City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)
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MORTON — It would gnaw at Roe Falcone. The Ridley coach would see so much in her team that they could not yet see in themselves. They would come together at moments in practices and in games. If only the moments would splice together in extended strands, if only her team full of athletes who play other sports would piece together basketball plays.

The 2024 Green Raiders, whose sum are better than their individual parts, were always scrappy and able to squeeze the last ounce of their talents in every game with little payback.  

On Friday, the moments were extended. On Friday, the payback arrived in the form of a 42-38 victory over a good North Penn team at Ridley High School.

Ridley received great balanced scoring, getting clutch three-pointers from St. Joe’s-bound junior Nadia Henkel, who scored a team-high nine points, followed by eight from Moyin Ogbo, seven from Jamie Wojuchowski and six each from Nikki McMenamin, Taylor Marsich and Olive Kertis.

And it fit.

Everyone had a hand in what may be a season-turning victory for Ridley, which had lost five of its first seven games entering the contest.

It may explain why Falcone’s lower lip was quivering with emotion afterwards talking about how gutsy, selfless and committed her team was. The Green Raiders may have spent as much time laying out fighting on the court for loose balls, stray rebounds, deflected passes, as they did running on it.

“That was huge, that was a great team win, and I’m really proud of them,” said Falcone, who is in her sixth season. “This game showed what we can do when we play with confidence. We have no stars here. This goes up there and this feels great to win here and the way we won. It’s the grit, it’s the blue-collar mentality and I try to instill what it means to play hard.

“Hopefully, this gets this team believing in how good they are and how good they can be.”

Henkel is a Division I lacrosse midfielder and draw specialist. Ogbo, a 5-foot-7 senior who plays like she is 6-foot-2, just began playing organized basketball in high school. McMenamin is headed to Arcadia for lacrosse, and Taylor Marsich, another of the Green Raiders’ key contributors, is going to East Stroudsburg for lacrosse.

This is the group Falcone has glued together.

That bond was tested in the waning moments against North Penn.

Trailing 38-37 with 17 seconds to play, and every point coming at a premium in this game, Henkel had some open space, eyed the basket, chin up and nailed a clutch three-pointer to give Ridley a 40-38 lead.

Stifling defense denied the Knights a last shot, and McMenamin added the cushion with a pair of free throws.

“I knew I had to step up this year and went to a lot of workouts in the summer,” Henkel said. “We knew we had to be a defensive team this year. We were all on the same page this game. We played a full 32 minutes today. North Penn is a good team. For us to beat them is huge. Coach Roe talks to us about visualizing the game and visualizing our shots going in.”

Henkel put Ridley over the finish line. Ogbo put the Green Raiders there. She has no problem doing the nasty work inside, boxing out and rebounding against players easily four and five inches taller than her. But when you play against her, you know it.

She’s very physical.

“That comes from playing against my older brother and his friends,” said Ogbo, who carries a 3.3 GPA and wants to play basketball in college. “Coach Roe told me coming into this year that I had to focus on defense and hit cutters, and showing people that I am there. I would like to play in college.

“This game meant a lot to me. I do like playing physical. I have no problem throwing myself around. I knew if someone was coming through the lane, they would need to know I was there.”

North Penn sophomore Lily Brown carried North Penn—sometimes singlehandedly. The 5-foot-10 lefty finished with a game-high 18, getting 10 in the third quarter while star guard Cameron Crowley battled foul trouble.

“I think the biggest lesson here is that you can only control certain things in a game,” said Knights’ fourth-year head coach Brianna Cullen. “You can only control your own mentality, effort and game plan. When you face adversity, you have to mentality work through that. We have a young group that haven’t experienced anything like we did today, so it is a good lesson for us.

“I liked our resilience. We attacked the basket hard. We had to protect the ball better. That was inexperience showing. Confidence with the ball is something we need.”

Ridley 42, North Penn 38

By Quarter
North Penn (4-4): 12 | 2 | 19 | 5 ||  38
Ridley (3-5):  6 | 14  |  12  | 10 ||  42

Scoring
North Penn: Lily Brown 18, Leah Mikulski 9, Paityn Debro 5, Mehya Godhania 2, Jadyn Sperling 2, Lacie Haddock 2.

Ridley: Nadia Henkel 9, Moyin Ogbo 8, Jamie Wojuchowski 7, Nikki McMenamin 6, Taylor Marsich 6, Olive Kertis 6.

~~~

Bishop Shanahan 38, Unionville 24

In the semifinal, Bishop Shanahan, the defending PIAA District 1 Class 5A champions, won for the fourth time in its last five games with a 38-24 victory over Ches-Mont League rival Unionville (the game was not a Ches-Mont League game).

Junior Lauren Foster finished with a team-high 11 points, and sophomore Abby Garrity added 10. The Eagles started the season 0-5 after losing their triplets, Faith Ambrose, Abbey Wolfe and Sam Blumenthal, who were the foundation of the school’s first district championship team.

Shanahan coach Jim Powers is beginning to see this team shaping up.

“This group is real young, and Abby Garrity is growing and she has had some good games for us this year,” Powers said. “Abby wants to be good and all games are important for us to get back into that district hunt. The top 12 teams make the playoffs. We’re not in the top 12 yet.”

The operative word being “yet.”

If Garrity continues to show what she did on Friday, the Eagles look like they are heading in a positive direction.

“I think the last couple of games I’ve done better with my confidence,” Garrity said. “All of our fundamentals have improved as the season has gone on so far. Things are slowing down. I haven’t had as many turnovers the last few games. That has been the big difference. I have to be stronger with the ball and to the lane. Being stronger with the ball through the lane, I can score more.”

By Quarter
Unionville (5-3): 2 | 11 | 6 | 5 ||  24
Bishop Shanahan (4-6):  8 | 11  |  13  | 6 ||  38

Scoring
Unionville: Allie D’Angelo 9, Shannon Megill 7, Beth Bowden 4, Izzy Della Barba 2, Jenna Bowman 2.

Bishop Shanahan: Lauren Foster 11, Abby Garrity 10, Carmel Ambrose 9, Taylor Bollenbach 4, Allie Bretz 4.

Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.