City of Basketball Love

Zak Wolf (@ZakWolf22)
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Reese Zemitis stared right at the defender as she controlled the ball at the top of the key. 

Zemitis dribbled between her legs to freeze her defender before sidestepping to create separation. With the defender off balance, the junior pulled the trigger, swishing home a deep three at the end of the third quarter. It was Zemitis’ third triple of the quarter, putting Neshaminy up nine.

A strong second half performance from Zemitis and Lola Ibarrondo propelled Neshaminy to a 58-44 win over North Penn. Trailing at halftime, Neshaminy didn’t panic, turning the game around with stellar outside shooting and aggressive defense. Zemitis and Ibbarondo combined for 45 of Neshaminy’s 58 points, including 17 of 20 during the third quarter. 

Zemitis scored nine points in the third, knocking down all three of her 3-pointers, the biggest one coming at the end of the quarter.

“It was a killer,” Neshaminy head coach Jon Gallagher said. “It's funny because in warmups I saw her shooting from that distance and was going in and then I turned to my assistant and asked ‘what do you think?’ She said ‘tell her to shoot it,’ and that’s what ended up happening.”

Gallagher explained that it’s “[not in Zemitis’] nature to take over games” and that she “lets the game come to her.” 

He joked that it was good for the team that she decided to be more aggressive against North Penn, because they needed it. The junior started off slow, with two points in the first quarter, but started to gain her rhythm in the second half. 16 of her game high 24 came after the break as Neshaminy separated from the Knights. 

“We were being guarded very tightly,” Zemitis explained. “We just knew to be aggressive and go to it and we knew we could create space based off of the defense ever given us. Just make the right reads off of screens as well.”

Gallagher said that if Zemitis and Ibarrondo were more “selfish” they could score 20+ points each game. Because of their unselfish nature and their love for their teammates, they get them involved, giving them opportunities to score.

During the first half, Zemitis battled inside, but North Penn clogged the lane. The Knights did a good job defensively, leading 15-8 at the end of the first quarter. Caleigh Sperling provided a spark for North Penn scoring a team-high 20 points, including six in the first quarter. 

After struggling to get good looks inside, Zemitis tried her luck from deep, but missed both her attempts in the second quarter. The misses didn’t prevent her from firing away in the third quarter, where she knocked down all three of her attempts.

“A lot of times if I'm not making in the first half, I go during halftime, and I’ll get a couple shots up,'' the 6-foot-1 junior forward with double-digit Division I offers said. “I'm not gonna let it discourage me. So I'll just keep shooting even if they're not falling.”

While Zemitis lit it up from the outside, Ibarrondo attacked the basket, showing off on a couple of acrobatic finishes. The point guard finished with 21 points and four assists. The two juniors have been playing together since they were five years old and it’s easy to see out on the court. 

The duo connected on multiple occasions for Neshaminy, both setting each other up at different times. The two don’t even have to look up, they always know where each other is going to be on the court . Zemitis collected a steal in the third quarter, she pushed the ball, creating a 2-on-1. As she waited for the defender to collapse Ibarrando flanked to her left. Once the defender slid over, at the last second Zemitis dished it to her teammate for the easy two.

“I have the utmost trust in Reese, whenever she’s in the corner I'm gonna hit her,” Ibarrondo said.

After a slow start on offense, Neshaminy worked their way back into the game. Trailing 19-12 with 3:05 left in the first half, a 7-0 run helped tie the game up. Olivia Stone knocked down a three to put North Penn up three at half, but Neshaminy didn’t panic. 

They knew if a couple of bounces had gone their way that things could’ve been different. Neshaminy didn’t have to change much, other than slowing down and converting easy looks right at the rim.

“At Halftime players were pretty calm,” Gallagher said. “We thought we were getting really good shots around the rim which we wanted to try to dominate inside, we just weren’t finishing. In the second half, we did a lot better. We got inside and then they kicked it out.”

Neshaminy opened the second half on a 8-0 run, taking the lead for just the second time. Cameron Crowley had six of her nine points in the quarter after hitting two threes for North Penn, but the Knights were outscored 20-8. 

Defensively, Neshaminy switched out of a zone into man-to-man defense. The tight defense caused North Penn to turn the ball over at a higher rate. Rebounding was key for Neshaminy as well, preventing second chance opportunities for the Knights. 

“In the second half, we came in really strong with defense, where we were lacking a little bit in the first,” Ibarrondo said. “That helped us, the turnovers and they were just missing shots and we were pulling the boards down not letting offensive rebounds like we did in the first half.” 

In the fourth quarter, North Penn cut the lead to 41-35 with six minutes remaining, but Neshaminy executed well down the stretch. Kutztown commit Taylor Gurysh scored six of her seven points in the fourth quarter. Neshaminy built the lead back to 10 with under three minutes left and iced the game at the free throw line, converting 10 of their 14 attempts. 

After losing in the first round of the state playoff last season, Neshaminy is hungry to get back. The trio of Zemitis, Ibarrondo and Gurysh is tough for teams to defend. Not being the tallest team, Neshaminy will have to work hard on the boards against bigger opponents to continue their success.

“Defensive rebounds are huge,” Ibarrondo said. “It was a weakness last year we had where we would just give up a ton of offensive rebounds. This year we're doing a lot better with it. The games where we don't let them get offensive rebounds, we’ve dominated.”

By Quarter
Neshaminy: 8 | 11 | 20 | 19 || 58
North Penn: 15 | 7 | 8 | 14 || 44

Scoring
Neshaminy: Zemitis 24, Ibarrondo 21, Gurysh 7, Purdy 3, Little 3

North Penn: Sperling 20, Crowley 9, Stone 7, Orth 3, Stevens 3, Samass 2