City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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LOWER GWYNEDD – Before she took the floor for the Gwynedd Mercy girls basketball team this winter, freshman Ali Kaltenbacher was hauling in passes for the Monarchs’ flag football team.

It turns out the skillsets translate quite well.

“Rebounds. Definitely rebounds,” Kaltenbacher said of where her football skills show up on the court. “It helps a lot playing football because I go up for it. It’s really good.”

Kaltenbacher seemed to come down with every shot that clinked off the rim Saturday during No. 1 Gwynedd Mercy’s District 1-5A playback game against No. 5 Lower Moreland.

An eight-point, 13-point effort — in just three quarters of action — was a boost for the Monarchs as they clinched a spot in states with a 52-32 victory over the Lions.

The Monarchs (21-5) needed the victory to keep their season alive after No. 9 Bishop Shanahan upset Gwynedd in its district opener Tuesday, less than a week after it rolled to an AACA championship.

Gwynedd jumped on Lower Moreland (17-9) early, scoring 18 of the first 20 points, including nine from sophomore Emilia Coleman. Coleman, who finished with a game-high 20 points, had 18 in the first half to spot the Monarchs a 35-14 lead at the break. The Lions got 10 points from junior Dani Brusha, but never found a way back in the game.

“It was like we have nothing to lose,” Kaltenbacher said. “If we lose then we’re out, if we win then we get to keep going. We just all were trying our hardest and working as a team.”

Kaltenbacher didn’t know heading into her freshman campaign the role she would play for Gwynedd. She anticipated starter her career on the JV team.

But she proved pretty early on this season the type of role she could have as a rebounder. Coach Tom Lonergan thinks she might be his only player in 40 years of coaching to average more than 10 rebounds per game in a season. She’s been happy to let Coleman and others like sophomore Bailey Balkir (eight points on Saturday) handle most of the scoring while she does the dirty work down low.

“I knew Bailey and Emilia were really good scorers, so I knew I wasn’t going to top them in anything and they’re both guards,” Kaltenbacher said. “So I just had to be a post player like I am and just get the rebounds and help them out.”

Kaltenbacher started playing football after the pandemic. A woman who babysat her sister had a daughter who started playing the sport. She suggested Kaltenbacher give it a try. 

Her athletic ability was a natural fit as she was hauling in one-handed touchdowns as a seventh grader.

Along with playing for Gwynedd’s flag football team in its inaugural season last spring, Kaltenbacher was defensive back and wide receiver for the 15U U.S. Girls’ Flag National Team, competing in the International Cup in Charlotte, N.C. last summer. She will try out again in March.

“It was like after COVID, somebody told me to play for fun and then I just play a lot now,” Kaltenbacher said. “I really liked it.”

She doesn’t consider herself a basketball or football player, happy to excel at both sports. Right now it’s still time to help Gwynedd see how far it can go into states after a seeding game against Radnor on Tuesday.

“I really want to get to states and get farther with this team because I think we’re really good this year,” Kaltenbacher said.

Gwynedd Mercy 52, Lower Moreland 32

By Quarter

LM  4 | 10 | 6 | 12 || 32

GM  18 | 17 | 12 | 5 || 52

Scoring

LM: Dani Brusha 10, Sydney Santora 8, Briana McFerran 6, Mollie Martin 4, Emma DiJoseph 3, Maddie Broderick 1.

GM: Emilia Coleman 20, Ali Kaltenbacher 8, Bailey Balkir 8, Megan McDonnell 6, Lauren Drakeley 4, Cara Lapp 2, Brooke Evans 2, Dylan Burke 2.

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Lone senior Brown finishes up Lower Moreland career 

In the last two seasons, Amelia Brown has followed postseason runs with the Lower Moreland girls soccer team into short seasons in the winter.

The Holy Family soccer commit had experienced winning on the pitch, including two division titles, but never on the hardwood.

Brown didn’t get the chance to go deep with the Lions this fall. The only senior on the team. made up for it this winter ending her career with a run to the district quarterfinals — the program’s deepest run in four years.

“This is the furthest we’ve ever gone in all the sports that I played,” Brown said.

“In the past three years, we weren’t really that skilled or anything like that,” Brown said. “This year it was really cool to experience. There was a really good freshman class coming up and (Dani Brusha) came over from Abington. We had a lot of skilled players this year, and it really brought us far.”

Lower Moreland went 8-14 and missed the postseason entirely a season ago. With the addition of a talented freshman group, including Sydney Santora, Emma DiJoseph, Mollie Martin and Maddie Broderick, Brown could see things start to change last summer during the Lions’ summer league.

It carried into this winter as Lower Moreland won its first Suburban One Leage Freedom Division title since joining the league in 2020-21 and won its most games since 2019. This was Lower Moreland’s first district appearance since 2020, when assistant Ceili' Courduff (who also played soccer at Holy Family) was a senior on the team. 

A  first-round win over Upper Merion marked the program's first district playoff win since 2019 in the Class 4A division 

“(My role was) just to lead the team,” Brown said. “As freshmen, obviously they’re going to have those freshmen moments. It was just to keep their heads up and tell them that.”

Brown didn’t score a point in her final high school basketball game, but made sure to leave her mark in the book with five fouls, getting a moment to be recognize late in the fourth as she exited the game.

She knows while this year was fun, next season the Lions should have a group capable of even more. Juniors Briana McFerran and Brusha will be back with the talented freshmen class with some of the nerves from this year's postseason run out of the way.

“I think next year the team’s going to go really far,” Brown said. “Only losing one senior, it’s a really good opportunity for those girls coming up, and I’m excited to see where everything goes.”