City of Basketball Love

Jake Adams (@jakeadams520)
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Frank Sciolla reached a plateau not many coaches get to Thursday night.
Pennsbury girls basketball’s 43-33 win over Central Bucks South was his 500th coaching win, marking another important milestone in a career that stretches 28 years, four teams and both the boys and girls side of things.

“To know me is to know I sometimes don’t enjoy things as much as I should,” Sciolla said over the phone Thursday night. “As I’ve become older, I’ve become better at that, but I have a tendency to look ahead to the next thing.”

Sciolla did his best to reflect on the accomplishment throughout the night. His team swarmed him after the game, and congratulatory texts and calls flooded in throughout the night. He was told he’s just the third coach in Bucks County history to reach the milestone. He thought of the former players who are now high school coaches and maintain a group text with him: Council Rock South girls’ Jesse Krasna, Central Bucks West girls’ Zach Sibel, West Windsor Plainsboro South’s (New Jersey) Zack Kumor and Pennsbury boys’ Wes Emme.

Pennsbury girls basketball coach Frank Sciolla takes a selfie with his team after winning his 500th career game Thursday. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Nothing is more exciting to him than getting invited to be in a former player’s wedding or getting a phone call about a major life milestone, like he did Thursday when a former player called him to tell him they were expecting a baby.

“I really understand how lucky I’ve been to go to four different places, where they were, meet the type of people I’ve met and learned what I’ve learned,” Sciolla said.

Sciolla — who said some of his coaching role models include former Cabrini coach John Dzik (for teaching him good communication) and former assistant Ray Engle (for teaching him how to motivate and prepare) — called the accomplishment a “blessing” but said it was never a goal he set for himself.

That’s in part because he always chased the challenge. He took over Pennsbury boys team in 1995 that was not a powerhouse and built it up over 15 years. That became a theme in subsequent stops at Bristol (two years) and Conwell-Egan (three years), which included a state championship at the latter. He went 365-180 leading those boys teams.

Same can be said of the Falcons girls, who he took over in 2016 and has led for eight years to a 135-61 record.

“I think I have always looked for the ultimate challenge, and I’ve always worked for the hard,” he said. 

Thursday’s win was a challenge, too, encapsulating his career perfectly. Just the third game in 30 days, Pennsbury (8-4, 6-3 Suburban One League Patriot Division) had to fight back to beat CB South (8-7, 4-5 SOL Colonial). Sofia Vitucci led the way with 21 points and seven rebounds, and Layla Matthias, who Sciolla said may be the best rebounder he’s ever coached, snagged 13 boards, including 10 offensive. The game was a battle, he said.

Sciolla will only give himself so much time to enjoy this moment, though. Central Bucks West awaits, and he’s always looking ahead to the next thing.

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Penn Charter girls beat Germantown Academy in crucial Inter-Ac matchup

All Penn Charter girls basketball wanted Thursday night was to control its own destiny in the Inter-Academic League.

Destiny is still very much in the Quakers’ hands after they rallied in the second half to knock off Germantown Academy 61-58 in a crucial league road win.

The victory is Penn Charter’s fourth in a row and improves its league record to 3-1 (8-8 overall). It also handed GA (13-3, 3-1) its first Inter-Ac loss this season. Notre Dame (13-4, 4-1) is up in the win column entering Thursday’s games.

“That’s what we want, we want to control our fate and not be at the point where we (need to rely on someone else),” Quakers head coach Joe Maguire said over the phone after the game. “It’s a playoff game, more or less. Having that sense of urgency, if you lose this game you put yourself in a really tough position to win the league.”

It was not easy, but Maguire said the win was the latest example of Penn Charter’s all-hands-on-deck effort, especially defensively.

The Patriots led much of the game, hustling for rebounds on offense and presenting a challenge on the other end with a 2-3 zone, Maguire said. They led 19-11 after the first quarter, and, after PC cut it to 29-26 at half, the Patriots pushed the lead to 11 midway through the third quarter after snagging three offensive boards in one possession and converting and and-one, Maguire said.

That was the turning point.

“I told them, ‘They want it more than you do right now,’” Maguire said.

The Quakers took that to heart, finally “digging in” on defense, “getting stops and converting that on the other side," he said.

