City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
––

SPRINGFIELD — Sydni Scott’s Twitter handle doesn’t leave any room for interpretation. When you go by “Syd Buckets,” you’re making a statement. 

The Cardinal O’Hara senior guard, born and raised in Delco has played with an eye on the rim since her father Christopher Scott had her playing with his boys program in Yeadon. 

“My friend Sanaa [Redmond], she goes to Samford, her mom called me ‘Syd Buckets,’ so I dragged that out to this day,” Scott said. “I’m going to get buckets this whole season, keep getting buckets — buckets for my team, just play for everybody. I play for myself, but I mostly play for my coaches that helped me work until this point, that helped me commit, I just play for everybody I love.”

“I watched her CYO journey, and she was a scorer,” O’Hara coach Chrissie Doogan said, “but she was a tremendous passer — to a point where we’re like Syd, if you’re open, shoot.

“She’s just a tremendous shooter,” Doogan added. “She puts so much time in off the court, after practice, going to other gyms to shoot, she’s just a gym rat. I’m really happy to see the hard work paying off.”

Those lessons stuck with the 5-foot-7 guard throughout her early years, and have led her to become a key part of one of the area’s top programs during her four years in a Lions uniform. The Marshall University commit already hit one big milestone this season, scoring her 1,000th point earlier this month, but she’s got bigger goals in mind, starting with a Philadelphia Catholic League championship.

Scott and the Lions took another step towards securing a top spot in the league’s playoffs, playing one of their best halves of the country and then holding off Archbishop Wood for a 61-54 win at O’Hara on Tuesday night.

It was a rematch of the 2021 PCL championship, a 56-48 Wood win, but both Scott and Chrissie Doogan said they didn’t discuss that game in the preparations for this one.

“We didn’t even bring it up, actually,” Scott said. “We just thought about the next game. We don’t really think about our past, we just keep competing in practice, [bringing] energy during practice, so I just feel like we brought all that energy and competitiveness to this game.”

Scott finished with 15 points, three rebounds and four assists in the win, coming up with key buckets early in a big push and late when needed, with plenty of other important plays in between.

That’s been her style of play since she was younger, coming up while playing with various grassroots programs, including the Comets and Belles. She settled with Books & Basketball Academy (BBA) on the Girls Under Armour Association (GUAA) circuit this past summer, where she caught the attention of a number of programs from the Ohio Valley, including Conference-USA members Marshall and Western Kentucky, as well as OVC school Austin Peay.

“College coaches started calling, texting, wanting to see me, and all this stuff,” Scott said. “When I was out on visits, I was like wow, Marshall’s a good school, I fit in [...] who’d have thought I’d go to West Virginia, but I love Marshall.”

In August, she committed to go play for the Thundering Herd, who are currently 11-5 overall and 6-1 in C-USA play under fifth-year head coach Tony Kemper, who’s been at the school 10 years as both an assistant and now head coach.

She then was able to turn her attention to becoming the latest member of the O’Hara 1,000-point club, which she accomplished earlier this month, joining a group that includes her current coach, as well as Drexel star Hannah Nihill, Villanova’s Kenzie Gardler, Kennesaw State’s Amaris Baker and more. For Scott, a starter at O’Hara since freshman year, it was a milestone years in the making.

“(Doogan) was like ‘I can see you scoring 1,000 when you come to O’Hara,’” Scott said. “When I got the 1,000 [...] I was crying, it was such a great milestone.”

With that out of the way, Scott’s been able to focus on her true goals: her first Catholic League championship, and a defense of last year’s PIAA Class 5A state championship.

Tuesday’s win was a true team effort for O’Hara, whose starting five were responsible for every point, rebound, assist, steal and block in the victory.

Maggie Doogan, the Richmond commit and head coach’s daughter, finished with 19 points, five assists, two rebounds and two blocks. Freshman Molly Rullo scored 15 points with four rebounds, three assists and a block of her own. Senior Anne Welde added 10 points, six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block, and junior Bridget Dawson contributed five rebounds, three assists, a steal, a block, and two late free-throws.

As a team, O’Hara (12-3, 5-0) had 17 assists on 22 buckets, shooting 22-of-33 on the evening, the vast majority of their shots either open 3-pointers or clean looks at the rim. 

“We all were sharing the ball,” Scott said. “My friend Annie made the first shot, the 3, I was like yeah we have energy — the crowd was hype, we were hype, the coaches were hype, the bench was hype, everybody was hype for us.”

O’Hara was just about clinical in the first half, shooting 14-of-20 from the floor and holding Wood to 4-of-18 shooting as the Lions opened up an 18-7 advantage after one quarter and led 35-13 at the break. Scott and Chrissie Doogan agreed it was the best 16 minutes O’Hara’s girls had played yet this season.

“I would think so,” Doogan said. “Holding a team like that to 13 points in a half says something about our defense. I think (Wood) got a little…not confused, because they run their stuff so well, but (we) were just able to get [them] out of sync a little bit.”

The Vikings (11-6, 3-2) made it interesting in the second half, riding Vanderbilt commit Ryanne Allen to get within a dozen points early in the fourth quarter and it looked like Wood might make one more run to get right back into the mix. Allen scored 25 of her 27 after intermission, while Delaware commit Bri Bowen added eight of her 10 in the fourth quarter alone.

Scott helped O’Hara keep Wood at arm’s length, scoring her final bucket with 4:30 remaining on a strong left-handed drive. She also had a full-court pass to Rullo a couple minutes later for her final assist, another bucket that made sure the Vikings wouldn’t upset the several hundred Lions fans in attendance.

“Syd has sacrificed some points in the last two years to get us some better shots,” Chrissie Doogan said. “We talk about giving up a good shot for a great shot, and Syd’s a really good passer, too; she just makes her team better.”

The win keeps O’Hara even with Archbishop Carroll at the top of the PCL standings, but there’s still a lot of work to do for the Lions before the postseason rolls around. The Lions visit the Patriots next Tuesday, followed two days later by a visit from Lansdale Catholic, with a trip to Neumann-Goretti on Feb. 8. 

None of them have lost a league game yet.

“It’s still January, we’re playing for March and we’re just trying to get better every day,” Chrissie Doogan said. “Our schedule in the next two weeks is brutal [...] it doesn’t get easier, it’s just trying to get better every night.”

By Quarter
O’Hara:  18  |  17  |  11  |  15  ||  61
Wood:     7   |   6   |  15  |  26  ||  54

Shooting
O’Hara: 22-33 FG (4-10 3PT), 13-20 FT
Wood: 18-42 FG (7-18 3PT), 11-13 FT

Scoring
O’Hara: Maggie Doogan 19, Sydni Scott 15, Molly Rullo 15, Anne Welde 10, Bridget Dawson 2

Wood: Ryanne Allen 27, Bri Bowen 10, Deja Evans 6, Shannon Morgan 3, Ava Renninger 3, Kara Meredith 3, Emily Knouse 2