City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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Villa Maria wasn’t too worried about the matchup of undefeated teams. They weren't focused on jumping to the spots in the Catholic Academies standings nor the District 1-5A power rankings.

The opportunity Thursday night was a chance to knock off rival Gwynedd Mercy, something most of the Hurricanes’ seniors had yet to accomplish in their careers. And do it on their home court? No one on the roster had accomplished that.

A veteran squad Villa took the lead in the second quarter and never gave it back in a 40-32 win to deliver the Monarchs (12-1, 4-1 AACA) their first loss of the season and keep the Hurricanes (12-0, 5-0 AACA) undefeated.

“It wasn’t even the fact that we were both undefeated," Villa Maria senior Marah McHugh said. "It was the fact that it was Gwynedd and we hadn’t beat them our whole career. It was awesome. We’re so happy right now. … You should have heard us screaming in the locker room. “

The Hurricanes start five seniors. Along with McHugh forwards Clare Cronley and Ella Iacone and guards Ava Irvine and Elaina Guerzon make up the starting five. Classmate Liv Broadhurst comes off the bench. Their memories against Gwynedd entering Thursday weren’t good ones. 

Though they didn’t quite remember it, four-year varsity players McHugh (nine points) and Cronley (10 points) were the lone Villa players remaining the last victory over Gwynedd on Jan. 30, 2018 when they were freshmen and split the season series. After that it was four straight losses, including a pair of double-digit defeats last season.

Those battle wounds were on their minds leading up to this one.

“I think talent wise it’s pretty similar,” Cronley said of what was the difference this time around. “As a team, we’re all really close. We push each other a lot. We start pushing each other a lot more in practice. I think that’s what really helped. We all knew we wanted it.”

Thursday marked Villa's first road win at Gwynedd since Dec. 11, 2018.

"Coming in here and beating them at their place was huge and I think it really gave us a whole momentum push for the season," Cronley said.

Gwynned was paced by eight points apiece from freshman Bailey Balkir and junior Dylan Burke. Unlike the Hurricanes, the Monarchs are on the younger side with senior Hannah Griffin (Holy Cross) the lone senior in a starting five that includes two freshmen, a sophomore and one junior.

Balkir reeled off seven of her points to start the game’s scoring, helping Gwynedd to an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. The buckets for the entire Monarchs team were extremely difficult to come by after that.

Villa held Gwynedd to just four points in the second quarter and scored the last eight points of the quarter to grab a 21-15 lead by halftime. The Hurricanes led for the remainder of the game.

“Defense wins games,” McHugh said. “That’s our motto. We try our best to really focus on defense. Offense just comes with the defense. ... It all goes back to our resiliency that we practice at practice.”

With some stifiling defense of its own, Gwynedd narrowed the gap to two, 27-25, by the end of the third quarter. McHugh scored a free throw and a basket to push the lead to five. Cronely knocked down a three to push the advantage to six and junior Alice Nash, who scored seven off the bench and played terrific defense on Griffin throughout, added another bucket to put the Hurricanes ahead 35-27 with about four minutes left. 

The Monarchs got the lead down to four, but it was a never a one-possession game. Villa couldn’t seal the game at the line, missing the front end of three straight one-and-ones in the final minutes, but the Hurricanes grabbed offensive rebounds on each try.

It was clear they wanted this one.

“They’ve played a lot of games,” Villa Maria coach Kathy McCartney said. “I think their experience showed a little bit. Gwynedd’s very good, they’re just young. They’re a little inexperienced and I think in a tight game, our seniors, our experience kind of showed.”

“The kids are tough,” she added. “I told them it was kind of microcosm. We missed those foul shots at the end, three of them, and rebounded the basketball. We didn’t feel sorry for ourselves, we battled. We’re battlers. It’s not always pretty, who cares, get the dub.”

The Hurricanes were up and down during a 10-11 regular season last year, hitting a dip in late January. Most of that squad is back with four starters returning this season. Having already surpassed last season's regular-season win title, the senior-laden group is enjoying playing together.

“It’s very encouraging for us because it’s like the same team as last year but we’re 10 times better and we’re doing great,” McHugh said. “As a team, we’re all very happy that we’re all seniors and we’re doing it together because we all went through every experience, especially against Gwynedd together.”

Villa hasn’t won a Catholic Academies championship since 2013. Thursday’s victory put them in the driver’s seat for a league title and a the No. 1 spot in the District 1-5A power rankings. There’s still a lot of season left, however, including a rematch with the Monarchs in the second to last game of the regular season Feb. 2.

The Hurricanes want to make sure Thursday’s victory isn’t the highlight of their season.

“It is (a big one), but we got a lot of basketball left,” McCartney said. “We’re real happy about this, but we can’t rest because there’s a lot of basketball ahead.”

By Quarter

Villa Maria: 11 | 4 | 10 | 13 || 40

Gwynedd Mercy:  8 | 13 | 6 | 5 || 32

Scoring

Villa Maria: Clare Cronley 10, Mara McHugh 9, Alice Nash 7, Ella Iacone 6, Carly Catnia 5, Elaina Guerzon 2, Ava Irvine 1

Gwynedd Mercy: Bailey Balkir 8, Dylan Burke 8, Megan McDonnell 6, Hannah Griffin 4, Emelia Coleman 3, Carsy Kelly 2, Cara Lapp 1.