Ryan Carter finished with a team-high 28 points and Kaylinn Bethea chipped in 16 as Penn Charter sliced the deficit to two heading into the fourth quarter. Ashlie Johnson grabbed key rebounds late, Maguire said, and finished with six points.

Penn Charter hasn’t lost since Jan. 5 at Notre Dame and is playing the kind of game, with dug-in defense and contributions from across the roster, Maguire thinks is key to winning the league. 

“They came out, our past three games we’ve really felt like we’ve figured things out on the defensive side,” he said.

Their next game is Saturday at 4 p.m. at Episcopal Academy, their fourth straight road game.

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Episcopal seniors step up to beat upstart Agnes Irwin

On the day that Episcopal Academy coach Chuck Simmonds honored his senior class before their home game against Agnes Irwin, the quartet of starters all made significant contributions to a 50-41 win.

All four of Simmonds’ seniors in his 20th graduating class — Anna Maloney, Nat Magnotta, Bella Notaro and Taylor Hammond — are starters for the Churchwomen, and while this hasn’t been the successful season they might have hoped for, they put it together on Senior Day. 

Episcopal (1-3 Inter-Ac) jumped out to a 14-7 lead on Agnes Irwin (3-2) after one quarter and never gave up the lead, extending the edge to 12 after halftime and then holding as AIS turned up the pressure late. The older, bigger Churchwoman frontcourt played a big role in that, grabbing double-digit offensive rebounds, everybody chipping in on the boards. 

“We were trying to work it inside as much as we could, we felt we had a size advantage there to hopefully take advantage,” Simmonds said. “We stopped scoring in the second half and we allowed them to hang around and Agnes Irwin kept plugging

Magnotta, who’ll be playing soccer at Penn State next year, led the way with a 21-point, five-rebound, six-assist effort. The center back on the pitch plays all over the court for Simmonds, getting a few buckets on post-ups while also playing some point guard and spotting up as a shooter, knocking down a couple 3-pointers. 

She hit the game’s biggest shot, a triple with just under five minutes left in the fourth quarter to keep Episcopal (1-3 Inter-Ac) up 11. She also went 4-of-4 from the foul line in the game’s final minute, helping the Churchwomen seal the win. 

Notaro (6 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists), Hammond (5 points, 4 rebounds, 3 steals) and Maloney (4 points, 4 rebounds) all found themselves in the mix at both ends, as did junior forward Ali Dennis (5 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals, 2 assists, 2 blocks). 

“I was glad for them because they made contributions to the game,” Simmonds said. “Natlie had a nice game but the others all added pieces to it.”

Magnotta isn’t the only one continuing her athletic career in college, though none are playing college hoops. Hammond is headed to Virginia Military Institute for water polo; Notaro is going to Bucknell for field hockey; Maloney is going to the University of Virginia. Simmons won’t be the only coach missing their presence next year. 

“They were a group that was a very multi-sport group [...] they’ve always been involved athletically in three sports, in each season,” he said. “In that sense, it’s nice because they were contributors to our program but they spread it around and three of them are going to end up playing sports in college.” — Josh Verlin

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Upper Moreland girls knock off Plymouth Whitemarsh

Upper Moreland snapped a 21-game losing streak against Plymouth Whitemarsh on Thursday, winning 33-31.

It was the first time since 2020 the Bears have hosted the Colonials. Upper Moreland (8-4, 6-2 Suburban One League Freedom Division) leads its division by a game over Upper Moreland (11-6, 7-3), while the Colonials (9-4, 6-3 SOL Liberty Division) since in third in its division behind Upper Dublin (14-1, 9-0) and Abington (11-3, 7-1).

Lilly Hansen led UM with 15 points, and Mikel Lancit chipped in seven. The Colonials got nine points each from AJ Avery and Eliza Meersman.

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Other results

— Council Rock South boys survived a double-overtime thriller and upset Souderton 77-74. Ryan Delp drilled a buzzer-beating 3-pointer for the Titans (4-10, 2-6 SOL Colonial). Michael Burns scored 22 points and had five assists and four rebounds in the win; Tim Rahill added 22 points; and Jordan Getz (four dimes), Gabe Cerulli (three assists, seven rebounds) and Ryan Wekluk each had nine points. Souderton (7-9, 5-5) got 23 points from Bill Sackor and 19 apiece from Clinton Kikonjo and Nolan Watkins.