City of Basketball Love

CoBL Staff (@hooplove215)
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The District 1 5A girls’ quarterfinals take place this Tuesday, four games that not only will determine who gets through to the semifinals, but also four of the six state bids from the district. The four losers won’t be done for the season; they’ll go into the playback rounds, with the two winners of those games also making it to states.

Here’s a look at all four games:

1) West Chester Rustin vs. 9) West Chester East (7 PM)

It’s a battle of West Chester schools in the district quarterfinals, though Rustin and East are in different divisions of the Ches-Mont, so they’ve only played once this season, a 53-36 Rustin win at Rustin on Jan. 7. The Golden Knights (21-3), who won the Ches-Mont championship by beating Coatesville and Bishop Shanahan, come into the district playoffs on a 10-game winning streak, their only three losses this season coming to two top-four PCL squads (Carroll and O’Hara) and a 6A favorite (Abington). East (13-10), which has won four of its last five, beat No. 8 Oxford on the road 57-36 in the opening round. 

Rustin head coach Lauren Stackhouse has at her disposal one of the most talented seniors around, Drexel-bound senior wing guard Laine McGurk. The 5-10 wing guard is a super athlete who can create her own shot like few others in the area, and though she’s a bit of a gunner, it’s her ability to get her shot off at any point, from anywhere, and hit the tough ones, that helps open things up for the rest of the Golden Knights offense. The Rustin supporting cast’s improvement from a year ago is a major reason they’re at this point: McGurk’s twin sister, Elizabeth McGurk, junior guard Riley Stackhouse, and senior guards Ava Panetta and Lola Flynn all have hit shots at a much higher clip. Stackhouse had 15 pionts (three threes) in the Ches-Mont title game.

The Vikings had a balanced offense in their district opener, with five players scoring seven points or more, led by 12 points from 5-9 junior Annie Kernst. Senior guard Mikayla Kusher, who had seven points in that game, returns after missing last season with a knee injury; the three-year starter is the only senior in a starting lineup that also includes Kerns, 6-1 sophomore Sofia Keith, 5-9 freshman Lauren Horan, and 5-3 sophomore Annalise Kubasko; Kubasko and Keith each had 10 points in the first-round game, a game in which East forced 21 turnovers, plus got nine points off the bench.

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4) Gwynedd Mercy vs. 5) Upper Moreland (5 PM)
The defending District 1 4A champs, Gwynedd Mercy makes its 5A playoff debut with a home game against Upper Moreland, which lost to Radnor and then Marple Newtown in districts a year ago to fall one game short of the state playoffs. The Monarchs (19-5) come in having just lost the AACA championship game but had won seven of nine before then to move into a spot where they can host a district quarterfinal; the Golden Bears (19-5), who lost in the Suburban One quarterfinals to Abington, beat Strath Haven by 17 in the opening round behind 18 points from junior Holly Gohl.

This year’s GMA squad is a mix of old and young, led by senior point guard and Holy Cross commit Hannah Griffin, who does a lot of the ball-handling and offense-creating for a team that starts two freshmen and one sophomore under head coach Tom Lonergan. But those youngsters have a lot of upside; Bailey Balkir also has a great handle and can get her own shot, and Emilia Coleman is the younger sister of former GMA standouts Bianca and Sofia Coleman, now at Navy and Kutztown. Sophomore Cara Labb and junior Dylan Burke, a 6-0 forward, round out the starting five, while senior Morgan Newell gives them a good shooting and defensive presence off the bench.

Gohl and the Golden Bears have had to step up with 1,000-point scorer EmmyFaith Wood — along with Lily Hansen and Allie LaRocco — sidelined with an injury as they search for their first state playoff berth in at least a decade, though nobody is quite exactly sure when their last appearance in the PIAA tournament was. But Wood, the senior point guard, made her return for the opening round of districts, and Hansen’s back in the fold as well, making them even more dangerous in the postseason; as Mikel Lancit, Alyssa Wiley, Marie Meyers and others have stepped up down the stretch.

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2) Bishop Shanahan vs. 7) Mount St. Joseph’s (7 PM)
Last year, Shanahan made a run to Temple as the No. 4 seed, upsetting top seed Springfield in the semifinals before losing to No. 7 seed Villa Maria in the final, and carried that momentum into this season, where the Eagles went 20-4, losing to Rustin in the Ches-Mont lead championship. MSJ enters the second round of districts 12-12 on the season after beating Marple Newtown 62-42 in the opening.

Senior guard Lauren Hoffman, aside from a few games missed to a foot injury, has been Mount’s offensive keystone as a reliable three-point shooter able to drive to the rim. Senior Georgia Pickett has steadily put together a strong season, routinely leading the Mount in rebounds and scoring in a variety of ways, with 24 against Marple. Kiersten Pumilia, who had 17 points in the opening round, sets the pace at point guard while Chloe McGrorty adds another shooter/slasher off the perimeter to round out the senior quartet of starters. Junior Emily Birmingham finalizes the starting lineup in the frontcourt while Addison Smith also brings size and toughness at forward and Carlie Shouldis earned her stripes filling in during the team’s midseason bout with injuries.

The Eagles, who’d won seven straight before their league championship loss, have had a week off to get ready for this one. Shanahan’s got a balanced group that all returned from a year ago, including junior forwards Samanthan Blumental and Abbey Wolfe, senior guards Alyssa Brown and Caydence Oswald, junior guard Faith Ambrose, senior forward Kaitlyn Griffin and more. Shanahan has never won a district title before, and this team knows it’s got what it takes to get it done. But it’ll take beating three quality teams to get there.

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3) Villa Maria vs. 11) Phoenixville (5 PM)

Coming off a championship in the AACA, Villa Maria (21-3) is rolling, having lost just once in its last nine games, and the defending champs are feeling good after that underdog run a year ago. Kathy McCartney has a dozen District 1 titles under her belt, and has most of her rotation back from that run a year ago. Senior point guard Elaina Guerzon sets the table for a veteran group, which also has seniors Ella Iacone, Marah McHugh, Clare Cronley and Ava Irvine in the starting lineup, the 5-11 Cronley and 5-10 McHugh giving them some size up front while Irvine and Iacone give them shooters on the wings; the bench is five deep, though juniors Carly Catania and Alish Nash tend to be the most productive of the reserves.

Boosted by a few young pieces, Phoenixville won the Pioneer Athletic Conference Frontier Division this season, and now has the program’s first district win in well over a decade, a 46-37 win at Radnor in the opening round. Senior guard Jaime Michaud, a multi-sport standout, isn’t one of the scoring leaders this season, but she’s one of the few who have been around. Freshman 6-foot forward Riley Ford-Bey, who had a double-double against the Raptors, has a pretty good feel in the post for a young forward, leading a very balanced squad in scoring, and sophomore Nevaeh Latimore-Beasley gives the Phantoms a boost from the perimeter. Sophomore Ava Gnias and junior Mali Warren are the other starters, while senior Caroline Flick adds some experience off the bench.