City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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TOWAMENCIN >> There’s no place like home, something CB East girls’ basketball has been telling itself since the start of the season.

The Patriots are halfway through their regular season, 11 games in, and haven’t played a single one of them in their home confines back in Buckingham. They’ve run almost the entire alphabet of venues from Abington to Wildwood (NJ) just about everywhere in between all while finding different ways to keep winning.

CB East can click its heels together three times and finally go home Friday, doing so in pretty good standing after Tuesday’s 61-49 win at North Penn to end the first half of SOL Colonial play.

“If you heard celebration coming from our locker room, it’s because I said ‘guys, we’ve finally got a home game,’” Patriots coach Liz Potash said. “It was a weird schedule; it’s just the way it worked out this year but I give our kids a lot of credit. I never want to make excuses for anything, but it is tough to play that way and with 11 games on the road, to come out 9-2, we’ll take it.”

The Patriots, who fittingly all wear bright red Curry 11 sneakers on the court, have done pretty well on their yellow brick road of sorts even with the unusual challenges it presented.

Senior Sydney Ralph, a four-year veteran of East soccer and basketball, has never seen anything like it nor has sophomore Haley Moran, who admitted she only had the one season of reference. The 11-game slate away from home wasn’t by design, just a couple quirks compiling on with a pair of two-game tournaments to keep East anywhere but East.

The Patriots welcome Pennsbury on Friday night for that long-awaited first home game then, in typical 2024-25 CB East fashion, head. right back out for a two-game swing to New Hope-Solebury and Upper Dublin. Starting Jan. 21 however, the Patriots only leave their home gym once in the final eight games - a trip to Jefferson for the Maggie Lucas Showcase on Jan. 26 - and get to make up for some missed home comforts.

“It’s been a long stretch of playing in a bunch of different gyms,” Ralph said. “We’re definitely excited to be back in our own gym on Friday.”

It’s not like the road has treated the Patriots poorly. Tuesday’s win, which saw East ride 28 points from Moran and 18 from Jess Lockwood to a big third quarter lead only to have to stave off a furious Knights rally, improved its record to 9-2 overall and a perfect 5-0 in the SOL Colonial.

The two losses have come to Public League favorite Audenried and a Downingtown East team ranked No. 5 in District 1 Class 6A at the moment. The wins, on top of the 5-0 run through the division, include Abington, Conestoga, Berks Catholic and Nazareth Academy.

“At first, I think we all thought it was going to be really tough but after a couple games, we’ve gotten used to it, getting on the bus and being together,” Moran said. “It honestly feels like just the norm for us.”

CB East, which returned three starters from last year’s state playoff team, has a roster full of players who play club basketball in the spring and fall. Moran, who plays with the Comets, and Ralph, who played with Upper Makefield Heat along with classmate Savannah Hayes, both agreed the road-heavy schedule has felt like an AAU season.

The team stayed overnight in Wildwood between Christmas and New Year’s, Ralph noting it was just like a weekend club tournament a little further up the shore in Atlantic City but otherwise it’s been plenty of bus rides back and forth. Having to figure out a new gym almost every time out taught the Patriots to value the ball and to find comfort in otherwise uncomfortable situations.

“I think we just got used to having to get used to new rims and a new court,” Moran said. “The fact we’re used to it just makes each game easier. I think when our home games come up, it’s going to be that much more fun to actually play on our rims and our court.”

Going into the season, the Patriots felt like they were a strong team and while there’s always something to improve on, they’ve handled a unique schedule by doing it together.

“We knew there were some good tests coming around and we never look past anyone in the league so to come out 9-2 on the other side, we’re certainly happy with it but we also want to still clean it up,” Potash said. “They’re a tight group, there’s a lot of good team chemistry. What’s special about this group, and we had this last year as well, everyone seems to know what their role is and play to the best of their ability.”

There’s a cliche in basketball that a team always shoots better on its home rims. Given that the Patriots have put in some pretty strong shooting performances away from home, Potash just laughed when asked if she was excited to see what her players could do on some familiar rims for once.

They didn’t end up in Oz, although maybe the Wildwood Convention Center might have felt like it, but the Patriots did go pretty much everywhere else over the last month-plus. There’s no place like home though and for once, CB East will get to walk into a familiar place to play a game.

“It’s been fun with the away games, but we’re definitely looking forward to it,” Moran said.

CENTRAL BUCKS EAST 61, NORTH PENN 49

North Penn has played a pretty challenging schedule as well this season. While the Knights hadn’t found the success in their nonleague games they’d hoped, they were 4-0 in the SOL Colonial.

For seven minutes to start Tuesday’s game, the hosts were trading shot for shot with the visiting Patriots until Haley Moran got to it. The sophomore, who netted a game-high 28 points on a blisteringly efficient 9-of-13 shooting and 9-of-11 free throws, scored five points in 42 seconds for a 21-14 lead after one.

“We had to stick together, we’re used to those kind of games,” Moran said. “We’ve had a couple rough patches with those type of games where they keep coming back, so we have to keep our focus together. 

“That’s what we did tonight, we made sure to keep going, make them foul us, get a lead and set our pace.”

North Penn made several runs in the game, the first an 8-0 sprint to start the second quarter for a 22-21 lead. Sydney Ralph responded with a hoop to put East back in front then Moran came up with the key play of the first half, driving for an and-one layup that also drew the third foul on North Penn’s Lily Brown.

Brown went to the bench for the final 4:22 of the half and with Knights point guard Cam Crowley also picking up two fouls in the frame, CB East closed the quarter on a 12-1 run. Moran stayed in form after the break, netting eight points in the third while junior Jess Lockwood (18 points) caught fire for a 10-point quarter and the Patriots extended their lead to 53-32.

“Having a lot of returners allows us to know the plays for one and two, play together and know all our frequencies of what our shots look like, what we like to do and how we like to drive,” Moran said. “I think we all flow together well.”

North Penn, behind some aggressive defense and Crowley, erupted on a 12-0 run capped by an and-one from the senior point guard that cut the once massive lead to single digits at 53-44 with 4:38 to go. Ralph nailed a midrange pull-up to stem the run temporarily and while North Penn came right back, Potash noted the timeliness of the senior’s bucket.

“We’ve talked a lot about holding leads and not letting runs go on too long,” Potash said. “To be able to put an end to the run, we were able to go on and finish.”

Brown, who finished with a double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, got a layup then Leah Mikulski (13 points) nailed her second three of the quarter to slice the lead to six at 55-49 with 2:47 to play. Crowley picked up her fifth foul a few seconds later, a huge blow to North Penn’s comeback bid with CB East then able to get to the line and close things out.

“We’re excited to go to 5-0 in the division,” Ralph said. “One of our big goals was to win the league, so halfway down but there’s still five tough games to go.”

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By Quarter
CB EAST 21 | 12 | 20 | 8 || 61
N. PENN 14 | 9 | 9 | 17 || 49

Scoring
CBE: Haley Moran 28, Jess Lockwood 18, Sydney Ralph 7, Emma Penecale 5, Natalie Berndt 3

NP: Lily Brown 13, Leah Mikulski 13, Mehya Godhania 11, Cam Crowley 10, Paityn Debro 2