, 73-64.

For Team Black, Jefferson junior Caitlyn Cunningham (a Mount St. Joe's alum) scored 13 points and senior Alynna Williams (Plymouth Whitemarsh) had 11. The Jefferson effort was led by forward Sabria Lytes, with a game-high 19 points.

Trailing 35-31 at halftime, Black surged ahead to an eight-point lead with under two minutes left in the third quarter, but Maroon hooped a pair of three-pointers to only trail by two for the start of the final round (52-50). The USciences squad then took over the lead, led by junior Irisa Ye's relentless activity in the paint. With four minutes remaining, Maroon was up 71-62 and the margin was the same at the end, 73-64.

Both teams won on Thursday evening to finish the week at 5-1, since Maroon had previously lost to a Sky Blue team that is staffed largely by players from another CACC school, Holy Family University.

Mostly made up of Chestnut Hill College players, Team Lime Green succumbed to Maroon on Thursday, 74-66. CHC is yet another member of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, so these two teams see one another during the winter, as well.

Chestnut Hill College junior Cassie Sebold (right) goes past a Golden Sun defender. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

Missing 15 free throws (out of 20) in the first half, Lime Green trailed 39-21 at the break. That put the summer Griffins in quite a deep hole, but although they didn't climb all the way out, they drew back within single figures on the scoreboard by the game's end. The top scorer for Lime Green among the actual CHC players was sophomore Lauren Crim (12 points), while the team high came from Alana Cardona (17) a Souderton High grad who is a rising sophomore forward at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Team Black, playing a Purple team that is a mix of Division II and III players, went out to a 22-9 lead in the first quarter and then cruised to a 69-49 victory. The gap between the teams peaked at 24 points late in the third quarter. Williams had a game-high 16 points for the winners while Cunningham contributed 14.

Cunningham's sister Lauren, who just graduated from the Mount last month and is heading to Marymount University in Virginia, was in action for Team Kelly Green last week. Consisting largely of Division III players with a few exceptions, Kelly fell to Team Purple on Tuesday, 51-41. Cunningham scored four points on Thursday evening in a run-and-gun exhibition that ended in a 101-91 victory for Team Orange. One of the few Orange athletes who does play for Ursinus College, Franklin and Marshall's Kristin Hamill, put up 49 points in this track meet, which league commissioner David Kessler believes is a single-game record for the league.

On Tuesday, a double-header for Team Golden Sun (Arcadia University) had resulted in losses to Orange (64-58) and to Lime Green (72-45). For Sun, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy grad Joelle Bridges scored four points against Lime and five against Orange.

The high scorer for Lime Green was CHC's Crim, with a 20-point effort that included three three-pointers. The winners got 10 points from Brianna Cullen, who used up her playing eligibility with the Griffins last winter (as a graduate student) and will now be an assistant coach for the team.