City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) & 
Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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ATLANTIC CITY — The 2023 grassroots season has come to an end, the girls’ edition of the Hoop Group Showcase League closing out its action with this weekend’s championships at the AC Convention Center. The four-day event went from Friday through Monday, starting with showcase games and pool play and then moving into bracket play as the tournament progressed.

Here’s a notebook full of coverage of some of Monday’s championship games featuring Philly-area programs:

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More HGSL Championship Coverage: Day 1 Standouts | Day 2 + 3 Standouts, Pt. 1 | Day 2 + 3 Standouts, Pt. 2 | Recruiting Notebook Pt. 1 |

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Lady Runnin’ Rebels capture 17U HGSL title

The biggest prize in Atlantic City this weekend came down to an all-Philly final.

The Lady Runnin’ Rebels and Mid-Atlantic Magic’s top teams each featured 10 girls from all around the Philadelphia area, hitting every county in District 1, a couple in South Jersey, and a few from in the city itself. There was no shortage of familiarity between the two programs, including Pennsbury’s Sofia Vitucci (Rebels) and Dani Sherman (Magic), the only high school teammates going head-to-head. 

“I think it makes it more meaningful, I’d say, to play against a team that you know, you want to beat, you know you want those bragging rights over and say you beat them,” said the Rebels’ Lizzie Halligan, a rising senior at Notre Dame. “It’s exciting, they’re all local girls that we see and have grown up playing against, and to end our season like this … it’s great.”

(Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The Rebels were the ones celebrating at the end of a 48-42 victory, capping off a strong weekend at the AC Convention Center and ending their grassroots careers with a win. There was an on-court celebration, and about 15 off-the-court ones: adding their plaque to the bracket, receiving the trophy, a few coaches’ talks, and just about any other time anybody mentioned the game.

“It’s incredible,” Halligan said. “I don’t think I’ve ever ended an AAU season on a win, ended any season on a win so far in my high school career.”

Halligan scored six points, grabbed four rebounds and collected three steals in a championship game that saw the Rebels hold a single-digit lead much of the way, nine of the 10 girls on the roster entering the scoring column. 

They survived strong games from the Magic’s pair of Neshaminy rising seniors, Reese Zemitis (13 points) and Lola Ibarrondo (10 points, three assists), who kept the outcome in doubt until the final couple minutes.

The Rebels’ leading scorer was the team’s only non-rising senior, Germantown Academy wing Gabby Bowes, who knocked in a couple 3-pointers and a couple and-ones (including a crazy over-the-head left-handed layup) for 11 points, adding three rebounds. Even though she’ll have a chance to make it a repeat next year, joining a 16U group that finished as HGSL runner-ups, it was a special moment for her to help send her seniors off in style.

Those seniors: Halligan, Vitucci, Isabella Casey (GA), Julianna DiFebbo (Gloucester Catholic), Whitney Evans (West Chester Henderson), Marisa Francione (Conestoga), Camryn Gardner (Red Bank Regional),  Taylor Koenig (Governor Mifflin) and Caleigh Sperling (North Penn). Halligan, Koenig, Sperling and Casey have all been together the last three summers; the team reached its current iteration last summer. 

“It means a lot,” Bowes said. “These girls are my big sisters and I look up to every single one of them. I couldn’t imagine being on a team with any better girls.” — Josh Verlin

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(Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

16U HGSL: Albany Capitals 50, Lady Runnin’ Rebels 44 (OT)

Kayleigh Ahern’s final shot of the grassroots season was one she will remember for a while.

After receiving a pass from a sprawled out Alivia Landy, Ahern canned a triple from the right wing to finish off an overtime win over the Lady Runnin’ Rebels and give her team the HGSL 16U championship.

“It was amazing,” said Ahern, a 5-foot-8 guard from Averill Park (N.Y.). “I did it for my team. I love my team. We had a great season.”

Carolina Williams scored 14 points for the Capitals in the win, which was matched by the Rebels’ Grace McDonough (Souderton), who tied the game with a bucket in the final seconds of regulation. 

