City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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UPPER GWYNEDD — Her name is Hannah Griffin, and it's a good time to get to know it.

The last two years, she's been "Kaylie's sister," or "the other Griffin," or "Cindy's younger daughter," or something along those lines. Now a junior and now the only Griffin on Gwynedd Mercy Academy's roster, Hannah is making her name for herself running the show for the undefeated Monarchs this winter and doing it her own way.

She's not her sister and she's not her mom, but as her 20 points and five assists in Tuesday's 53-37 win over archrival Mount Saint Joseph Academy showed, Hannah Griffin is a name to remember.

"It was always like 'Kaylie's sister,' and more 'Kaylie's sister,' so I'm definitely trying to establish myself as Hannah," Griffin said. "I'm not just Kaylie Griffin's little sister or Cindy Griffin's daughter, I'm Hannah Griffin."

Monarchs coach Tom Lonergan, who has coached all three of the Griffins, said he's very proud of the way Hannah has come into her own this season by playing to her strengths and not trying to mirror her older sister, who has joined mom on Hawk Hill as a member of the St. Joe's women's program Cindy is the head coach of. Kaylie Griffin left Gwynedd Mercy Academy as one of the most decorated players in the program's history with four District 1 titles, an all-state selection as a senior and membership in a very small, select group of 1,000-point scorers at the school.

While Hannah and Kaylie haven't always been on the same team and were even part of different AAU programs, their two years at GMA were definitely special, so it's been an adjustment for HKG not having KMG, as their mom is fond of calling them on Twitter, on the floor with her.

"It's very weird," Hannah said. "She's my best friend and it's hard to fill that void with just one person, so as a team we've really had to do that because she was averaging in the 20s every game so we've had to come together as a team to fill those points collectively."

Both the sisters play point guard albeit with very different styles. Kaylie was more of a scoring-minded player and a proficient outside shooter while Hannah is more of a distributor but has shown to be plenty capable of scoring when needed.

Hannah, who plays for the Philly Belles U16 national roster, has tried to look for her shot a little more this fall and even had a stretch on Tuesday where she scored 11 straight points for the Monarchs, but her aim is still primarily to control the game. Lonergan could compare the sisters, but he can also break out the deep cut of comparing mother and daughter too, having coached then-Cindy Anderson when he was at Bishop McDevitt.

"Hannah is a point guard, but she made a tremendous adjustment her first two years sliding to the ‘2’ spot and also backing up her sister, who is also a tremendous point guard," Lonergan said. "Hannah and her sister are different point guards; Kaylie is clearly more of an offensive player but Kaylie knows when she has to turn it on. She may not be as consistent offensively but she'll have 18, 16, 14 then games where she knows she doesn't have to get points, she'll have two or four and plenty of assists.

"She reminds me more of when her mom played, her mom was like that more of a 10-12 point scorer but who would come through with the big numbers in big games."

Mom isn't the only coach in the family either. Hannah's dad Curtis is an assistant for the Monarchs this season, so there's still at least one family tie within the team now that Kaylie is in college.

"Cindy and Curtis did such a great job of teaching them and letting them grow as individuals," Lonergan said. "Hannah plays for a tremendous AAU program and she can just run the point and here, we have such a nice group around her and seeing her come along, it really started in the offseason and she just came in with a lot of confidence and she knew it was hers and it was hers for two years."

On the flip side, Hannah lauded the strategic side of the game she's learned playing for Lonergan and the myriad of ways he's helped her to read a given game or figure what her teammates aren't seeing and communicate it to them so everyone is on the same page.

Having the last name Griffin and stepping on a basketball court in this area does have a certain aura to it and while Hannah acknowledges it, she's not under any pressure to go do anything other than give her team exactly what it needs of her. Tuesday for example, that meant scoring early then playing set-up when senior Sofia Coleman caught fire from outside in the third quarter.

Hannah has her own rituals, which include listening to sad music which she joked includes a lot of break-up albums and tracks from Adele, Taylor Swift and Billie Eilish and not going into any game with specific individual expectations.

"If you go into a game with those kinds of expectations, I feel like you're only going to focus on that and it affects how you play," Griffin said. "I'm only going out with no other expectation than to enjoy playing basketball."

In the annals of history, there are locations that evoke images of the fierce battles waged there such as Thermopylae, Gettysburg, Waterloo, the Marne, Bastogne and the basketball court in the Griffin's backyard in Conshohocken. That half-court, adorned with a St. Joe's logo, has seen a lot of one-on-one games between Kaylie and Hannah over the years, all of them competitive, many of them so heated an outside observer could have wondered how the two were even related.

"A lot of fights have happened back there," Hannah said. "It's very heated. My parents sometimes just let it go so we have to sort out our own stuff on the court so if it gets physical, it gets physical but it only makes you tougher. Sometimes, I'll win and I will make the biggest deal about it just because I beat her."

Those duels, which many times were used to settle an argument, also helped hone one skill Hannah will take credit for having the advantage over her sister in.

"She's probably not going to like me saying this, but defensively, I feel like I'm a better player," Hannah said. "We've been over this, a ton of times, but I've had to play against her all my life so it made me a better defender. She's an amazing scorer and I know sometimes I can't do it like that, so I know my role and sometimes it's scoring and sometimes it's assisting."

Speed is critical for Hannah plays. As the point guard, it's up to her to control the speed of the game, read the defense and decide when to attack, push in transition or slow up and run a play. Tuesday, she picked up her second foul midway through the second quarter and ended up sitting the rest of the half, which no coincidence saw Mount go on a 7-0 run to close the quarter.

It's also a catalyst to her offense. Hannah, who has a tremendous burst off her first step, got most of her points on drives that yielded a layup or a trip to the free throw line and that driving ability led to her two buzzer-beating game winners this season against Bishop Shanahan and Lansdale Catholic.

"Honestly, I don't like overtime games," Griffin said. "Both times, I knew I had enough time to get the ball down the court, it was like nine or 10 seconds each time, so I can either get a shot or get fouled. It's something where I want to step up and do it not just for myself, but my team as well."

One thing Kaylie did not do in her tenure with Gwynedd Mercy Academy was win an AACA tournament title. It's the current No. 1 goal for the Monarchs and Hannah  said it's a testament to the team's "we, not me" approach that it currently sits undefeated in the league with a big test coming Thursday against Villa Maria Academy.

Sofia Coleman had the hot hand Tuesday with 21 points while her twin sister Bianca Coleman has come up big several times and the third senior starter Maddie Newell gives a jolt of toughness to the Monarchs. Whoever has it going on a given day, Griffin's made it her job to make sure they're the ones getting the ball.

Griffin hasn't had much in the way of college offers or contact yet, but she's not worrying about it either.

"I'm definitely looking to play, I'm just getting my name out there right now," she said.

By the way, that name is Hannah Griffin. It's a good time to get to know it.