City of Basketball Love

Christy Selagy (@ChristySelagy)
––

HOLLAND — The West Chester Henderson girls basketball team came into Saturday's District 1 Class 6A playback game on the heels of a 29-point loss to Garnet Valley, snapping a 15-game winning streak that dated back to early January.

It was a frustrating loss, one that could easily discourage or derail plenty of teams and players.

But not No. 10 Henderson. And not senior Whitney Evans, who scored a game-high 28 points, en route to a 57-56 overtime win against No. 18-seeded Council Rock South on Saturday afternoon.

“We knew we had another shot to keep playing, so we fought,” Evans said. “I knew I needed to step up. A lot of people aren’t feeling well or [have] injuries, so I knew I needed to come and try to give it my all. I’m happy that I was able to."

With the win, Henderson is guaranteed a spot in the PIAA Class 6A state tournament, with two more playback games to determine seeding. It will be the first time any of the girls on the Ches-Mont championship squad play in a state game.

“I couldn’t be more proud of these kids,” Henderson coach Greta Neff said. “Credit to Council Rock South, they are a tough basketball team, and [junior Kathryn O’Kane], she took it to us every time. But I give my kids a ton of credit. We hung in there, made runs at the right time and each one of our girls found a moment to step up and be big.”

In the first overtime game of the season for the Warriors, Evans came up with lots of big plays, none more so than a game-tying layup with 10 seconds left in regulation.

Council Rock South was also coming off a 25-plus-point loss, but that didn’t seem to bother the Golden Hawks, either, who started off Saturday’s playback game with a 5-0 run. The first two quarters were close, and the teams headed to halftime tied at 22-22.

And then the third quarter happened. CR South nearly doubled their points, running up a 43-35 lead heading into the final eight minutes. Ideal? No, but Neff wasn’t too concerned.

“We’ve done that a lot this year,” Neff said. “We kind of like to put ourselves in a hole and come back, so it wasn’t unfamiliar territory. [Heading into the fourth quarter,] we just talked about, ‘Listen, it’s a game of runs and we just have to make a run. We’ve got to continue doing what we’re doing.’ It wasn’t that we weren’t getting the shots we wanted, we just couldn’t put them in, and once we had the opportunity to get a little bit more aggressive on the defensive end, that really turned our offense around.”

Aggressive defense might be an understatement — the Warriors held the Golden Hawks to only seven points in the fourth quarter, all of which came from free throws.

Spurred on by an increasingly loud crowd — including Henderson’s boys team, which won its quarterfinal game Friday — the Warriors chipped away at CR South’s lead.

The final two minutes of regulation were when things really picked up — or slowed down, technically. 

After Council Rock South junior Liliana Metrick hit a pair of free throws to give the Golden Hawks a five-point lead, Evans responded with two free throws of her own less than 20 seconds later. 

West Chester Henderson celebrates after beating Council Rock South on Saturday to clinch a PIAA tournament berth. (Photo: Christy Selagy/CoBL)

And the foul shots kept coming for both teams. Including Metrick and Evans’, there were 16 free throws in the final two minutes of regulation, Henderson inching closer, but not quite able to close the gap. Until, with 10 seconds left, Evans made a layup to tie the game 50-50.

Heading into overtime, Henderson junior Ari Rivera had only scored one point, but came up big for her team in the final four minutes. After the Golden Hawks took a 52-51 lead, Rivera made a layup and Evans hit a free throw shortly thereafter to give the Warriors the lead.

A 3-pointer from senior Lily Bross put CR South in front again with 1:12 left to play. But less than 30 seconds later, Rivera converted an and-one to give her team the lead — this time for good. And, fittingly, her free throw was the difference-maker that sealed the Warriors’ one-point win.

“We’re a really, really close team,” said Rivera, who was swarmed by her entire family after the game. “I had confidence in us, and we pulled through the whole game. We did really well. I’m really proud of my team.”

O’Kane led CR South with 19 points, while classmates Metrick and Fiona Reckner chipped in 14 each. The Golden Hawks were without senior starter Cam Gregory the entire game, and fellow senior Haley Thompson left in the third quarter due to injury.

While it wasn’t the result first-year head coach Jesse Krasna wanted, he still saw plenty of positives in the game and throughout the season, in which the Golden Hawks advanced past the first round of the District 1 playoffs for the first time since the 2011-12 season.

“I’m proud of our girls,” Krasna said. “They really competed hard, and we played really hard offensively. We made shots and moved the ball well. … I don’t think it necessarily got us to the end goal, where we want to be, but I do think that as the season went on, we really started to catch on and understand [each other], started to play really well because of that.”

~~~

By Quarter

West Chester Henderson: 12 | 10 | 13 | 15 | 7 || 57

Council Rock South: 11 | 11 | 21 | 7 | 6 || 56

Scoring

West Chester Henderson: Whitney Evans 28, Jackie Shea 10, Bailey Schalleur 8, Ari Rivera 6, Grace O’Loughlin 3, Mary Cate Killoran 2

Council Rock South: Kathryn O’Kane 19, Liliana Metrick 14, Fiona Reckner 14, Lily Bross 5, Miranda Cantor 2, Haley Thompson 2