City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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FORT WASHINGTON — Less than two weeks ago, Abby Plaugher was worried her season might have been over.

The North Penn senior wing went down with a non-contact knee injury during a game against Pennsbury, her and her coaches preparing for the worst at a doctor’s visit the next day. 

“It was obviously scary, especially when it’s your knee,” she said. “I didn’t know, I was just trying to stay positive. I didn’t want to think the worst, but there was something wrong. It was a little scary, but I knew it would have been okay, no matter what happened.”

Instead, Plaugher and the Knights got to breathe a sigh of relief: the pain she’d felt the night before was her kneecap dislocating and popping back into place, not a torn ligament or anything too serious. The doctors told her she’d be back in two weeks. Plaugher only needed nine days. 

Just 12 days after her injury, she was back playing a big role for North Penn, which picked up a key road win, 48-39 at Upper Dublin on Saturday afternoon. 

Coming off the bench for the second game in a row as she works back from injury, Plaugher played starters’ minutes, the 5-foot-10 senior finishing with 14 points on 4-of-7 shooting, knocking down 5-of-6 from the foul line. Her 3-pointer from straightaway was arguably the dagger, making it a 38-29 lead with 5:55 left, Upper Dublin’s patient offense not one built to get buckets in a hurry.
“My shot’s been a little off since I came back,” she said, “so it was good to make that one.”

“Having her back is huge, yes, offensively, but on and off the court, she’s kind of the thing that makes us run,” Cullen said.  “She’s such a hard worker, I knew that when we didn’t get the long-term year out, I knew that she was going to fight to get back in as soon as she could.”

No matter what, the injury wouldn’t have ended Plaugher’s hoops career. She’s already committed to play at D-III Salisbury (Md.), becoming the latest in her family to play a collegiate sport; her father Tim played hoops at Salem (W.Va.) University, while her sister Stephanie competed in gymnastics at West Chester and her brother Sam played baseball at Elmira. 

Plaugher’s decision came down to Salisbury and Montclair State (N.J.) after her summer ball with Rebels Academy, and she couldn’t turn down being on the Eastern Shore of Maryland for the next four years. Playing for head coach Kelly Baskow, who led the Gulls to the Elite 8 in 2015, was the primary draw, but not the only reason.

“I really liked (Baskow) a lot, obviously,” said Plaugher, a four-year varsity member and three-year starter for the Knights. “The location of the school was perfect for me, it’s 20 minutes from the beach, so that didn’t [hurt]. The girls — I went on my overnight there and I just clicked with them right away and I could just see myself playing there.”

Plaugher’s 3-pointer was the last made bucket for North Penn, which did well against a patient Upper Dublin by pushing the tempo when needed and staying in their defensive sets for up to a couple minutes at a time, not getting frustrated by the Cardinal’s ball movement attempts to control the tempo.

The Knights (7-6) went 10-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter (17-19 overall) of Saturady’s win, getting 1-and-1 makes by junior Kelly Donnelly, sophomore Cam Crowley and Plaugher — with 3:22 left (40-31), 1:17 left (42-33) and 1:01 left (44-33), respectively.

Those helped North Penn close out a win that didn’t count for the Suburban One standings but certainly will make a difference in the District 1 6A field. Upper Dublin (8-5) came into Saturday’s home game No. 16 in the district and North Penn three spots back, the top 24 qualifying for the District 1 6A field when the regular season wraps up in three weeks.

With fewer and fewer games left to solidify positioning, any win against another team in a similar spot gets more and more important. It was North Penn’s third straight win against such teams, having beaten Council Rock South (No. 14) and Council Rock North (No. 25) in succession earlier in the week.

“I would say it’s kind of a statement win,” Cullen said. “That’s an incredibly-well-coached team, they’re so hard-working, so to come in and compete with them and pull it out at the end is huge.”

“It was a big statement win,” Plaugher agreed. “I mean they’re above us in the rankings right now, but we were coming off a big win on Thursday, so I think this just made a statement (to) the whole conference.”

Freshman Megan Ngo led Upper Dublin, who had won four of its previous five games, with 15 points. The Cardinal get back in action with a home game against New Hope-Solebury on Tuesday, with a visit to Springfield (Delco.) the day after and its last SOL crossover game at Lower Moreland on Friday.

Junior guard Caleigh Sperling led North Penn with 16 points, hitting a pair of 3-pointers, while grabbing eight rebounds (five offensive) and knocking down four of five from the line. Her classmate, Liv Stone scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half, adding five steals, six rebounds, two assists and a block.

The progression those two, both returning starters, have made has been a big reason that North Penn is building on its 8-13 finish from a year ago, Cullen’s first on the North Penn sidelines.

“Overall just the experience of [playing] the game, they’ve improved,” said Cullen, a 2014 North Penn grad who led the Knights to a District 1 championship as a senior before playing at Widener and Chestnut Hill. “They know decision-making and time and situations and those types of things, but they’ve become more leaders on the court. I think previously they’ve just been waiting for a leader to step in, this year they’re stepping into it themselves.”

North Penn might not be able to catch up to SOL Colonial leader Souderton (12-2, 8-1) in its last nine games of the regular season, but they can certainly move up in the Colonial and District 1 6A pack, with a few prime opportunities remaining, like games at Pennridge (Jan. 24), CB West (Jan. 27) and Rustin (Jan. 28). First up, though, is a trip to Bensalem on Tuesday and a visit from Harry Truman on Thursday, both teams ranked below North Penn according to the district’s formula.

“I think [we’re working on] taking it one game at a time,” Cullen said. “Sometimes we find ourselves looking down the stretch too much, we need to take it one game at a time. This conference is tough, so every game is like a playoff game to us.”

By Quarter
Upper Dublin:   9   |  16  |   4   |  10  ||  39
North Penn:     9   |  17  |   7   |  15  ||  48

Shooting
Upper Dublin: 15-32 FG (6-16 3PT), 3-6 FT
North Penn: 13-27 FG (5-12 3PT), 17-19 FT