City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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LANSDALE — Emily Knouse wrapped her hands around the ball then took a quick glance to her left at the scoreboard, a smile spreading across her face as the last seconds wound off.

The Archbishop Wood junior freely admitted there was still some hurt from the way things ended last time she had played against Lansdale Catholic, so Tuesday night was a get-back game. Knouse’s second quarter alone would have been a career night for most anyone else, but it was the defensive end where she and her teammates first planted their feet and drew the line.

Knouse and Ava Renninger combined for 55 points, and with Alexa Windish’s swarming defense, the Vikings handed the Crusaders their first Philadelphia Catholic League loss of the season, 70-52.

“Keeping our focus, that’s the most important thing,” Windish said. “We come off a big win, yes that’s exciting, but we still have a job that’s not finished.”

Knouse scored 34 points, 20 of them coming during an ethereal display of shooting in the second quarter where she went 7-of-7 from the floor and 6-of-6 from 3-point territory, each one a bit more audacious than the last. The point total, per the team’s X account, tied a school single-game record, and the fact it came on the home end of the floor with LC’s max-capacity student section split up on both sidelines made it so much better.

“It was great, they were so loud and they hate Wood,” Knouse said. “It’s a high school game, but it means a lot. It definitely felt great to quiet them down.”

The game started back and forth, last year’s PCL finalists trading baskets for six minutes until a 6-0 Wood run with Knouse assisting the first score then netting the last two. That gave her seven points and the Vikings a 12-8 lead. LC cut it to one, then Knouse went off.

The first 3 was more bad luck on LC’s part than anything, a scramble for a loose ball ending up with Lauren Greer, who made the pass out to Knouse at the top of the key for the make. When Knouse hit the next one, assisted by Greer again, then the next one, assisted by Renninger, the Wood side of the gym felt something starting to brew.

On the fourth one, a deep look from straightaway that left Knouse raising both arms to up the noise from the Vikings fans, the heater was officially on.

The Crusaders weren’t trying to let the top shooter from the team on the Bucks side of County Line Road get open look after open look, but it kept happening. It was a screen or a cut that would break Lansdale Catholic’s defense and leave Knouse open, the frantic close-outs coming after she’d already taken the shot.

“We made too many mistakes, and they capitalized on them,” LC coach Eric Gidney said. “Some of them were very head-scratching. Losing Knouse — Mike (McDonald) always does a really good job and always has his players in the right position — but a lot of things she did to get her shots off required very little energy on her part, they were legit eight-foot cuts from the slot and we just lost her, completely forgot she was even there.”

Knouse’s fifth triple was a deep hit off the right wing on an open look, and she finished the long-range barrage with another wing trey off a drive-and-kick by Windish. The junior wrapped up her could-do-no-wrong third by banking in a runner with 46 seconds left, giving her 20 points and about as many looks or gestures of dejection from the LC student section.

For the game, Knouse shot 10-of-14 from the floor, 7-of-10 on 3s and 7-of-8 at the line.

“I was wanting the ball, but my teammates were also amazing in wanting to get me the ball,” Knouse said. “Everyone is super unselfish, making that extra pass. I hoped it was this game, I talked about revenge a little bit earlier — it still hurts, that final loss — but it felt great to come in here and tear up the place.”

Windish had a rough day Sunday against nationally ranked Westtown and knew it. The senior also knew the best way to get over it was to do the work Tuesday, especially on the defensive end, where she drew the assignment of marking LC sniper Olivia Boccella.

Boccella finished with a team-high 15, five of them coming during a brief respite on the bench for Windish in the third, but Windish didn’t give up any of them easily.

The Kutztown recruit also scored eight points, her corner 3 off a Renninger dime with 4:43 left quelling an LC run that had gotten the lead to 10, but it was the co-captain’s defense that shined.

“I knew my job going into the game,” Windish said. “It was to execute going over screens, stay on her — like, completely on her — and not let go of her. Kudos to her, she’s a really good player, and I think I just needed to do whatever I could for my team and I just went out there and did the best that I can.”

Tuesday’s contest had a decidedly physical feel to it. Windish said she picked up that the officials were going to let the teams play it a bit, and it only served to fuel her motivation.

The high point of her night was the five-second call she drew hounding Boccella in the second half. 

“I want to go out there and bring any sort of energy, especially with a student section like that, it just makes me angrier so I want to use that as fuel,” Windish said. “I was definitely hearing some chirping in my ear, I just wanted to try and let go and keep playing.”

Windish is the team leader in charges taken, and while she hasn’t quite had the impact offensively she wanted to this season, the other things she does aren’t looked over by her teammates.

“Coach Mike made a huge point of that, we really scouted them and went over them well,” Knouse said. “Alexa did an amazing job just following (Boccella) in circles around the court; she’s a great player, and Lex did a great job.”

Stopping Boccella was one cornerstone. The other was limiting the damage that forward Grace McDonough could do inside, and that task once again required Knouse to size up on defense. 

Knouse has become Wood’s big by default this season with Colleen Besachio injured, and the junior is getting a feel for it. Covering the 6-foot-2 McDonough brought a different challenge than some of her other post matchups thus far, but Knouse was determined to dig in and do her job.

“In other games it was just stay between her and the basket, but in this one it was more you had to push her out so she wouldn’t have an easy right-handed layup because she is a really strong and tough post player,” Knouse said of McDonough.

LC committed to not having any further breakdowns on Knouse in the second half. The Wood junior missed her only field goal attempt, didn’t take a 3 and got her last seven points at the foul line. What the hosts couldn’t do was slow down senior point guard Renninger, who scored 19 of her 21 points in the second half.

Both teams are right back on the grindstone Friday, LC hosting Archbishop Carroll as it tries to snap its first two-game losing skid since February of 2022, which ironically, came against Wood and Carroll. 

Wood hosts Neumann-Goretti, the last two unbeaten teams in the PCL.

By Quarter

Archbishop Wood: 12 | 21 | 19 | 18 || 70

Lansdale Catholic: 8 | 14 | 14 | 16 || 52

Scoring

Archbishop Wood: Emily Knouse 34, Ava Renninger 21, Alexa Windish 8, Laren Greer 4, Sophia Topakas 3

Lansdale Catholic: Olivia Boccella 15, Sanyiah Littlejohn 14, Grace McDonough 9, Aubrey Mobley 8, Allie Esposito 6