City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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FRANCONIA — Even if Mikayla McGillian didn’t always see it in herself, Lynn Carroll certainly did.

With Souderton returning every player from a season ago, any improvements to the team would likely have to come from within. At the end of last year, McGillian met with Carroll and the Indians coach naturally had a few things she wanted the forward to focus on but most importantly, she implored McGillian to just be confident in herself on the court.

The senior has improved on both ends of the court and done so confidently, turning in her best game of the early season in Friday night’s 64-52 win over North Penn.

“This year, I wanted to make myself more of a threat to other teams,” McGillian said. “I feel like my confidence grew a lot and that’s really helped me. Me and Coach Carroll have talked about it before, she always told me I should have confidence in myself but I just kept getting in my own head.”

McGillian has been giving Souderton exactly what it needs, which happens to be a little bit of everything. Carroll had jokingly referred to the 6-foot senior as a post player who never gets to guard post players and McGillian has embraced playing outside a defined role.

Mostly, she just fills the gaps left by the four other players she shares the floor with. A post player by nature, McGillian sharpened her perimeter defense by matching up with her Souderton teammates or over the summer with her Comets AAU squad and honed her offense to add range out to the arc so teams couldn’t just leave her.

Friday, it was all working as McGillian hit on 8-of-9 shots for a season-best 16 points, adding four rebounds, an assist and a block. With Casey Harter not getting going until the second half and Erin Bohmueller having an off night, it was an effort that was much-needed against a North Penn team that’s looking less like an up-and-comer and more like one that’s arrived with each passing week.

“She’s playing her best basketball and playing with so much confidence,” Carroll said. “She’s hitting tough shots, playing smart, kicking the ball out if she doesn’t have the look.

“Mikayla really got us going in the first quarter and she played almost 32 minutes, she was just great.”

McGillian hit all six shots she took in the first half, her 12 point a team high as Souderton took a 25-19 lead to the break. She finished the first half with a put-back basket then opened the second the same way although her perfect start would be broken up on her next attempt.

The variety of her shots was important too, the senior hitting a long two-pointer off a Harter pass for her first basket then continuing to find just the right place to get up the right shot, mixing her post background with her newly increased range.

She was also in the right place for one of the best plays of the game. In the fourth quarter, Souderton looked to go long off a defensive rebound, requiring Teya McConnaha to make a desperate save on the opposite baseline as she fell out of bounds with the ball going right to the trailing McGillian for a layup and a 10-point lead.

“She’s always been good at creating her own shot but has really come into her own this year,” Carroll said. “It’s all coming together for her and the confidence piece is what’s at the top of the list because she’s just playing so well.”

Unlike the other three senior starters on Friday, McGillian knows her competitive basketball is most likely done whenever this season comes to a close. She’s not looking to play at the college level, save maybe club, so there’s a little extra incentive for the senior to help her team meet the high expectations it set for itself.

“It’s my last season, so I really need to go out strong,” McGillian said. “I want to make it the best season we can possibly have.”

With 4:30 left in the third quarter, Harter was stuck on six points and the Northwestern-bound senior was struggling at just 3-of-10 from the floor. Then, Brooke Fenchel found her for a straightaway three and just like that, Harter was off and running.

The guard finished with a game-high 27, 21 of them coming after halftime. McConnaha posted nine points and 11 rebounds while Fenchel led a crisp passing game with a team-high seven assists.

While Harter - who scored 13 points in the final 4:25 of the third alone - helped bring it home, if not for McGillian’s strong start, the Indians likely would have been in trouble. 

“There’s a lot of talent on that North Penn team,” Carroll said. “They knocked down some shots that were defended as well as I would want them to be defending. They’re only going to get better and better.”

North Penn junior Caleigh Sperling had a 13-point quarter of her own in the second as part of a 20-point night that earned the full attention of Harter’s defense in the fourth quarter. Abby Plaugher shook off a scoreless first half to put up 16 in the second for the Knights, who dropped their first SOL result of the year but have continued to look stronger and stronger under second year coach Brianna Cullen.

Carroll, who coached against Cullen when she played at North Penn as well, is not at all surprised by the Knights’ performances and wanted to make sure the visitors got their due on Friday.

“I’ve been impressed watching film and I was even more impressed tonight,” Carroll said. “They’re going to have a really good year.”

