With SCH win, GA girls 12-0 in Inter-Ac for a third time

Posted 2/18/20

Germantown Academy players and coaches celebrate the team's third straight 12-0 championship season in the Inter-Ac League. (Photo by Tom Utescher) by Tom Utescher As Germantown Academy wrapped up …

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With SCH win, GA girls 12-0 in Inter-Ac for a third time

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Germantown Academy players and coaches celebrate the team's third straight 12-0 championship season in the Inter-Ac League. (Photo by Tom Utescher)

by Tom Utescher

As Germantown Academy wrapped up the regular season in girls' basketball with a 70-38 win over visiting Springside Chestnut Hill last Tuesday, there were a lot of reason for the Patriots to celebrate.

With the win, they completed their third straight 12-0 season in the Inter-Ac League. During the game, senior point guard Maddie Vizza scored the 1000th point of her GA career. She and her classmates were the focus of a Senior Day ceremony before the game, and for the class of 2020, the outcome of the contest gave them 100 wins over the course of their four seasons. Their record includes a 47-1 run in the Inter-Ac League that produced four league championships.

Doing all of her scoring in the first half, Vizza still posted a game-high 20 points, while classmate Jaye Haynes rang up 14, also before halftime. A third senior, Sarah DiLello, also hit double digits, recording 12 points to appear third on the list of 10 Germantown Academy scorers.

Freshman guard Tatyana Hall lobbed in five three-point field goals and led the visiting Blue Devils with a total of 16 points. Another ninth-grader, Frankie DeMichele, was next in the SCH stats with eight points. The Devils still had one more Inter-Ac contest on their agenda, as they would travel to the Academy of Notre Dame the following day.

Springside Chestnut Hill has only one senior, guard Becca Arnold, on its roster, and she missed the end of the season after suffering a concussion. Sophomore Brooke Gyllenhaal, more recently concussed, and watched Tuesday's game in street clothes from the sideline.

GA has played many games this season without one of its senior standouts, guard Elle Stauffer. She returned from a minor injury in December, but a more serious problem developed. Recent knee surgery revealed a partial tear of the meniscus, and with this repaired during the procedure, Stauffer was told she almost certainly avoided more serious damage.

Stauffer will continue on to play at Harvard University, while Haynes and Vizza have signed with La Salle and Northeastern University, respectively. DiLello will play softball and basketball at Ursinus College, and classmate Caitlyn Priore will play basketball at Gettysburg. Maddie Burns, a Norwood Fontbonne Academy graduate, signed in November to play lacrosse at the University of Michigan.

The seventh member of this memorable senior class, Molly Oeth, also runs track and cross country for GA, and has not yet made her college choice.

The first field goal scored in Tuesday's game, a lay-up by SCH sophomore Caroline Chiliberti, was quickly answered by GA's Haynes. Vizza, who came in needing 18 points to hit 1000, got started with a three-pointer from the top of the key.

Blue Devils freshman Ava Chavez would hit a trey from the same spot later on, but 11 points from Haynes and nine from Vizza powered the Patriots to a 23-6 advantage by the end of the first quarter.

Although they were outscored by the Pats in the second period, as well, the visitors made a better showing on offense, as Chavez stuck another "three" and Hall made two of them later in the quarter. For GA, DiLello and junior Jessica Moore had joined in on the scoring, while Vizza popped in a pair of three-pointers during the first five minutes. The second one, going in with 3:24 left in the first half, got her to within three points of the 1000-point mark.

DeMichele started to find the hoop for Springside, which trailed 38-16 six minutes into the second quarter. GA came up the court and Haynes got the ball to Vizza, who fired from the top of the key. With 1:47 to go until halftime, the crowd was ready to let loose for Vizza, but she had a foot on the three-point line and her shot had actually raised her total to 999 points.

It was another pass from Haynes that helped Vizza get past the barrier with 1:14 on the clock. This time, she was a few feet outside the arc on the right side, and the trey gave her 1002 career points. After a stoppage to celebrate the achievement, GA went on to a 45-21 halftime lead.

After this, the Patriots no longer needed their starters to aggressively attack the basket at every turn, and reserve players saw more and more time on the court. The gap between the teams would only grow by another eight points over the last two quarters. The GA seniors were subbed back in near the end, then brought off the court one-by-one to the applause of the home crowd.

Supplementing the output of the top three scorers for the winners were eight points from junior Becca Booth, five from Priore, three points each from Burns and freshman Kendall Bennett, two apiece from Moore and Oeth, and one from sophomore Bri O'Hara.

Springside Chestnut Hill received six points each from Chavez and Chiliberti, and one point apiece from sophomore Layla Sawyer and freshman Julia Thomson.

UPDATE: In the Pa. Independent Schools tournament that began late last week, Germantown Academy was seeded first and received a bye in the opening round. Episcopal Academy defeated Hill School, 59-50, in first round play and advanced to a quarterfinal game against GA last Saturday.

Here, the Patriots rendered a 61-42 decision against Episcopal, which placed fifth within the Inter-Ac League and was seeded eighth in the PAIS tournament.

Moore began the proceedings with a three-pointer and Booth and Priore worked the paint for GA, but the Churchwomen put in a pair of treys and were still in a decent position at the end of the first quarter, trailing 16-11. Another "three" for the visitors got the lead down to two points as the second period dawned, but a 13-point outburst from Haynes helped the hosts outscore EA 23-6 for the remainder of the quarter.

Unfortunately, with just under two minutes left in the half, GA's Priore collided with an Episcopal player and dropped to the floor, obviously injured. The athletic 5'11" senior, the assist leader for the Patriots' successful volleyball team last fall, lost her junior year in athletics due to a torn ACL. Last Saturday, everyone was hoping that she did not seriously reinjure her knee.

The second half of the game, like the first, started with a three-point field goal by Moore. At the end, back-to-back lay-ups by Bennett sent the Patriots into the fourth frame with a 54-28 advantage.

The GA lead peaked at 28 points when DiLello scored off a steal at the start of the fourth quarter. Episcopal rallied for seven straight points and would outscore Germantown 14-7 for the period as a whole, competing against the players from the end of the Patriots' bench during the final two minutes.

Haynes led the winners with 20 points and Booth had a double/double in points and rebounds, with 10 each. Sophomore Riley Cassidy powered the EA Churchwomen with 12 points.

Springside Chestnut Hill did not enter the PAIS tournament and ended its season on Wednesday with a 59-19 loss to Notre Dame in Villanova. Another Main Line ball club, Baldwin School, upset Friends Central, 55-41, in an opening-round PAIS game and advanced to meet second-seeded Penn Charter on Saturday. PC dispatched the Bears, 70-28, receiving 13 points from senior Carmen Williams and 11 apiece from senior Kait Carter and freshman Kelsey Bess.

PAIS semifinal games will be played this Friday at Friends Central School, with GA facing fifth-seeded Abington Friends at 6:00 PM and PC taking on number three Notre Dame at 8:00 PM. The finals will take place at 5:15 PM on Saturday at Montgomery County Community College.

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