City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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TOWAMENCIN >> It’s Cameron Crowley’s show to run.

After going behind her back off the dribble to get the ball across the timeline, the North Penn senior gave it up for a second then quickly got the ball back. Following a couple between–the-legs dribbles and a few changes of direction later, Crowley got to the top of the lane, took a look for a pass then calmly sank a jumper to seal up a much-needed first win.

The Knights had to start over this year and they’re looking to their senior point guard to be the one keeping it all together.

“We had a couple tough losses to start the season but today, we showed up and grew as a team,” Crowley said. “It’s a different team, so I have to do a little more, like help coach the younger players and be more of a leader as a senior but that’s my job.”

Crowley and her teammates didn’t have their best shooting night on Tuesday against visiting Unionville, but they did find their offense in the second half. With their fourth-year starter at the point charged up on both ends, North Penn followed Crowley’s eight points, four rebounds, five assists and four steals to a 47-27 win over the visiting Longhorns.

The early schedule isn’t forgiving, the Knights having fallen to Germantown Academy and Nazareth Academy prior to Tuesday’s first win and they’re on the road at CB West on Friday and Upper Dublin on Saturday. It’s why North Penn coach Brianna Cullen has put so much on Crowley’s shoulders early, the senior knowing better than anyone the standard she expects from her teams.

“The biggest thing with Cam is she knows how I run my defense and I need her to spearhead that,” Cullen said. “I am super-proud of her because I’ve given her such a big role and she’s taking to it with ease.”

Last year was a great one for the program. Cullen led the Knights to the District 1 6A semifinals and they advanced all the way to the PIAA 6A quarterfinals, winning their first state playoff game since 2017 in the process. Crowley was able to do her thing, focusing on defense and setting up her teammates as an often unheralded key piece.

With Caleigh Sperling, Liv Stone and Kelly Donnelly graduating, it was a given the Knights were going to have a new look this season. They had some experience coming back with Leah Mikulski and Tallie Smink and Lily Brown had a terrific freshman season, but overall, it’s a new group that looks to No. 2 as their leader.

“It comes down to that flow and working together,” Cullen, a district champion during her playing days at North Penn, said. “You have to get comfortable so I’m hoping this was what they needed to get a little more comfortable while working together.”

Crowley’s basketball career will end when North Penn’s season comes to a close. The senior isn’t sure where she’ll be going to college yet, adding that she’s applied all over, but has decided not to play after high school.

“At a point, every game’s going to be my last time playing that team, so I’m just going to put it all out there,” Crowley said.

It can be a difficult place for a player to be, knowing they aren’t going to the next level while being part of a reset in their senior year. Cullen hasn’t had to worry about that with Crowley at all.

“She has a whole list of challenges this year, we’re putting a lot more on her as a senior than she’s had to handle in the past but the biggest thing is she’s willing to do it,” Cullen said. “She’s motivating her teammates which is all I can ask.

“All four years, she just buys in. She never complains, she’s showing up to work hard and I never see her ever put her head down so you can’t ask for a better senior or a better captain.”

It wasn’t a coincidence that North Penn’s first half struggles came with Crowley battling foul trouble after picking up two whistles against her in the first quarter and also going without a point. The Knights went scoreless in the second quarter, but their energetic defense and an equally struggling Longhorns team that’s still adapting to life without Elle Johnson on the floor kept the hosts ahead 15-11 at halftime.

Crowley picked up a third foul early in the third quarter, but Cullen let her senior point guard go and it paid off as the Knights started to find some offense. She and Brown have started to develop a nice 1-2 game, Crowley scoring the half’s first bucket off a Brown assist then assisting the sophomore on a pick-and-pop three before a Brown offensive rebound and dish got Crowley an and-one opportunity as North Penn took the third 13-5.

Brown, who also didn’t score until the second half, finished with eight points, 13 rebounds and three assists.

“Lily’s a great player, it’s easy to work off her,” Crowley said. “She knows how to play, we have the screen-and-roll or she can pop, it’s great working with her as a teammate.”

