City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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HAVERTOWN — They don’t really talk about it or mention it. It’s easier that way. There was no edict that it was off-limits or prohibited. It’s just been understood—don’t talk about the ‘0.’

It’s like a baseball pitcher going deep into a game with a no-hitter. It’s tradition that no one in the dugout will mention it.

So, no one on the Haverford High girls’ basketball team mentions their streak. The last time it was mentioned may not have even been this year. Fords’ coach Lauren Pellicane is unsure. And she would like to keep it that way.

For the time being, her team continues to roll. On Saturday, the No. 2-seeded Fords got through a tight first half to prevail once again, beating No. 7-seed Springfield, 56-31, in the PIAA District 1 Class 6A quarterfinals to advance to the district semifinals, hosting No. 11-seed Pennsbury on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

The Fords (26-0) were led by a game-high 13 points from Rian Dotsey, with Sky Newman adding 11 and Aniya Eberhart chipping in with 10. Springfield, playing without key senior contributor Mia Valerio, who was out with an injury, was led by Kaitlyn Kearney’s 12.

It was 18-18 with 3:58 left in the first half, and then as the Fords have done this season, they found that higher gear, forging ahead in the third quarter, holding Springfield (20-6) to 1 of 10 shooting, in surging out to a 39-20 lead after three quarters.

From there, the Fords put it on cruise control and rode it out.

Just like they seem to be riding out their amazing undefeated run.

“We don’t mention (being undefeated), we don’t even talk about in practice,” said Eberhart, who scored the Fords’ first eight points. “If you keep thinking about that, you get a big head. We don’t talk about it in class, we don’t talk about it on the bus on the way to games.”

It’s known, understood that it’s not mentioned.

“It’s like a culture thing, we just know,” said Newman, who’s made a marked difference in her play from her junior to senior year. “It’s exactly like a pitcher in baseball. No one cheats.”

In fact, the last time anyone mentioned being undefeated for Pellicane, a few months back when the Fords were 9-0, to start a practice.

Since then, nothing.

“I don’t remember mentioning it, but I’m sure if the girls said it happened, it happened,” Pellicane said. “It might have been last mentioned when we were in New York in last December. From my standpoint, it’s always been ‘next game.’ I’m never going to look ahead with the players. They don’t need anything else to think about. It’s the way we prepared the whole year.”  

Springfield has qualified for the PIAA state playoffs, but now will be placed in the playback pool for seeding purposes beginning Tuesday against Upper Dublin, with Valerio questionable.  

Springfield coach Ky McNichol had a good idea of what her tiny team was getting into against Haverford.

“We had to play the perfect game to beat them, and being without Mia, that was a huge disadvantage, but give credit where credit is due, Haverford is a great basketball team that’s very well-coached,” she said. “They have every piece, from bigs to guards. Caroline Dotsey has improved more than I’ve seen a player improve in a long time.

“We played a close-to-perfect first half, and Mia anchors our defense. She is a huge piece of our offense and defense. We are going to states, so we’ll see what happens.”

What is happening at Haverford is historical. The Fords keep winning. Their history keeps growing.

“We’re playing really good defense and that’s what you saw tonight, especially in the third quarter,” Newman said. “We’re going to have to get better with our free throws and better shooting. We know what’s ahead. We haven’t faced adversity that often, but we were in close games against Abington and Conestoga, which we beat three times, in all close games. Those games helped us.”

Eberhart stressed the Fords have to stay locked in and keep the other noise outside.

“We don’t pay attention to it,” she said. “We just can’t have big heads. We keep away, we’ll continue to keep it away. We go into every game knowing we have to beat each team the same way. We need to keep our heads down and our mouths shut—and no one cheats in talking about it.”

Being undefeated.  

By Quarter
Springfield:  10  |   8   |   2   |  11  ||  31
Haverford:   12  |  12  |  15  |  17  ||  56

Scoring
Springfield: Kaitlyn Kearney 12, Lexi Aron 7, Cora Fattori 6, Keira Schoffler 3, Taylor Hunyet 3.

Haverford: Rian Dotsey 13, Sky Newman 11, Aniya Eberhart 10, Caroline Dotsey 7, Mollie Carpenter 8, Natalie Wright 4, Ashley Wright 2, Mallory Wineberg 1.

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.