City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
––

HAVERTOWN — With 7.7 seconds remaining, Caleigh Sperling stepped to the line and knocked down her first free throw, touching only twine. 

Now for the second one. 

The North Penn girls basketball senior went into her routine: one dribble, a second dribble, shot. This time, the ball hit every part of the rim before ricocheting off the backboard and falling through the hoop. 

“That one kind of stressed me out,” Sperling said. “But I had confidence that it would probably go in, in the end.”

Those two free throws were her fifth and sixth made foul shots of the quarter and made it a two-possession game.

North Penn held on Saturday at Juenger Gymnasium with a 46-41 win over Haverford High to advance to the semifinals in the District 1 Class 6A Tournament, and Sperling’s scoring was the main reason. 

The Jefferson-bound senior finished the game with 28 points and was equally effective converting at the free-throw line (11 of 12) as she was from beyond the 3-point arc (three 3-pointers). 

“She works so incredibly hard, and she takes games like this personally. She puts it on her shoulders,” Knights head coach Brianna Cullen said. “Seeing a senior step up in a big moment, especially at the end of the game, wanting the ball, wanting to go to the free-throw line, it just shows what a leader she is.” 

Saturday’s rematch of a mid-January game was a back-and-forth contest that was tied at the end of the first and third quarters. North Penn leaned on Sperling throughout the contest to pick up their second win of the season over the Fords.

Haverford had success breaking the Knights’ 2-2-1 full-court press in the first quarter as Anya Eberhart continually dropped on-the-money, full-court dimes to either Ashley Wright or Rian Dotsey for layups or drawn fouls.

But Sperling had 12 of North Penn’s 13 first-quarter points, including hitting two 3s. Her 3-point prowess came up big again late in the first half when she used a Tallie Smink on-ball screen to get just enough room to drain her third over Eberhart’s contest. 

Sperling attributes her shooting abilities to her mother, Jenna Sperling, a former Drexel basketball player. This past summer, the two of them worked on a lot of five-spot and form-shooting drills at their local gym. 

“My parents really helped me work on my shot a lot last summer because I realized that I’d be going against bigger and better girls, so you’ll have to be able to score at all three levels,” Sperling said. 

That training came up big in the first half, but after a strong defensive showing from the Fords in the second half, someone else’s outside shot proved consequential. 

In the third quarter, Dotsey got in a groove defensively, blocking two shots and getting a steal. Wright had two steals in the fourth quarter, and though she didn’t register any counting defensive stats, Tess Durfee might’ve been the most disruptive, locking off Sperling in the game's final frame. 

With the increased defensive intensity and Eberhart, Dotsey and Wright leading the way offensively, the Fords took a 37-36 lead into a timeout with 2:05 remaining. 

“We’ve been in situations like this before,” Cullen said about her message to her team during the timeout. 

“We have the experience, we’ve played in hard games all year, we know what this feels like. Just keep our heads and have fun more than anything. Because moments like this you’re never going to get back, and you’re going to enjoy right now more than ever.” 

Cullen’s squad responded to their coach’s reminder by making a defensive stand of their own, forcing a turnover right after the inbound. 

On the Knights’ next possession, Leah Mikulski secured an offensive rebound from a mob under the rim. She shoveled the ball to Olivia Stone, who knocked down the biggest 3-pointer of the afternoon to give North Penn a 39-37 lead with a minute remaining. 

“I think it speaks to her ability to come back,” Cullen said. “She wasn’t shooting well in the first half, comes out and hits that huge 3 with no doubt in the world that it was going to go in. … It was a big moment for her.” 

After that, Sperling’s perfect free-throw shooting in the game's final minute secured the Knights a spot in the District 1 semifinals, where they’ll meet tournament favorite Perkiomen Valley. 

Haverford begins preparations for the PIAA tournament, which starts March 8, after locking up a spot in Wednesday’s win over Abington.

~~~

By Quarter

North Penn: 13 | 10 | 7 | 16 || 46

Haverford High: 13 | 6 | 11 | 11 || 41

Scoring

North Penn: Caleigh Sperling 28, Olivia Stone 8, Lily Brown 5, Leah Mikulski 5

Haverford: Rian Dotsey 18, Ashley Wright 13, Aniya Eberhart 6, Natalie Wright 4