City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ad3robinson)
––

PHILADELPHIA >> Carolyn Prevost had one thing in mind when she decided to come back for one last go.

The Holy Family fifth-year forward and her teammates saw a season that had all the potential they could have dreamed of derailed by injuries and the attrition of playing shorthanded last year. Of course there was turnover, a couple names very important to the program taking their leave and an energetic new group in to replenish the roster, but that potential hadn’t left.

It’s early, but the Tigers are off to another strong start and they’re setting some high goals for themselves.

“Personally, I came back and took my fifth year because I see a championship,” Prevost said. “We were right there, so close even with all the adversity we hit. Everything in the book was thrown at us and we were so, so close. This year, the difference is we’ve been there now twice, we’re healthy and it’s right in our hands.”

Holy Family improved to 3-0 on the still-very young season in its home opener Thursday night with a 70-54 win over visiting West Chester. The Tigers jumped out to a 15-0 lead in the first quarter and saw their lead increase to as much as 20 briefly in the third quarter.

West Chester dropped to 0-3 on the season, with a young roster still putting itself together. The PSAC East squad did have something to celebrate with senior Anna McTamney scoring the 1000th point of her college career, the Plymouth Whitemarsh alum leading all scorers with 22 points.

The hosts were paced by junior Taylor Hinkle, who posted her first double-double of the season, the CB South grad posting 15 points and 13 rebounds, with junior Skyler Searfoss adding 14 points and freshman Amy Ngo chipping in a season-best nine points, seven of them coming in an electric second quarter for the Upper Dublin alum. Holy Family went 10 deep, with nine of them scoring and the bench paced by Ngo’s nine, eight from freshman Lola Ibarrondo (Neshaminy) and Claire Dougherty’s seven.

“We lost a good chunk of our team from last year and we have five new faces coming in, they never missed a beat,” Hinkle said. “In the summer, they worked hard and did what they needed to do. When you’re a freshman or on a new team, there’s nerves but they weren’t afraid to ask questions and they filled the footsteps of the five we lost.”

On paper, the Tigers didn’t have a bad 2023-24 campaign. Holy Family went 21-9, had an excellent 11-2 home record, played in the CACC semifinals and had their first All-CACC First Team selection since 2019-20 in Hinkle.

A 12-game winning streak had HFU sitting at 12-1 on Dec. 31, 2023 just about to hit conference play, then the injuries hit hard and fast. Whether they were season-ending, like those that sidelined Searfoss or Lindsay Tretter, or just an accumulation of various bumps, bruises and lingering issues that had to be dealt with, the Tigers weren’t at what they felt was their best the rest of the way.

Hinkle, now a junior, would have gladly traded that first team honor or any of the various other accolades she accrued last season just to have gotten to see what the team’s full-strength lineup could have done. While this year’s team can’t change the past, it certainly learned from it.

“We had to step into positions we weren’t comfortable with because of the injuries,” Prevost said. “Knowing our depth and what we’re capable of at any position, as Taylor mentioned, being ready to step up. It took a lot for us to grow from last year, we had some challenges getting there but now that we saw that adversity, we know that’s what we’re capable of, being strong in any spot we’re put in.”

“We were down to eight or nine people last year when we were dealing with all those injuries and we still got that close to winning a championship,” Hinkle said. “It shows everyone did everything we needed to do in the summer, preseason, conditioning tests - as awful as it was - we all stick together as one and we all have that same goal and that’s to win a championship.”

Prevost, who started all 60 games she played in the last two seasons and has started all three this year, was eager to return because of the potential she saw in this group. It’s a sentiment that she shared with the team’s other seniors, Jess Riepe and Ava Morrow, and one that HFU head coach Bernadette Laukaitis felt like stems from that trio of veterans.

Laukaitis pointed to Prevost, the 6-foot-1 post one of what the coaching staff views as a three-deep rotation at the five spot, for setting the standard the players who sub in for her follow.

“One thing we talked about with this group is that we’re going to do it our way. We know how we establish that, with the culture we’ve created, them feeling so comfortable right away, them knowing how important their role is, it comes from those veterans,” Laukaitis said. “Trust and respect are the two biggest things we build our team on. They all trust each other, they all have an enormous amount of respect for each other and know no matter what five are out there, we’re going to have success.”