By Quarter
Souderton:   10  |  15  |  20  |  19  ||  64
North Penn:  4   |  15  |  17  |  16  ||  52

Scoring
S: Casey Harter 27, Mikayla McGillian 16, Teya McConnaha 9, Brooke Fenchel 5, Erin Bohmueller 5

NP: Caleigh Sperling 20, Abby Plaugher 16, Cameron Crowley 9, Liv Stone 7

~~~

North Penn 80, Souderton 61

Ryan Zeltt knows better than most just how hard it is to finish without a miss.

The North Penn senior is most well-known for his exploits in the fall, where he just wrapped up a sterling four-year varsity career at quarterback for the Knights powerhouse football program. Zeltt, listed at 6-foot-4, was anything but a turn around and hand the ball off QB either, earning the coaching staff’s trust to air it out early and often even as a freshman.

So, between his four years slinging the football and playing forward for the basketball team, Zeltt had gotten more than his share of attempts off but had never had a game where he didn’t miss on a single throw or shot.

That changed Friday.

“This is a first for me, I felt good shooting on my first shot,” Zeltt said. “I had my teammates getting me open, so I was just feeling good.”

Zeltt was the model of efficiency in North Penn’s high-octane win over Souderton, the senior scoring 18 points on a flawless 7-of-7 shooting performance. This wasn’t a quick flurry of shots either, as Zeltt had a few long stretches between attempts.

He knocked down the first of his four 3-point makes on his first hoist with 5:40 left in the first quarter, then didn’t get another shot up until 2:31 remained in the second quarter. In the second half, he had two shots 34 seconds apart with 6:49 and 6:15 left in the period then didn’t take his next shot until the 6:48 mark of the fourth.

“I think it’s just a lot of practice, we’re all in the gym a lot shooting and that builds up good timing with your teammates,” Zeltt said. “It helps when they know how to get you open and when you’re wide open, it does make it easier to shoot it.”

Not missing a shot in a game is a big confidence boost in its own right, but overall, Zeltt has felt really good to start this season. North Penn’s football season ended in the second round of districts but even then, it’s still a physically demanding sport and it’s not rare to see players going from the gridiron to the hardwood needing an adjustment period.

“I’ve actually had that problem in past years, but I felt like this was my best game,” Zeltt said. “I want to say I’m back in it but it definitely does take me a little bit of time. In past years, it felt like it took half a season before I was knocking down my shots. It comes with repetition and getting in the gym with my teammates.”

Souderton’s Nathan Hemsing had the game high with 21, the senior pouring in 19 after the intermission while James Blair split his 20 evenly between the first and second half.

While he was perfect from the floor Friday, Zeltt was not the Knights’ leading scorer. Teddy McAllister had that designation with 19 points, the guard catching fire on his own in the third where he was 3-of-3 from deep as part of an 11-point frame.

Ryan Deininger tallied 14 for North Penn, eight coming in an extremely entertaining second half that saw both teams flying up and down the court with a lot of shared points.

“We have a great group, we come to work every day and we want to get better,” Zeltt said. “I think we know we can be really good and in these four games, we’ve shown that.

“Half the team, I feel like we started in AAU together when we were eight years old, so we have great chemistry together. It’s a lot of fun playing with these guys and I’m definitely going to miss it.”

Zeltt is planning on playing football in college but is currently uncommitted although he has been in contact with a number of PSAC programs. 

Put on the spot, he had to think about it, but Zeltt guessed his best game throwing a football probably still had two or three incompletions, so he was not brushing off what he did shooting a basketball on Friday night.

“I’ve never had a perfect game, that’s pretty hard to do and anyone that’s done it, I give props to,” Zeltt said.

By Quarter
North Penn: 16  |  15  |  24  |  25  ||  80
Souderton:   12  |   7   |  21  |  21  ||  61

Scoring
NP: Teddy McAllister 19, Ryan Zeltt 18, Ryan Deininger 14, Ahmaar Godhania 5, Corey Meade 5, Mario Sgro 4, Luke Cody 2, Tre Simpson 2

S: Nathan Hemsing 21, James Blair 20, Aiden Maue 7, Levi John 7, Nolan Watkins 3, Chanse Salone 2, Jared Zimmerman 1