It was a bit of a grind at times for the Capitals throughout the weekend on the offensive end in bracket play, but they found ways to get extra possessions and make timely scores. Landy diving for a loose rebound before recording the winning assist from the floor was a play that summarized what it took for the Capitals throughout the weekend.

“We’ve been kind of offensively in a drought for a little bit, but we gotta pick it up with our defense and we just worked as a team and we did it together for this last game,” Ahern said.

The message heading into the OT period?

“Effort, energy and body language,” Ahern said. “Bring our best effort and we’re going to win this.”

The Capitals took down Lone Wolf, Elevate Elite-Richmond and the NJ Shoreshots on their way to the title game before taking down the Rebels for the HGSL championship. A good chunk of the group came together last summer and flourished this grassroots season, winning a pair of tournament championships.

“Hard working great people,” Ahern said of what stood out about her team this summer. “Great teammates. I love them all. They work so hard and they deserve this.” — Owen McCue

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(Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

15U HGSL: NJ Shoreshots 53, NEPA Elite 22

Katie Liggio said she was having a tough shooting weekend prior to Monday’s Hoop Group Summer League championship.

It turns out she was saving them all for the end.

Liggio drilled five first-half threes as part of a 17-point outing in a dominant title game performance for the Shoreshots.

“It felt really good because I feel like this whole weekend I’ve been off kind off,” Liggio said. “I feel like coming out here with more confidence that I didn’t have this whole weekend was very good for me.”

Monday’s dominant victory was one of four during the Shoreshots’ run to a championship  in Atlantic City. After dropping two tight contests against 16U squads in their showcase games, the Shoreshots came out on Saturday with a 58-31 win over Lady Rivals. 

They followed with a 51-23 win over the Mid-Atlantic Magic and 61-39 win over the LI Lightning on Sunday and capped the dominant tournament run against a strong NEPA squad.

“Sometimes we come out and we’re really hype and we want to win, so I feel like we just keep going after that,” Liggio said.

Liggio’s Red Bank Catholic (N.J.) teammate Addison Nyemchek added nine points, six assists, four steals and three blocks in the title game. Fellow Red Bank players Sophie Smith (eight points) and Tessa Liggio (seven points) were two of the other standouts in a well-rounded effort.

After playing big roles during Red Bank’s 26-3 campaign last season as freshmen, the group picked up three tournament titles this summer, capped by Monday’s championship. 

“I think we keep it rolling from high school because we all really play well together, so I think from high school to AAU it translates well because we all have really good chemistry together,” Katie said.

That chemistry spread throughout the rest of the squad as well.

“We all work really hard and we all know each other and we all share the ball really well,” she added. — Owen McCue

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(Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

16U Platinum: Comets Select 44, Elevate Elite NYC 22

The Comets Select group peaked at just the right time.

After picking up a championship at The Tournament of Champions earlier this month with a 6-1 record in Chicago, the group rallied for six more wins in Atlantic City. The last one came on Monday afternoon, giving the team the 16U Platinum title and a 12-1 record in their final 13 games of the summer.

“It was a lot of fun,” said Abigail Grillo (Padua, Del.), who scored a team-high 13 points in the win. “I think everyone brought a lot of energy and just being able to play with these girls was so fun. We have a lot of new people on this team, so we built relationships over the course of the season. … I think we got a lot better as we went on.”

Abby Arnold (Methacton) and Brigid MacGillivray (Cardinal O’Hara) both chipped in eight apiece in the victory. Brooke Olender (Archbishop Carroll), Caitlin Grant (Archbishop Carroll), Abby Ferry (Villa Maria), Annalise Kubasko (West Chester East), Catie Kelly (Notre Dame), Keara McCaffery (Sacred Heart) and Giavanna Rogers (Bishop Eustace, N.J.) make up the rest of Bill Coleman’s roster.

“I think just our effort,” Grillo said of what was the difference Monday. “Our coaches kept telling us, bring the effort. I know it’s been a long season, a long weekend, but we kept our energy up.”

Grillo put together a terrific individual weekend, shining multiple times in front of the CoBL staff. She led a second-half comeback over the LI Lightning in the team’s opener on Friday.

