City of Basketball Love

By Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA – Lansdale Catholic knows it has a luxury if someone like Nadia Yemola is only the fifth option in most games.

The sophomore guard is comfortable in her role, whatever that may be in a given game, and she has the total trust of her teammates and coaches. Saturday, with Bishop McDevitt sitting in a zone and LC off to a sluggish start offensively, that meant Yemola’s role was to be a spark.

Yemola’s 11-first half points keyed a turnaround Lansdale Catholic needed to make sure its state title quest started right, downing Bishop McDevitt 61-45 in their Class 4A first round game played at Archbishop Ryan.

“I just kind of play, I don’t pay attention to what the other team is saying, I’m just going to keep shooting,” Yemola said. “I’m constantly thinking in my head what to do if I get the ball, I’m looking to find the seams or if I shoot, 90 degree elbow, straight up.

“I keep thinking that I am going to get the ball, anticipate everything and always be shot-ready.”

A starter all last season as a freshman on LC’s run to the PIAA title game, Yemola came back even better this season, even if she’s not one of the team’s leading scorers on a consistent basis. To that end, every time Oliva Boccella or Gabby Casey caught the ball in the first half Saturday, the required shouts of “shooter” echoed from the McDevitt bench but they didn’t come for Yemola.

The sophomore claimed to not notice and whether she did or not, she certainly made Bishop McDevitt notice her. Yemola canned a three in the first quarter, but the bulk of her damage came in the second when the Crusaders shook off their slow start.

“We needed to keep shooting and keep running our sets,” Yemola said. “We looked to keep making the right play, our coaches helped us a lot and we kept picking each other up play after play.”

A three by Sophia Formica tied the game 17-17 early in the second. The McDevitt guard and her willingness to shoot any shot, any time kept pressure on the LC defense. Between Bishop McDevitt coming out in a zone, Lansdale Catholic a little too focused on figuring out the District 3 foe and the Crusaders from Harrisburg getting a lot of shots to drop in, it wasn’t the kind of start the PCL champions were expecting.

The best way to beat a zone is with shooters. McDevitt felt that Lansdale Catholic had two when in reality, LC had one they weren’t planning on.

“Nadia’s one of the best shooters I know,” Boccella, kind of an expert on the matter, said. “In practice, I swear, she doesn’t miss and her shots were so key today. It gave us so much momentum going into the second half too.”

No sooner had McDevitt tied the game than Boccella hit Casey in the lane with the senior pivoting and kicking out to Yemola on the opposite wing for an open three that only hit net on the way down. A minute later, Yemola inbounded to Boccella on the wing, ran off the line and to the corner where Boccella passed back for another trey.

Finally, it was Yemola hitting Boccella for a three that capped a 93-second 9-0 burst that put LC in front 26-17 for a lead it wouldn’t look back from.

“When they’re playing a zone, I always feel like the outside is pretty open and me and Liv, we know how to move against the zone,” Yemola said. “We can get into the paint, get back out of the paint, we know our rotations and we like to find each other. Sometimes I’ll drive baseline and kick it out, make the extra pass to her and she’ll make the pass to me too.”

Lansdale Catholic coach Eric Gidney noted there are only so many things a team can try to take away from an opponent. With his group, Casey and Jaida Helm are going to draw attention, opponents will try to limit Boccella’s looks and keep Sanyiah Littlejohn from getting going.

Sometimes, that leaves Yemola going from fifth option to the one everyone is looking for. Saturday, she was prepared for the moment when it arrived.

“When she has games like this, she makes other teams pay,” Gidney said. “She’s a really darn good fifth option, but I want to see her become even more of an option, which I think she can. Again, she was really good picking her spots of when to take the shot, when to pull up and hit runners.

“She really played a fantastic game.”

A 12-0 second-quarter run — the one kicked off by Yemola and Boccella’s back-to-back-to-back threes — gave LC a comfortable lead, which they maintained when Boccella hit another trey off a Helm assist later in the frame. They also got some indirect help from McDevitt, which decided to slow the game down while trailing by 12, opening the door for Yemola to score her last points of the game on a short jumper in the final minute.

“We’re lucky to have such a talented team,” Boccella said. “If one person’s off, the next person can make a shot and we’re all helping each other and all looking for each other and it’s really fun to play out there with each other.”

LANSDALE CATHOLIC 61, BISHOP McDEVITT 45

Once Lansdale Catholic remembered it was Lansdale Catholic, things turned around in a hurry.

The shooters opened things up in the first half, but Gidney noticed something in Bishop McDevitt’s zone he wanted to capitalize on. Helm and Casey weren’t totally quiet in the first half but Lansdale Catholic is better when the two seniors are attacking the rim.

That’s about all they did after halftime.

“They stuck a guard in the middle of that 2-3 so it was like, why wouldn’t we put 5-10 Gabby in the high post and 5-11 Jaida down the short corner and let them roam,” Gidney said. “They had bigs out on the perimeter, we could still drive off of them, so it really opened things up.”

Helm had a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double while Casey posted 15 points and 13 boards, the two combining for 21 second-half points and each setting the other up for a transition hoop off a defensive stop to open the fourth quarter.

“Me and Nadia pushed down to the corners, so Gabby and Jaida were running a pop-up and cut look,” Boccella, who finished with 15 points, said. “That helped them open up which helped all of us open up, it was like a new game from there.”

LC advances to face District 4 runner-up Jersey Shore in Wednesday’s second round.

By Quarter

LANSDALE CATHOLIC 17 | 17 | 14 | 13 || 61

BISHOP McDEVITT 14 | 8 | 7 | 16 || 45

Scoring

LC: Jaida Helm 16, Gabby Casey 15, Olivia Boccella 15, Nadia Yemola 11, Aubrey Mobley 2, Janelle Carr 2

BM: Formica 26, Osevala 9, Grella 6, Dickerson 4