Jumping out to a 21-7 lead in the first quarter last Friday afternoon, the girls of Springside Chestnut Hill Academy defeated visiting Agnes Irwin, 54-33, to record a home/away sweep of the Owls.

The Blue Devils, who won a much lower-scoring game (28-15) at Irwin back in the middle of December, improved to 3-7 overall and 2-4 within the Inter-Ac League. As usual, SCH received a strong performance from eighth-grade guard Mikaiya Durham, who posted a game-high 22 points and had three steals.

Durham, a starter from the get-go for the Devils, had scored a game-high 14 points in a loss to powerful Academy of Notre Dame exactly a week earlier.

Last week, Notre Dame was involved in a shake-up atop the Inter-Ac standings. The Irish had tied Penn Charter last season for first place in the league, and the two teams met for the first time this season in a contest at Penn Charter last Wednesday. The host Quakers went up 20-12 in the first quarter and pulled away to win, 59-45, as juniors Aleah Snead and Bella Toomey each deposited 16 points.

PC defeated 2020 league champ Germantown Academy by a score of 58-48 when GA visited on December 14, but in the rematch in Fort Washington last Friday there was a different outcome. Behind a game-high 26-point outburst from freshman guard Gabby Bowes (five three-pointers), the host Patriots (3-2 Inter-Ac) turned back the Quakers, 60-54. At week's end Charter was 5-1 within the Inter-Ac, while Notre Dame (which defeated GA 45-41 on January 11) had a league mark of 4-1.

Last Friday at Springside Chestnut Hill, junior transfer (from John W. Hallahan) Faith Scally hit two lay-ups and a three-pointer to get the Blue Devils off to a 7-2 start. Durham got doing with a driving lay-up and later deposited one free throw and three three-point field goals for a dozen points in the first quarter alone.

Taking a 21-7 advantage into the second period, the Blue Devils' lead grew to 17 points by halftime (32-15) as junior guard Ava Chazez hit a three-pointer, a 15-foot bank shot, and a free throw. Some sloppy play by SCH had allowed the Owls to score six straight points at the start of the second round, but the rest of the way it was 11-2 for the Devils.

Junior guard Tatyana Hall subbed into the game in the second quarter and netted a trey from the right wing, and she capped the game's scoring at the end of the fourth quarter, cashing in on a breakaway off a pass from senior Maya McDermott.

There were no signs of a second-half comeback by the Owls, who'd slipped behind by more than 20 points by the end of the third period (45-24). Scally finished with 15 points for the winners, and Chavez had seven. Isabella Carlino paced the Irwin Owls with 15 points.