Hinkle explained that every player on the team feels like they have a “counterpart,” or someone who can come in for them and fill the role seamlessly. Laukaitis noted she’s at the point with quite a few of the players that they can just look at each other and know what to do next on the court, which the Tigers coach attributed to the majority of the group playing together in a summer league the last few years.

Even those that haven’t like junior Kaelah Carter, a transfer in her first year with the program, the fit is still easy with the guard chipping in four points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals in her 29 minutes Thursday.

As an example, when Ngo got going Thursday, adding three steals to her seven points in the second quarter, the players on the bench didn’t see it as a freshman gunning for their minutes, but a teammate going all out to help extend their lead.

“A big part of our success comes from celebrating each other,” Prevost said. ‘’We’re excited for the person next to us, that is our identity. It’s an exciting year, knowing we have our point guard back in Skyler Searfoss and adding the players we did, there’s all the confidence in the world we can take this pretty far.”

If any team can appreciate how fickle the fortunes of a season can be, it’s this Holy Family group. So while the Tigers are well aware there is a lot of season in front of them and there’s plenty out there that they can’t control, they’re much more geared to handle what they can.

“Yes, it’s a long season. But especially being on this run, if we can continue that, yeah, it’s exciting,” Prevost said. “We’re looking for a championship.”

~~~

MILESTONE FOR MCTAMNEY

The first thing that stands out about Anna McTamney on a basketball court is her intensity.

A play off doesn’t seem to exist in the West Chester senior’s vernacular, so it’s not all that surprising she’s tallied 1,000 points at the high school level and now in college. Her path to 1K times two wasn’t traditional, a global pandemic and a school closing causing a couple swerves, but McTamney’s willingness to show up and do the work never waned.

It came in a loss, but McTamney had plenty of supporters on hand Thursday to see her break the 1,000-point barrier a second time during a 22-point effort.

“I’m just very grateful for this accomplishment, being able to do it in high school four years ago, it’s crazy I was able to do this even after everything,” McTamney said. “After freshman year (at USciences), I knew I wanted to transfer somewhere and continue playing but to be given this opportunity and reach this milestone, it’s just awesome.”

At Plymouth Whitemarsh, where she was the ninth girls’ player to break 1,000 points, McTamney saw her junior season cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic, then her senior year truncated under the various regulations that came after it. She still managed to get to a four-digit career scoring total, although the amount of people who got to see it was limited.

That was not the case on Thursday, as family, friends and some very loyal former teammates came down to northeast Philly to see her get a new 1,000. Taylor Hamm, Shannon May and Jules Gura, who all played with McTamney that last year at USciences, along with former Devils and now Arcadia coaches Jackie Hartzell and Jim Ricci formed their own McTamney section in the bleachers, complete with posters they made their former teammate take plenty of photos with.

“I remember in high school, it was an and-one, it was against Wissahickon and I needed 21 points and got 22,” McTamney said. “I’ve definitely expanded my game over the last few years.”

West Chester hadn’t been on McTamney’s radar coming out PW, but when the news broke USci was finished after the 2021-22 season, she needed a new home to keep playing. McTamney came in as part of a large group of newcomers that offseason who helped revitalize the program.

Golden Rams coaches Kiera Wooden and Allison Hostetter employed McTamney in new ways and it seemed fitting her 1,000th point in college came on a pull-up midrange jumper she admits she probably never would have taken four years ago.

“I’ve built great connections with both of them and I think I can go to them with anything and communicate smoothly what I feel, what I think will work and they’ll say the same things to me,” McTamney said. “That’s crucial in the way of how I play and them giving me the opportunity to do things on the floor that maybe another person wouldn’t get to do is awesome.”

It’s been a rough start for West Chester, the Golden Rams now 0-3 and yet to play on their home court. McTamney anticipated some growing pains with a lot of turnover on the roster this year and as long as she’s in purple and gold, she’s going to intensely try to get things going the right way.

“Ever since freshman year of high school, I’ve been coached to be determined and hard working and that continued on all throughout high school,” McTamney said. “It was very important to me that I continued that freshman year in college and continued to show how hard-working I am and how dedicated to this sport. I want to win and do anything possible that I have to.”

Holy Family's Jess Riepe (42) celebrates during Holy Family's win over West Chester on Thursday, Nov. 14. (Photo courtesy Nick Textores/Holy Family)