City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WEST CHESTER  — For two years, Sophia Tray watched Carly Catania impact the game in all sorts of ways for Villa Maria. 

Catania, a 5-foot-11 forward, helped the Hurricanes to the District 1 5A championship game and into the state playoffs each of the last two years, her ability to compile points, rebounds, assists, steals, and some of everything else on a game-to-game basis a major reason for her teams’ success each of those seasons. Tray had her hand in things as well, hitting a couple big shots during Villa’s 2023 Catholic Academies (AACA) championship win over Gwynedd Mercy, but for the majority of the last two years, Catania was the top draw. 

With Catania now off at New Hampshire to start her college career, it’s now up to Tray to not just score, but do a little — or a lot — of everything else as well. 

“The biggest takeaway I had from her was [that[ she never gave up,” Tray said. “She played 32 minutes, hard. She played all 32 minutes, she didn’t take a break, and I think I’m just trying to do the same.”

Tray pulled that off in Villa Maria’s season opener, the junior wing and lacrosse standout stuffing the stat sheet as the Hurricanes withstood a sharpshooting Bishop Shanahan squad for a 48-40 win on Friday afternoon at West Chester Henderson. The 5-foot-9 junior wing scored 12 points, grabbed eight rebounds — six on the offensive end — and dished out five assists for Villa, which is coming off a 17-win season that ended in the first round of the PIAA Class 5A state tournament. 

Central Bucks South beat West Chester Henderson, 46-35, in the opening game of the doubleheader. Henderson will play Villa Maria and South will play Shanahan on Saturday morning.

The best athlete on the court, Tray was almost constantly involved in the action, whether it was chasing down a loose ball, tipping up rebounds in the post for a teammate to grab or wrestling one away herself, while constantly keeping the ball and herself moving at all times. 

It’s the exact type of effort that longtime Villa coach Kathy McCartney expects from the Loyola (Md.) lacrosse commit, who’s also a reserve on the Villa field hockey squad which just made it to the state’s big-school (3A) state championship game.

“She’s just a helluva athlete,” McCartney said. “She’s not as schooled a basketball player as she is a lacrosse player, but it doesn’t matter, because her athleticism lets her go get a rebound when you think we’re not going to get it. We’re going to rely heavily on that this year.”

As for her direction to Tray, McCartney keeps it simple: “Go be you. Go do what you do. Create havoc on defense, come up with the loose balls [...] she can do it all, and her versatility is going to really help us.”

Though lacrosse is her main sport, Tray is no stranger to success on the hardwood. As an eighth grader at St. Anastasia’s in Newtown Square, she was on a CYO team that won the state championship, playing with the likes of O’Hara’s Natalie DiBlasi and Brigidanne Donohue and Notre Dame’s Maddie DeFronzo and Riley McDonnell, among others. 

That put her in a position of being a leader on a successful team at a young age, which is why she’s happy to be a leader on a Villa squad filled with underclassmen along with seniors Abby Ferry and Sierra Dean. 

“The leadership you show on the court really impacts the whole team,” Tray said. “When someone makes a mistake, I’m like ‘keep your head up, you got it,’ it helps them in their mind, they’re underclassmen, they’re nervous, they haven’t played in games like this. We have big sophomores and freshmen that stepped up in this game, just being there for them and giving them a high-five really helps them play better.”

That was certainly the case for freshman Erin Urbanski, who had a team-high 14 points for Villa Maria in her varsity debut, and sophomore Anna Vickers, who came off the bench to hit 3-of-5 from 3-point range, including three straight in the second half; fellow sophomore Ava Broadhurst added four points of her own in the third quarter.

Those were big shots as Villa turned a 15-11 halftime lead into a double-digit advantage early in the fourth quarter, even as Shanahan’s Lauren Foster (20 points, four 3’s) kept her team in it with her own second-half sharpshooting. 

“The bench was great today,” McCartney said. “Great today. We’ve been preaching that all year, that we’re young but there’s a lot of bodies. So let’s just go. When I put you in the game, go as hard as you can, we’ll get you a rest. And the next kid will come in and fill it up, hopefully, and they did today. Anna Vickers and Ava Broadhurst off the bench really brought it today.”

By Quarter
VM:   8   |   7   |  19  |  14  ||  48
BS:   7   |   4   |  14  |  15  ||  40

Shooting
VM: 15-41 FG (5-14 3PT), 13-18 FT
BS: 11-32 FG (7-14 3PT), 11-14 FT

Scoring
VM: Erin Urbanski 14, Sophia Tray 12, Anna Vickers 9, Abby Ferry 6, Ava Broadhurst 4, Becca Craft 3

BS: Lauren Foster 20, Abby Garrity 9, Zuri Peterson 9, Annie Udo 3

~~~

Game One: CB South 46, West Chester Henderson 35

The Titans’ victory was a tale of two halves.

CB South led by two at the break but had committed 10 turnovers in the first two quarters, the 11 o’clock starting time the day after Thanksgiving after just a couple weeks of practices probably more than a bit of the culprit. But Beth Mattern’s group turned it around, a 17-5 third quarter leading the way to a 46-35 win. 

Junior forward Jules Tropea led CB South (1-0) with a 15-point, 11-rebound double-double, grabbing six of those on the offensive end. Three other seniors all had productive mornings: Ella Wheeler added nine points, five rebounds and four steals; Mia Klein had five points, 10 rebounds, two assists and two steals. Morgan McKeever chipped in eight points, four rebounds and two assists off the bench.

The Titans as a squad compiled 15 assists on 19 made baskets, cutting down their turnovers significantly in the second half. 

“I thought they did a great job sharing the ball, and one of the nice things about this group is I don’t expect any of them to be a ball hog,” Mattern said. “In fact, at times I think we’ll make the next pass one too many times but you know, today, I’ll take that.”

Freshman guard Brooke Forcine led Henderson (0-1) with 16 points in her first varsity game; junior guard Bailey Schalleur added 14 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals, hitting four 3-pointers.

(Note: My stats had it as 47-35 with Ella Wheeler scoring 10 points, but the official book had it as 46-35 with Wheeler having nine points. We trust our numbers, but have to go with the official book.)

By Quarter
WCH:  6   |  10  |   5   |  14  ||  35
CBS:   6   |  12  |  17  |  11  ||  46

Shooting
WCH: 12-45 FG (7-22 3PT), 4-8 FT
CBS: 19-42 FG (1-8 3PT), 7-13 FT

Scoring
WCH: Brooke Forcine 16, Bailey Schalleur 14, Grace O’Loughlin 3, Mary Cate Killoran 1, Ari Rivera 1

CBS: Jules Tropea 15, Ella Wheeler 9, Morgan McKeever 8, Mia Klein 5, Gabby Tropea 4, Megan Schmidt 3, Anna Granito 2