skip navigation

PIAA Class 5A: Marple Newtown girls win first-ever state tournament game

03/09/2022, 10:00pm EST
By Rob Rose

Rob Rose (@RobRoseSports)
––

It took years for the Marple Newtown girls to finally earn a spot in the PIAA state playoffs, but they wasted no time getting a win once they made the tournament.

Marple Newtown’s starting lineup sat on the bench as they watched the final seconds fall from the scoreboard, but barely celebrated despite making program history with a 48-27 win over the District 12 top seed St. Hubert in Wednesday night’s PIAA Class 5A first round matchup.

Nikki Mostardi stands in a gym

Nikki Mostardi (above) was one of three Tigers to score double digits in the team's first-ever state tournament win. (Photo: Rob Rose/CoBL)

The Tigers treated this major milestone like any other victory, in hopes that they’ll continue to have the same success they’ve had all season.

“We'll probably have a bigger celebration on the bus when we get back, but we're usually pretty calm like just right after our games,” guard Nikki Mostardi said. ”I mean, it was a huge win for us; our first state win in school history, so we're definitely really proud of that. It feels amazing. It's definitely a huge confidence boost for us and I know that it’s to help us going into our next game, practice tomorrow and everything. It's really exciting for us.”

If the Tigers had any nerves headed into their first PIAA playoff game, they were impossible to detect. Marple Newtown jumped out to an 11-0 lead early and didn’t allow a point until the final seconds of the first quarter.

St. Hubert tried to battle back, but the deficit was too daunting to recover from. Marple Newtown’s lead never dropped under double digits, despite several solid shots by St. Hubert.

Mostardi didn’t start her scoring until the second quarter, but said that some easy baskets early really helped her team get comfortable in the biggest game they ever entered.

“I think it's huge for us to always get a lead off the start so we just kind of get our legs under us and get comfortable playing with each other,” Mostardi said. “That's what we did tonight and we never let up from there, so I think that was just what we needed from the start.”

Haley Levy led the Tigers with 13 points, while Mary O’Brien had 12 and Mostardi added 11. Brooke Impriano scored eight points, and her ability to block shots shut down any attempts by St. Hubert to bounce back from a slow start.

Marple Newtown hit five 3-pointers and set up easy layups with solid ball movement, which Mostardi said followed the game plan head coach Ryan Wolski gave the Tigers pregame.

“Honestly, I think that was a perfect game for us,” Mostardi said. “We did great on offense and defense and we wanted to start on defense. We know if we play defense the way we know we can, then it will translate into our offense which is what we did tonight.”

St. Hubert senior Gianna Grassifulli was the lone player on her team to reach double digits scoring with 11 points.

Wolski admitted he wasn’t exactly heartbroken when he heard that Cardinal O’Hara had been dropped from the 5-A top seed and was no longer Marple Newtown’s first opponent. The Tigers’ head coach didn’t want to discredit what St. Hubert did this season, but with the proximity of the schools and Cardinal O’Hara’s NCAA Division I players, Wolski knows their skills well and it’s unlikely his team could have left the gym with a 21-point win.

Marple Newtown’s next opponent is another squad it is plenty familiar with. Springfield and Marple Newtown met three times this season with the Cougars taking the first two games before the Tigers got revenge and won their Central League semifinal showdown in overtime.

The total point differential between the teams in the three games was 12 points, so it’s likely their fourth and final battle will be close as well.

If Marple Newtown can continue to make history and beat Springfield a second time after losing to the school every game since 2015, Wolski will be happy but spectators won’t see the Tigers pounce on their teammates postgame.

“We're not in the whole run around, jumping in and yelling and stuff like that. We shake hands and go back because we got to look forward to the next game. We've been on the other end of teams jumping around on us and we don't like the feeling, so we try to just win and shake hands,” Wolski said. “We just got to keep this thing going, hopefully. The girls, they're a great group of kids to be around so I'm sure they don’t want the season to end.”

By Quarter

MN: 12 | 11 | 9 | 16 || 48

SH:   2 | 11 | 7 |  7  || 27

Scoring

MN: Haley Levy 13, Mary O'Brien 12, Nikki Mostardi 11, Brooke Impriano 8, Ellie DiBona 3

SH: Gianna Grassifulli 11, Mia Tobin 5, Mackenzie McLaughlin 3, Charlotte Pugh 3, Kate Patterson 3, Emma Hassel 2


D-I Coverage:

Small-College News:

Tag(s): Home  Central League (B)  Marple Newtown  High School  Women's  Rob Rose