City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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WEST CHESTER — It isn’t too often teams slow down Laine McGurk.

West Chester Rustin’s senior guard and Drexel commit came into Tuesday’s contest against Unionville with outings of 35, 30, 24, 25 and 24 points in her team’s first five games. 

The Longhorns became the first team to hold her in check (relatively), keeping her to a modest 15 point by her standards.

With their star guard slowed, the rest of the Knights needed to find a new way to win. Along with a relentless defense, senior guard Ava Panetta scored a career-high 14 points in the 48-34 victory.

“When the pressure’s on Laine, I think it’s important for us to step up and do our job,” Panetta said. “Laine can’t do it all, especially when she’s getting face guarded. We’re all capable of scoring and putting points up, so I think it’s a major part of our game. We gotta finish the job.”

Rustin (5-1) didn’t need Panetta’s scoring touch to start the season. Junior Riley Stackhouse, who scored eight points, started the season with a pair of double-digit scoring outings and she, Lola Flynn, Elizabeth McGurk and Panetta all chipped in a few baskets game-to-game to supplement the heavy lifting from Laine McGurk.

It looked like that was going to be the same on Tuesday as Laine McGurk had 11 points in the first half to help the Knights out to a 20-13 lead after two quarters. She added a pair of baskets in the third as Rustin increased its lead to 33-20, but when the Longhorns’ offense finally woke up (led by 12 points from senior Riley Angstadt) in the fourth it was the rest of the Knights answering with buckets of their own. 

“I think all the other girls on this team are underestimated,” Laine McGurk said. “I don’t think they get the type of attention and recognition that they definitely deserve because I’ve seen people like Ava and everybody else, Riley, Elizabeth, Lola put up numbers like that. I think they can do that any given night.”

“It’s very on and off with everybody,” Panetta added. ‘We’re still learning. It’s the beginning of the season, so I think that later on we’ll have to adjust to Laine getting face guarded and we’ll have to step up.”

The reigning Ches-Mont League American Division Player of the Year has been on scouting reports for a while now. Opponents had focused on clamping down on McGurk with little success in Rustin’s first five games this season. 

Unionville’s defensive approach was even more drastic, face guarding her from one baseline to the other. The tactic was effective, holding her to just four second-half points and keeping her scoreless in the fourth quarter.

It didn’t matter much.

Stackhouse hit a couple of momentum killing threes in the second half and Panetta had eight of her points in the fourth as Rustin led by double digits almost the entirety of the second half.

“We did what we came to do in terms of trying to control Laine,” Unionville coach Fred Ellzy said. “I was hoping the other young ladies weren’t able to step up and knock down some shots and that was the difference. No. 2 (Panetta) had 14 points tonight. I wasn’t expecting that.”

Panetta, a 5-foot-1 guard, was Rustin’s sixth man last season. She’s stepped into a starting role in her senior campaign for a squad that has aspirations of repeating as Ches-Mont champions and beyond.

“More pressure, definitely different,” Panetta said. “I get a little more nervous, but I just gotta do what I gotta do, shake it off and play basketball. I’ve been doing it my whole life.”

Panetta had scored at least four points in every game before the Unionville contest, but her season-high was six points prior to Tuesday. 

She typically finds other ways to contribute like the three rebounds and assist she chipped in Tuesday. Despite being just 5-1, she’s the team’s second leading rebounder.

“I think Ava brings the intensity, definitely that spark in our offense that we always need,” Laine McGurk said. “Because I know from experience, every time someone makes a shot or a good pass, she’s always cheering. Maybe when she’s not supposed to be, but she’s an amazing teammate. Probably one of the best I ever had.”

The Knights have four seniors in the starting lineup. The McGurks, Panetta and Flynn have played together since middle school. Panetta said she and Flynn go back even further. Senior Raelyn Loper is one of the first players off the bench as well.

“We’ve been playing together for several years and counting all the fall ball, everything we do over the summer, we’re a really close-knit group,” Laine McGurk said. We have really good chemistry. I think it’s only gonna help us in the future.”

It’s clear the Knights’ veteran group is having a lot of fun on the court this season, the relationships they have with each other has also materialized into a five-game win streak following an opening night overtime loss to Abington.

If Panetta and others can keep finding ways to help out McGurk, there’s no reason to believe this tight-knit squad can’t keep piling up the victories.

“We’re all such good friends,” Panetta said. “It’s just so cool to celebrate together and I hope we keep going.”

By Quarter

Unionville 7 | 6 | 7 | 14 || 34

West Chester Rustin  10 | 10 | 13 | 15 || 48

Scoring

Unionville: RIley Angstadt 12, Milana Amoss 7, Shannon Megill 6, Elle Johnson 5, Savannah Lang 4.

West Chester Rustin: Laine McGurk 15, Ava Panetta 14, Riley Stackhouse 8, Lola Flynn 5, Elizabeth McGurk 4, Kailey Barry 2.