City of Basketball Love

By Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)

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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2023-24 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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Conwell-Egan girls basketball was an afterthought in the Philadelphia Catholic League not too long ago.

“It was pretty bleak,” said head coach Chris Brennan, who took over a team in 2017 that had just gone winless in the PCL for the second straight year.

It’s not the case anymore. The Eagles have qualified for three of the last four PCL playoffs and made the PIAA tournament for the first time two seasons ago, where they won two games to get to the quarterfinals before losing to fellow PCL opponent Neumann-Goretti.

Conwell-Egan’s quest to get over the hump in the highly competitive PCL continues in Brennan’s seventh season at the helm coming off an 11-12 finish that saw them go 4-6 in league play.

“The next step is really to get into the upper group of the Catholic League,” Brennan said. “We’re in that middle pack, and we haven’t been able to get over that hump. It’s really getting over the hump and getting into what we call the ‘Power Four.’” 

The ‘Power Four’ typically consists of Archbishop Carroll, Archbishop Wood, Cardinal O’Hara and N-G — some of the top teams in Pennsylvania.

CEC hopes to follow a path similar to Lansdale Catholic, which won its first PCL and state titles last season. The Crusaders went winless in the PCL in the 2020-21 season before breaking through last year.

The first step for the Eagles is replacing second-team All-PCL selection Kyliyah Carmichael. She did a bit of everything on the court, led the team in assists and was a team leader. Carmichael had Division III interest but decided not to continue her basketball career at the next level.

Replacing her starts with second-team All-PCL selection Lily Milewski, a 6-foot junior forward whose game extends past the 3-point line. Milewski impressed at multiple events throughout the offseason with Mid-Atlantic Magic AAU. She has good size and is comfortable operating as a traditional post player, but she has greatly improved her facilitating, outside shooting and defense.

Milewski averaged a team-high 12.4 points with 8.3 rebounds, a steal and 1.4 blocks per game last season as a sophomore.

A deep and experienced senior class returns around Milewski in 5-9 wing Brooke McFadden — who averaged 10.8 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game last year — Brooke’s 5-7 twin sister Bri McFadden, 5-10 forward Emma Candy and 5-8 wing Mya Aizen.

Aizen tore her ACL as a freshman and again last season after five games. She averaged 14.8 ppg — highest on the team at the time — grabbed 7.2 rebounds, dished out 3.2 assists and swiped 2.2 steals in those five games. Brennan said he hopes she will be ready to play by the end of December, albeit on a minutes restriction.

Molly Milewski, a 5-8 senior wing and Lily’s older sister, is an experienced bench player and will likely slide into the starting lineup until Aizen returns.

“We think we have with the returning players and the youth movement coming in to get over the hump in the PCL,” Brennan said. “The majority of our seniors are four-year starters, so the experience is almost maximized. Lily’s a three-year starter. We’re hoping to see the dividends of that experience pay off.”

Freshman Brianna Jackson will also eat up minutes after impressing throughout the summer.

“She’s a unique player,” Brennan said. “We are going to have to build some chemistry with the older group because she’s such a dynamic player.”

Brennan expects to play 14 players at the varsity level in order to continue developing the younger players. It’s a strategy he hopes will lead to Conwell-Egan breaking through the middle pack of the PCL and making noise come March.

The Eagles start their season Dec. 9 at the She Got Game Classic in Washington, D.C. They’ll open league play against defending PIAA Class 5A state champion Archbishop Wood Jan. 4, a litmus test after the Eagles lost by 36 in the regular season and 43 in the PCL tournament to the Vikings last year.

“I always preach to go 1-0,” Brennan said. “Let’s prepare and do the best we can. Obviously, the dream is to play at the Palestra. That’s the ultimate goal. We had to get through Lansdale Catholic, Neumann-Goretti and Bonner-Prendie to qualify for states last year. We were close, but we lost by one point to Neumann-Goretti. If we would’ve won, that likely would’ve catapulted us in. We’re hopeful we can get back there and get in.”