City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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GLEN MILLS — Haverford High coach Lauren Pellicane pulled Megan Kelly aside late in overtime and told her point guard to be confident. With Garnet Valley playing a zone, focusing heavily on Fords stars Rian Dotsey and Aniya Eberhart, someone else needed to step up and hit a shot. 

Kelly listened, and did exactly that. 

When the Fords’ 5-foot-4 junior guard caught a ball on the left wing with less than a minute left in a tied ball game, she head-faked an incoming defender, took one dribble to the left, just inside the arc, and buried the jumper. 

“I was wide open on the wing all the time and I wasn’t stepping up and Pell called me over and told me that I was open and I had to start being confident in my shot,” Kelly said. “And then I got the pass, ball faked and I was open, so I shot it.”

That shot ended up being the game-winner, as Haverford picked up a big road win on Tuesday night, 47-43 over Garnet Valley. 

The Jaguars (5-1, 3-1) came in one of three teams left unbeaten in the Central League along with Conestoga and Radnor, sitting atop the District 1 6A power rankings. But Kelly and senior guard Aniya Eberhart (18 points) hit one big shot after another down the stretch, delivering the Fords (6-1, 3-1) their fifth straight win overall.

Despite graduating three starting seniors from last year’s league champs and district runner-ups, including Caroline Dotsey (Maine), Haverford’s win shows its girls are very much intending to factor into the Central League race once again.

“That’s a really big win, they were No. 1 in the district, that’s a really big win for us,” Eberhart said. “I’m so proud of my team for just putting in the effort. We knew we could win this game, it was just a matter of coming into this game knowing we could.”

Last year’s Haverford squad went 27-2, losing only in the District 1 6A championship game and the first round of the PIAA state playoffs. But the frontcourt of Dotsey and Mollie Carpenter graduated, as did point guard Sky Newman. That left only Eberhart and junior wing Rian Dotsey back from last year, three new starters stepping in for head coach Lauren Pellicane. 

Garnet Valley, led by junior wing Haylie Adamski, was expected to be one of the front-runners, along with Conestoga, who returned all five starters from a strong team a year ago. Haverford was a question mark, but that’s a mark that’s quickly fading.

“I think that we made a statement, going into this game we were definitely an underdog because we lost three starting seniors last year,” Kelly said. “I think that we made a statement that we’re going to be a very good team this year, and I think we showed we’re a very defensive team and we’re not going to back down.”

Kelly’s nine points (4-5 FG, 1-2 3PT) were critical on a night where both teams were struggling to find open looks against each other’s press defenses, much of the focus on Dotsey and Adamski, both D-I recruits. Adamski had a strong all-around individual game, finishing with 16 points, five assists, six steals and four rebounds. “

It’s just a matter of learning how to play with each other, and I feel like we learn how to do that each game,” Eberhart said. “Haverford’s really a defensive team and that’s what keeps us in games, even when we had trouble scoring. Our defense really kept us in this game.”

Haverford (6-1, 3-1) had a chance for a big early-season win against ‘Stoga last week, entering the fourth quarter tied 30-30 with the Pioneers, but the Fords faded down the stretch of a nine-point loss. Tuesday night saw them make multiple go-ahead buckets over the course of the fourth quarter, Garnet Valley needing a bucket from Emily Olsen on an inbounds play with 8.8 seconds left to send the game to the extra session.

Eberhart struck first in the extra session, hitting a mid-range jumper from the right elbow and drawing contact, knocking down the foul shot to put Haverford up three. That was her second clutch bucket down the stretch, hitting a go-ahead shot from the left elbow late in the fourth quarter to put her team up a point with less than 3:30 to play.

“It was really difficult to get a shot off because they play in zone a lot and I feel like it was really crowded, their zone is really good,” she said. “Just finding the open gap when I could and being quick with it, and getting my shot off.”

Garnet Valley’s Kylie Mulholland (13 points) equalled with a 3-pointer, the teams trading a couple empty possessions before Kelly hit the game’s decisive shot. 

Rian Dotsey (13 points) hit a couple foul shots in the closing 45 seconds to help seal a win which saw Garnet Valley lead 17-10 after one quarter before the Fords slowly closed the gap over the course of the second and third, trailing 27-25 entering the fourth.

“We have new players coming in and they need to go through these experiences and they’re learning every day, and I think that’s what’s so great about tonight,” Pellicane said. “We were down by seven, we did not have a good first quarter, and we just clawed and fought back, one play at a time. This was a really big win that these kids earned tonight.”

By Quarter
Garnet Valley:     17  |   6   |   4   |  13  |   3   ||  43
Haverford High:  10  |   9   |   6   |  15  |   7   ||  47

Shooting
Garnet Valley: 19-60 FG (4-22 3PT), 1-4 FT
Haverford High: 18-46 FG (1-12 3PT), 10-17 FT

Scoring
Garnet Valley: Haylie Adamski 16, Kylie Mulholland 13, Savannah Saunders 6, Emily Olsen 6, Katie Dwyer 2

Haverford High: Aniya Eberhart 18, Rian Dotsey 13, Megan Kelly 9, Ashley Wright 4, Natalie Wright 3