City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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FRANCONIA >> After a turnaround fall season in soccer that came with renewed success and confidence, Souderton’s Julia Purvy and Emily Dick wanted to bring it inside with them for basketball.

The duo made sure Souderton came out of the Jim Church Classic with a trophy, combining for 33 points in Saturday’s 48-44 win over William Tennent in the championship game. They’re not the only two stepping up early on and their energy seems to be catching on around a team that’s looking for a little more success and confidence of its own coming off a difficult 2023-24 season.

It’s early and there’s still plenty of work to do, but Souderton is feeling good so far.

“We had a comeback type of season in soccer and I believe we can have it in basketball too,” Dick said. “We have that confidence and we’re bringing it into this season as well.”

“Everyone here works really hard,” Purvy said. “We all want to get better every day. So I knew good things were going to happen.”

Dick, a junior who plays goalkeeper, and Purvy, a sophomore who plays forward, both earned Honorable Mention All-SOL Colonial honors this fall. Souderton finished the season 8-10-0 with a 2-8-0 mark in the division, placing 32nd in the District 1 Class 4A rankings.

That may not seem like much, the team finishing four slots out of a district playoff bid, but coming off a 2-15 season in 2023, it was a major improvement. The team as a whole was much more competitive, which Dick and Purvy attributed to first-year head coach Melissa Lollar and individually, they both saw a rise in their level of play.

Souderton basketball coach Lynn Carroll has seen it as well with both players stepping into more prominent roles.

“The way Julia is stepping up and the way Emily is stepping up, they’re playing with such confidence,” Carroll said. “They helped turn around the soccer program, all conference nominations for both of them, it definitely came to our team with them.”

Souderton celebrates its championship win. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

Purvy began last season as a swing player between varsity and JV. That didn’t last long and she’s only continued to improve, earning tournament MVP honors on Saturday with a 20-point effort that included the go-ahead free throws late in the fourth quarter.

What the sophomore may not have in size, she makes up for in speed, athleticism and hustle. Carroll said Purvy has been shooting the ball well but against Tennent, she was at her best going to the rim and slicing through the lane to score or draw contact.

“I built my confidence, I took more shots and practiced more,” Purvy said. “It starts with overall hard work and being accountable, you want teammates who are there for each other.”

While Souderton doesn’t have a lot of size, Dick doesn’t mind playing big on the inside. The junior, who is pretty athletic in her own right as more than a few soccer players who tried to score on her in the fall would attest, finished with 13 points against the Panthers to earn All-Tournament honors.

“There’s no one on this team I wouldn’t believe in,” Dick said. “I like the offense we’re playing but I think it’s our defense that’s really helping us this season. We still have to work on boxing out and getting rebounds but it’s something we can all do.” 

Saturday’s win improved Souderton to 3-1 in the early season. Last year, Big Red went 3-19 overall, so they’ve already equaled their win total from a year ago a week into the season but there’s still plenty of work to do.

Souderton has also stayed resilient despite losing a couple expected contributors to injury. Jac Bermel went down for the season in the fall, while sophomore Kiera Fadden - who Carroll expected to be a significant piece defensively - is out for an extended amount of time.

There’s not a true standout or go-to player on this team, but that’s fine. Purvy has confidence in any of her teammates to shoot and Dick added when she subs out, she trusts whoever is coming in.

“Avie Sackor comes off the bench, she plays good defense and she hustles,” Carroll said. “The way Madison Bealer is defending basically for 32 minutes the other team’s best player, losing Kiera was a huge blow and Madison stepped into that role and is doing it really well. Olivia Herron gives us great minutes, Alaian Picard is shooting the ball well. It’s a good, solid team win.”

Carroll kept her team busy in the summer and fall and she lauded the entire group’s participation throughout the offseason. Even in the midst of soccer season, Dick and Purvy were regular attendees with plenty of motivation to make that time.

“I realized in the fall that we were growing as a team,” Dick said. “It was something where I wanted to be there because I knew in the winter, that team chemistry would help us a lot.”

Tennent, which went shot-for-shot with Souderton in a very entertaining game, is in a similar place of looking for more success this season. The Panthers brought back two all-league starters in junior guards Avery Kocur and Halie Staub but have a young team around them.

 Staub had nine points and five steals while sophomore Megan Volz finished with 14 points despite first half foul trouble. Kocur netted 14 points, the two-time first team All-SOL Freedom pick adding four steals, but none in the fourth quarter as Souderton paid her full attention defensively with Bealer getting most of that work.

Carroll also made sure to give Brooke Fenchel her props. The lone senior on last year’s team, Fenchel - who now plays at Messiah - made it her goal to put the program on the path to better things even if she wouldn’t be there to benefit from that growth.

“I’m really happy for them. Last season was not fun but they hung in and hung in,” Carroll said. “We played a lot of basketball together this summer and I think it’s why we are where we are right now. It’s all starting to pay off, but it started at the end of last season.”

By Quarter
SOUDERTON 6 | 13 | 15 | 14 || 48
WILLIAM TENNENT 8 | 11 | 15 | 10 || 44

Scoring
S: Julia Purvy 20, Olivia Herron 2, Madison Bealer 5, Alaina Picard 6, Emily Dick 13, Avie Sackor 2

WT: Aubrey Lynch 2, Avery Kocur 14, Halie Staub 9, Megan Volz 14, Carissa Malpezzi 2, Giada Cosenza 3

Upper Dublin captured the boys' tournament trophy. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP: Upper Dublin 59, Souderton 42

The Cardinals have already seen a lot and they’re just four games into their schedule.

UD wrapped up a busy first eight days of the season with a solid win over host Souderton to repeat as the Jim Church Classic champions. After a back-and-forth start, the Cardinals used an 8-0 run in the first quarter to gain some control then worked to extend their lead with stout defense and patient offense.

Ryan Mulroy paced UD with 18 points, taking home tournament MVP while Idris Rines was also named to the All-Tournament team.

“We wanted to have a tough schedule, you want to go 4-0 but 3-1 is a good start,” UD coach Derek Brooks said. “Totally different styles, Souderton is a bit of a smaller team, we played a bigger team in Dowingtown West (Friday) night, La Salle who is super-physical and Lower Merion who is super-fast. Pretty happy, but we still have some stuff we need to build on.”

Souderton point guard Chanse Salone was a focal defensively, UD giving Kobe Bazemore and Reilly McLaughlin plenty of reps defending the talented facilitator and tried to limit Salone’s passing as much as anything. The junior did finish with 15 points but UD was able to contain Nolan Watkins, holding Souderton’s other top scorer to just two points.

“He’s a talented player, his first game he had 11 assists and he can score,” Brooks said. “Kobe loves to take out the opposing team’s best player and we just said make (Salone) work for everything today and Kobe and Reilly did that.”

Rines swished a fadeaway at halftime for a 30-20 lead. Souderton hung around until the early fourth quarter when a 9-2 run by UD to start the frame helped the Cardinals pull away.

While Upper Dublin may have its eyes on bigger championships this season, Brooks noted it’s never a bad thing to leave an event with a big trophy like the Cardinals did this weekend.

“The boys enjoy it, it’s always good to win a tournament,” Brooks said. “This is the third time we’ve been in this one, we’ve won it two years in a row and a kid gets to go home with a nice big trophy, so a good weekend.”