City of Basketball Love

By Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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WEST CHESTER — This was a collision bound to happen. Bishop Shanahan girls' team was on one end, getting used to playing meaningful games in February last year. West Chester Rustin, buoyed by the McGurk twins, Laine and Elizabeth, had a taste in 2022 as last year’s Ches-Mont League champions.

Everything was new to Shanahan in 2022, reaching the PIAA District 1 Class 5A championship for the first time in two decades, after suffering a Ches-Mont tournament semifinal loss to Rustin.

This year, both teams will meet again, this time for the Ches-Mont championship on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at West Chester’s Hollinger Field House— in what also could be a prelude to a possible PIAA District 1 Class 5A championship game.

On Saturday at Hollinger, Rustin opened a girls-boys Ches-Mont League doubleheader by beating Coatesville, 58-45, behind Laine McGurk’s team-high 22, and Shanahan got by Unionville, 55-44, to win the other girls’ semifinal behind balanced scoring from Faith Ambrose, Abbey Wolfe, Alyssa Brown and Alexa Bojko.

Rustin and Shanahan are both 20-3 overall, with the Golden Knights holding the No. 1 spot in the District 1 Class 5A rankings and Shanahan right on their heels at No. 2, with Villa Marie Academy at No. 3 and 19-3 entering Saturday’s games.

But before Shanahan could think of winning the Ches-Mont and getting back to the district championship, the Eagles had to get by Unionville and it’s formidable height.

After trailing twice, 2-0 and 4-3, the Eagles began raining threes on Unionville to open a first-quarter 19-10 lead that they would not relinquish.

“We know Unionville very well and the game plan was to try to get up and down and attack, try to force some turnovers, which we did early, and we got into foul trouble and sat in the zone a little more than we would have liked to,” Shanahan coach Jim Powers said. “The plan was to try to attack them on the defensive end, push the pace and get to the bucket. The foul situation was a problem, and we had to battle through that. We didn’t panic. We kept playing hard and started making shots again in the third quarter.”

Brown said, “We rely on the three, and knew coming into today we would have to do that. We hit our shots early, and that got the momentum going for the game. We’re a really quick team and we’ve been working on that on defense.”

Each one took turns. Wolfe got the Eagles going early, hitting all 13 of her points in the first half, then handed off the scoring to Brown and Bojko in the third quarter, and Ambrose finished it off with 12 of her team-high 14 in the fourth.

“We knew this would be a hard game and this is my senior season, and we gave it all we got, because we wanted to get to the championship,” Bojko said. “They beat us last year in the semifinals and we haven’t faced Rustin this season. I think our defense is helping us winning our games. Our strong suit is our doubling and our press.”

Wolfe came up big in last year’s District 1 Class 5A semifinals by upsetting the defending district champion Springfield (Delco) —at Springfield. She was aware of the expectations.

“We’ve all gotten more mature since last year, and we all want this more, especially since the juniors and seniors are close,” Wolfe said. “This is more intense this year, because our coaches see what we can do. We’ve all grown closer on and off the court, to where this team feels like a family now.”

Ambrose made sure the family continues for a league championship on Tuesday by making 4-of-4 free throws and 2-of-3 shots from the field in the fourth quarter.

“After the second quarter, I had to sit for fouls,” she said. “I knew I had to pick it up in the fourth quarter and I love how we’re playing right now. We’re all really excited to be playing in the (league) championship. There may be a little revenge there, since they knocked us out last year.”

Entering the game, Unionville had a District 1 Class 6A playoff berth locked up as the No. 9-ranked team. Still, Longhorns’ coach Fred Ellzy wanted more.

Shanahan’s three-point shoot preventing that from happening.

“Their threes started falling and that’s when my heart started falling, because we knew they were a really good three-point shooting team,” Ellzy said. “That’s what we worked on, with a little bit of luck with them being off, and a little bit of luck being able to step up and defend it.

“That’s been their thing all year, and it’s why (Shanahan) is a good team. We’re going to do the best we can (in the district playoffs). It looks like Kennett comes into our place, and we’ve seen them before. It’s going to be a similar type of game, where they like to sit outside and shoot threes. Getting out there and defending that three is the hardest part of basketball. When you have a team that can shoot it well, it makes it difficult.”

West Chester Rustin 58, Coatesville 45

In the opener, Rustin struggled early on, down by as much as 17-12, before exploding in the third quarter and turning the game around double-teaming the ball and forcing Coatesville into mistakes.

The Drexel-bound Laine McGurk led the way with 22, with help from her twin sister, Elizabeth, who dropped 10. They needed to offset the game-high 26 by Coatesville’s very underrated senior Dejah Morris, who at times looked like the best player in the court.

Coatesville (14-9) played suffocating defense in the first half, able to push Rustin out of its offense

“In the first half, I think we came out a little amped up, and they forced into some turnovers with their scrappy defense and their pressure on the ball, which we were expecting,” Rustin coach Lauren Stackhouse said. “We knew that was Coatesville’s style of play. In the first half, we didn’t make those extra passes.

“In the second half, we made adjustments. We made sure we made the extra pass and we made sure we boxed out, and if there was a shot and miss, we ended the trip. We were able to get the ball in transition and control the tempo in the second half.”  

It was a bittersweet loss for Coatesville coach Tina Nicholson. The legendary high school star from Penn State and Downingtown had to say goodbye to some seniors who will be ineligible to play in the PIAA playoffs due to transfer rules.

She emerged from the dressing room with bloodshot eyes.

“I think we fizzled out (in the third quarter),” she said. “I don’t think their pressure was anything we had not seen all year. I think we fizzled out on our own. We kind of ran out of gas. This was a huge stage for our guys to be on this stage for the first time.  

“This was a great ride and I loved being at Coatesville and for my first year, I’ll never forget these guys. I look forward to watching Dejah in college. I have three seniors who won’t be able to play in districts, and it’s why this was so emotional. This was their last game.

“Dejah has a great future, and she’s a smart kid. She’s not getting as many looks as she deserves. She’s going to make someone a great college player.”

By Quarter

Unionville (18-5):  10   |  7  |  9  | 10 ||  44

Bishop Shanahan (20-3):  19   |  9  |  11  |  16 ||  55

Scoring

Unionville: Riley Angstadt 15, Savannah Lang 10, Elle Johnson 7, Shannon Megill 6, Maddie Baughan 5, Milana Amoss 1.

Bishop Shanahan: Faith Ambrose 14, Abbey Wolfe 13, Alyssa Brown 12, Alexa Bojko 12, Samantha Blumenthal 4.

West Rustin 58, Coatesville 45

By Quarter

Coatesville (14-9):  14   |  11  |  7  | 13 ||  45

West Chester Rustin (20-3):  12   |  12  | 1 8  |  16 ||  58

Scoring

Coatesville: Dejah Morris 26, Serenity Burgess 6, Kaitlyn Ward 5, Sydney Butcher 4, Alexis Fields 2, Fancy Wah 2.

West Chester Rustin: Laine McGurk 22, Elizabeth McGurk 10, Kailey Barry 8, Riley Stackhouse 6, Lola Flynn 6, Ava Panetta 4, Jenna Kraft 2.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter here.