City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Less than a half-hour after her West Chester East girls completed a wild, come-from-behind overtime win over Kennett in the Ches-Mont League semifinals, Erin Listrani wasn’t fazed in the slightest. 

“Not one thing that happened in that game surprised me, because that’s kind of the way that we play and we’ve been in situations like that before,” the Vikings’ head coach said. “I was just letting them know [in the post-game locker room] I’m proud of them, and they took advantage of the moment.”

The Vikings are into the Ches-Mont championship game for the first time in the league’s modern history, in search of the program’s first league title since 2002 after a 53-48 victory over the Blue Devils on Saturday afternoon at West Chester University’s Hollinger Gymnasium.

Sophomore guard Lauren Horan scored 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the way for East (17-6), the Ches-Mont National Division champs bouncing back from a regular-season-ending loss to Downingtown West to start their postseason off right.

Horan’s classmate Carly Bickle added 15 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer to start off overtime, as well as a put-back of her own missed trey to keep her team up three with 2:30 left in the extra session. Sofia Keith added 11 points, nine rebounds and three blocks to the winning effort.

“We’re where we are today because of all of these kids,” Listrani said. “A lot of teams have one or two kids that get a lot of attention, put up a lot of numbers, but what makes our team special is that every one is the way they play together and how special every player is on my team, and I just love them to death.”

It was a measure of revenge for East, which lost to Kennett 41-37 on Jan. 27. It looked like recent history might repeat itself, the Blue Devils holding a three-point lead with 70 seconds after a layup by senior point guard Mary Carroll (9 points, 6 assists, 4 steals).

But the Vikings got a game-tying 3-pointer from junior Annalise Kubasko with 10 seconds left to send things into the extra period. 

“We just don’t give up,” Listrani said. “Kubasko hit that huge shot and she hadn’t hit one all night. That’s the way that this team is, they do not give up — if there’s time left on the clock, we’re fighting.”

Mia Matthews led Kennett (17-7) with 15 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 5:33 to go in the fourth quarter. Junior Quin Simmons had seven of her 10 points in the fourth quarter to help Kennett stay ahead, but the Blue Devils went 3-of-8 from the foul line in overtime after missing a few key ones down the stretch in regulation.

The last time East was in the Ches-Mont Final Four was in 2020, when it lost to Great Valley in the semifinals. To capture the program’s first league title in 22 years, East will have to get through district rival West Chester Henderson, which beat Unionville 45-38 in the second Ches-Mont semi-final Saturday afternoon. The two teams split their regular-season meetings, East winning by five at Henderson in December and Henderson returning the favor with a six-point win in January.

No matter who wins, it’ll be three years in a row that the Ches-Mont trophy stays in West Chester, after West Chester Rustin won it all the last two seasons.

“It was a goal they had since last season, we were here watching Rustin’s success,” Listrani said. “Now we’re here, we might as well go and win it.”

By Quarter
WC East: 12  |   9   |   9   |  13  |  10  ||  53
Kennett:    8   |   7   |  13  |  15  |   5   ||  48

Shooting
WC East: 19-48 FG (5-16 3PT), 10-19 FT
Kennett: 15-40 FG (3-10 3PT), 15-27 FT

Scoring
WC East: Lauren Horan 16, Carly Bickle 15, Sofia Keith 11, Annalise Kubasko 4, Annie Kerns 3, Kayla Cochran 2, Lyla Flowers 2

Kennett: Mia Matthews 15, Quin Simmons 10, Mary Carroll 9, Bianca Comando 5, Sarah Miller 4, Greta Burns 3, Laki Frazier 2

~~~

Henderson blanks Unionville in third quarter to advance

As West Chester Henderson coach Greta Neff walked towards the locker room at halftime of her team’s semifinal game against Unionville, her Warriors down 10 points to the Longhorns, she turned to assistant coach Amy Buda, hoping her former West Chester University teammate could provide some help with turning things around.

“I was like ‘well?’ and she said ‘our defense is terrible,’ and I said ‘I don’t care about our defense — we can’t score,’” Neff said, plenty of emphasis on the last word. 

By the end of the third, neither one of the two could find much to complain about. Henderson pitched a shutout in the third quarter while its offense showed up, eight dominant minutes leading the way to a 45-38 win.

“We talked and challenged the kids to let it be more than Whitney [Evans] on the offensive and more than Jackie [Shea] on the defense end,” Neff said, referring to her two standout seniors. “They took it heart. I give those girls credit, they are resilient and they are fighters, I couldn’t be more proud.”

Trailing by 10 at halftime, Henderson flipped the game on its head with a 17-0 third quarter. The Warriors (19-5) forced eight Longhorns (15-8) turnovers and had four players into the scoring column, holding Unionville to just six shots in the period while taking 13 of their own (making six).

Evans, who finished with a team-high 17 points, and Shea, who was solid all-around with seven points, eight rebounds and four assists, still did their thing. But they got some help from the rest of the rotation, who all chipped in at key times.

The biggest shot was the run-ender, a 3-pointer by sophomore guard Bailey Schalleur giving them a 33-26 edge going into the fourth.

“That 3 was huge,” Neff said. “She’s so hot and cold but she’s hit some really big shots for us this year. We joke she’s like everybody’s little sibling, but she makes kids laugh and she keeps it light, and she gets out there and the girl hustles her butt off. Seeing her get rewarded with a big basket like that is really cool.”

Schalleur also added a pair of foul shots in the fourth quarter to help Henderson maintain a seven-point lead with 36 seconds left and close it out. Evans went 4-of-4 from the foul line in the fourth quarter as well, though Henderson as a team was 12-of-23 from the line for the game. 

Unionville committed 17 turnovers, a 20-point performance from junior Elle Johnson not getting enough support to overcome Henderson’s second-half defense.

“We got an opportunity to pressure a little bit more,” Neff said. “We’ve been much better this season when we can pressure the ball full court. Getting Jackie back out there underneath the basket to protect the paint is huge. The girls just kind of took it personally.

Neff, in her 10th year as Henderson’s head girls’ basketball coach, has been here before, guiding the Warriors to the 2018 Ches-Mont championship, the program’s first. That year, Grace Ferguson and Abbey Shea guided them to a 30-1 record, winning league and district titles along the way.

She might not have that huge frontcourt leading the way, but Neff knows her group has what it takes to overcome their West Chester rivals as they enter the title game on a 13-game winning streak.

“It’s always matchups, right?” she said. “We have an idea of what we’re going at, it’s a rubber match between the two of us. We’re just excited to be part of the game, to get back out there and do what we can.”

By Quarter
Unionville:    15  |  11  |   0   |  12  ||  38
Henderson:  10  |   6   |  17  |  12  ||  45

Shooting
Unionville: 15-34 FG (3-6 3PT), 5-6 FT
Henderson: 15-40 FG (3-15 3PT), 12-23 FT

Scoring
Unionville: Elle Johnson 20, Shannon Megill 6, Milana Amoss 4, Izzy Della Barba 3, Kerri Menninger 2, Allie D’Angelo 2, Savannah Lang 1

Henderson: Whitney Evans 17, Jackie Shea 7, Bailey Schalleur 7, Ari Rivera 6, Gabrielle Nanni 4, Lilli Bertrando 4