City of Basketball Love

Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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There are certain players who, as soon as they step on the court, every opponent's eyes are glued to. Whenever they touch the ball, it’s all hands on deck and making sure the ball doesn’t find that player again. Sometimes, as that player, you just pick your moments and find the right times to make your move. 

Ava Sciolla is one of those players. The Maryland commit knows that she’s going to grab the attention of three, four and sometimes even all five defenders, so it’s important she plays smart. That’s just what she did in Pennbury’s 48-34 win over Souderton in the Suburban One girls semifinals. 

“That was Alpha Ava tonight,” Pennsbury head coach Frank Sciolla, Ava’s father, said. 

Typically, a 1,000 point scorer isn’t labeled ‘unselfish,’ but that’s normally the first thing that comes to mind when describing Ava Sciolla. On Monday, that wasn’t the case, with Sciolla being in attack mode against Souderton in the first half. The point guard only scored eight points on the night, but her aggressiveness drove her team forward.

Sciolla didn’t shy away from contact from the collapsing defense, and even got banged up in the first half, tweaking a knee injury that’s been nagging her. But that wasn’t going to keep her out. 

“She took some shots,” Frank Sciolla said. “The one we knew [she tweaked her knee], and she came up and didn’t want to come out. At halftime, she said she wanted to play a little bit longer.”

In the second half, the younger Sciolla was used mostly as a decoy to get her teammates open looks. On two straight possessions, Sciolla got the ball and whipped passes around the corner for wide open 3s for her teammates.

“Just her out on the floor even when she’s not shooting, she’s creating shots,” Frank Sciola said

“That’s pretty much the biggest part of my game, is finding my teammates,” Ava Sciolla said. “When I see them building confidence, it gives me the boost I need to work a little harder and go a little harder to get them an open shot, and when we’re knocking down shots, it's ball game.”

Her poise was key to Pennsbury’s success on Monday night, but the trust she had in her teammates also helped build a big lead. Souderton’s focus on Sciolla opened up looks for Neveah Dash, Nicole Pompili, and Layla Matthias, all of whom knocked down big 3s for the Falcons. 

Dash had three triples to give her nine points on the night. Sofia Vitucci led Pennsbury with 13, including seven free throws in the fourth quarter to put the game away. 

After losing to Souderton earlier in the season, 40-34, in a game where they struggled with shooting, the Falcons knew they had to come out ready right from the jump. 

“Game readiness is something we stress all the time,” Sciolla said. “We were kind of late getting here, so we were off the bus and on the court in like four minutes. Everyone knew there was no down time. We were ready to go right away.

“Our game plan coming into tonight, we were going to play our game, we’re going to establish our tempo, which we weren’t allowed to do last time and then, once we got going, you can’t stop our team if we can establish our tempo and knock down shots the way my teammates were tonight.” 

Souderton scored the last five points of the first quarter, trailing 9-8 heading into the second, but from there, it was all Pennsbury. The Falcons built a nine-point lead heading into halftime, slowed the game down and spread out the defense to get good looks and avoid turning the ball over. 

Souderton had trouble scoring against Pennsbury’s 1-3-1 zone, which the Falcons didn’t use the first time the teams faced off this season. But on Monday night, Pennsbury disrupted Souderton’s offense and slowed them down, keeping them off the offensive glass, which had hurt the Falcons in the first game.

Souderton’s Mikayala McGillan had 14 to lead all scorers and Casey Harver had 10, but a lot of those points came when the game was already out of reach.

Pennsbury will face off against undefeated Plymouth Whitemarsh (24-0) in the Suburban One championship game on Tuesday.

“Every year we have a slogan and this year it’s ‘The future is now,’” Sciolla said, “We’ve been waiting for this group of girls that’s come up. Nicole and I, who are seniors, have had time to mature and grow into the players that we need to be. I think that if any team from Pennsbury girls basketball the last several years can go all the way, I think it’s this team” 

After losing at the Liacouras Center in the district semifinal against CB West her sophomore season and against CB East in the second round last year, Sciolla doesn’t want that to happen again. She knows it’s win or go home once districts start.

“I think the disappointment of last year was crushing the way our season ended.," Sciolla said. "I know that basically from here on out that any game can be my last game as a Falcon and I’m not going to let that happen any time soon.”

By Quarter

Pennsbury:  9 I 12 I 12 I 15 II 48
Souderton:  8 I   4  I  9  I 13 II 34

Scoring 

Pennsbury: Vitucci 13, Pompili 11, Dash 9, Sciolla 8, Matthias 4, McDonald 3
Souderton: Harver 14, McConnaha 10, Bohmueller 3, Fenchel 3, McGillan 2, McDonough 2