“I think I’ve worked on getting stronger and getting to the rim more because I’m usually like an outside shooter, so this tournament I really worked on getting to the rim and handling the ball a little more.” — Owen McCue

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(Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

15U Platinum: NJ Gemz EYBL 53, Comets 8th GUAA 35

After winning the Nike EYBL 15U title earlier this month in Chicago, the Gemz didn’t have anything else to prove.

In their final tournament together of the summer, however, they continued to show just how special of a group they are.

A 6-0 weekend included wins by 31, 26, 21, 33 and finally a 20-point win over a fellow EYBL program and an 18-point win over a really good, albeit young (14U),  Comets team to claim the Platinum title — the team’s fourth of the summer (Dallas, Sportika, Chicago, Atlantic City).

“It definitely feels good,” Ava LaMonica said. “As our last tournament, we wanted to close out with a win and definitely bring home the trophy. Nike Nationals was a crazy experience and it definitely was amazing.”

LaMonica, a 5-foot-9 point guard from Rutgers Prep,  scored 16 points and added four steals to lead her team in the win. Stella Lockhart (Saint John Vianney) added 11 points and Lexi Carnegie (Teaneck) and Taylor Sofilkanich (John Vianney) both chipped in eight points apiece.

LaMonica said about four or five of the Gemz played together last season but the team really came together and built chemistry right away this spring and summer, which resulted in a pretty special grassroots season.

“It’s a really special group and we hope to stick together for next year and try to win a lot again,” said LaMonica, who picked up an offer from Providence on July 18. — Owen McCue

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Quick Hits

— A second-place finish isn’t what they were aiming for, but it was a positive result no matter what for Total Skills’ 15s, who were playing in their first tournament together. The program of Central Bucks area talent had two different 15U teams playing at small tournaments but decided to pool its best players together to make one team to come to Atlantic City. Playing in the 15U gold bracket, they went 4-1 in pool play, good enough to qualify for the semifinals, where they avenged an earlier loss to the DMV Lady Tigers in a 41-20 semifinal win before falling 54-51 to the Virginia Thunder in the title game Monday afternoon.

“We had maybe five total practices, only one with a full team, just with everyone (having) different sports and stuff going on,” said head coach and program director Jeremy Beckett, a former D-III All-American at Delaware Valley. “This was almost practice for us; they gelled as we went on, which was great. You can see the lack of chemistry that we had in the beginning, because every game we had a little bit of a slow start, but it kept getting better.”

The only girl on the roster with varsity starting experience was CB South’s Julianna Tropea (5-1), whose sister Gabriella Tropea (5-11) is also on the squad. They’re also joined by an incoming CB East freshman, 5-3 point guard Haley Moran, who didn’t look at all fazed playing up a year as she knocked down a few shots in the second half of the title game. 

“It’s a fun group, fun group. They play hard, they’re relentless on defense. One of the things I told them I was proud of what they committed to doing this weekend, it’s not easy to step into a Hoop Group tournament and have the success that we had.” — Josh Verlin

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— One final Philly celebration of the day took place in the 17U bracket, as the Upper Makefield Heat Hoops’ oldest group closed out a 6-0 weekend with a 50-28 win over Team Elevation 17U Select in the final set of the day. That they cruised in the championship was fitting for a weekend where the group of girls from Bucks County dominated; they won four of those games by more than 20 points, though they also had a one-point victory over MSU Diamonds in pool play. 

“It was a great weekend for our girls,” coach Lisa (Jakubowicz) Boyle said. “We saw some pretty good competition yesterday and today, and they fought through it, they ran through the things that they were taught and they were successful. So yeah, it’s been exciting.”

Boyle, who played at Temple, helped guide a squad that mostly hails from the Suburban One League (Pennsbury, Hatboro, Bensalem, CR South and North are all represented) plus one each from Wood and Germantown Academy, a roster that goes 13 deep. A big hug was shared after the trophy presentation, and more than a few tears were shed from a group that’s had four of its members there for eight years, and a few others there for quite a few seasons.

“We picked up a couple along the way, a couple of new girls this past year,” Boyle said, “but they just all click so well and they all really genuinely love each other and I think when you have that on a team, everything else comes easier.”