Crowley’s ferocious on-ball defense has become a bit of a thing within the team as well. Senior Lily McGee was a bundle of energy on Tuesday and when Cullen went to the bench, Jadyn Sperling, Lacie Haddock, Saniah Hammond and Mehva Godhania came in and got right in their mark’s face.

“All our guards are intense, fast, we’re going to use that to our advantage,” Crowley said. “Last year we had more taller players but this year we have a lot more guards, so we’ll use it.”

Crowley was disappointed not to get a showdown with Johnson, her teammate the last few summers with the Lady Runnin’ Rebels. Their Rebels roster had plenty of good guards and Crowley said it was a good chance for her to play off the ball and work on other parts of her game like her scoring and movement.

Johnson, who is out for the year with an injury, also had plenty of praise for Crowley as a teammate.

“Cam is an amazing point guard, she’s always done a great job of creating the shots for her teammates,” Johnson said. “She’s always someone who can stay composed with the ball.”

Cullen wants her team to focus on “getting back to the basics” in this early part of the season, find the love of the game and playing with each other then seeing where it goes. It’s a group with talent, just not the experience to match yet but also one with the right leader with them on the floor.

“I just need to be a leader on and off the court,” Crowley said. “We have a young team, we have to bring everyone together. The last few years, we were used to playing together but this is a new group of players and I want to bring us all together.”

By Quarter
NORTH PENN 15 | 0 | 13 | 19 || 47
UNIONVILLE 6 | 5 | 5 | 9 || 27

Scoring
NP: Cameron Crowley 8, Lily Brown 8, Leah Mikulski 7, Lanie Haddock 6, Tallie Smink 5, Lily McGee 4, Mehva Godhania 3, Lailani Williams 3, Paityn Debro 2, Saniah Howard 1

U: Shannon Megill 7, Bethany Bowden 7, Izzy Della-Barba 6, Allie D’Angelo 5, Jenna Bowman 2

A NEW VIEW FOR UNIONVILLE’S JOHNSON

Elle Johnson had high expectations for her senior season.

The Unionville guard has steadily gotten better and better with each passing year and was primed to be a focal point of a Longhorns team thinking about a District 1 and PIAA run in Class 5A. Instead, Johnson will have to spend her final season of high school basketball on the bench after suffering a knee injury in Unionville’s season-opener.

It’s not the senior year she had in mind, but Johnson is trying to make the most of an unfortunate situation.

“It gives me the chance to watch the game from a different angle, I’m trying to look at it with a positive mindset because there’s nothing else I can do,” Johnson said Tuesday. “I’m just going to try and get ready for next year, so I can step back and see the game from a different point of view.”

There was no hard fall, no violent collision, it just happened. Johnson knew she’d injured something, but the diagnosis was not one that she expected.

“It was non-contact, I didn’t think much of it because it didn’t hurt that much,” Johnson said. “I got the MRI back and it was my ACL.

“It was really, really hard to hear that. I’m just trying to be positive, I have my surgery in a week-and-a-half so I’m just trying to take it one day at a time.”

Johnson was quick to praise senior Izzy Della-Barba, who has taken over the role at point guard for Unionville, and senior Shannon Megill for already looking to expand their roles in her absence. Their senior group had set a high bar for this year, one that will be much harder to reach with Johnson now resigned to a seat on the bench by a cruel twist in the script.

“I hope I can be beneficial in other ways if I’m not playing,” Johnson said.

While this has become a lost year on the court, Johnson is not finished playing. The senior committed to play at Catholic University next year, becoming the latest prospect to hit the pipeline to Washington, DC that Cardinals coach Matt Donohue has opened in the area.

Once she has surgery to repair the torn ligament, Johnson plans to get back to work trying to build up strength while doing form shooting and anything else she can to stay sharp with the hope of being ready to go by preseason next year.

“I did a couple visits, my top two were Gettysburg College and Catholic but when I visited Catholic, I just connected with the team,” Johnson said. “I love Matt Donohue as a coach, they’re a really competitive team, I think we can compete for a championship, and I wanted to be on a team where I could compete.”