City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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For the second year in a row, major injuries threatened the Holy Family women’s season. 

Last year, it was Skyler Searfoss and Lindsay Tretter who suffered season-ending blows, a promising 13-1 start to the season ending at 21-9 with a loss in the Central Atlantic Collegiate conference (CACC) semifinals. 

The Tigers are battered and bruised once again as the calendar year turns, down one starter since two games into the season and another key rotation member of late. But so far, it hasn’t made a shred of difference. 

Holy Family looked every bit a CACC contender on Wednesday night, the Tigers strolling into Chestnut Hill College’s Sorgenti and blowing past the Griffins 95-69 to move into sole possession of first place in the CACC South. 

A standout performance from the 3-point arc led by senior guard Jessica Riepe and junior guard Kaelah Carter led the way as Holy Family improved to 11-3 overall, 3-0 in league play. The pair combined to go 10-of-11 from downtown, Riepe hitting all five of her attempts en route to 20 points and Carter missing only one of her six as she scored a season-high 24. 

“I don’t think I’ve had a shooting night like that since like high school,” Carter said with a laugh.

As a team, Holy Family finished 12-of-14 from deep, Skyler Searfoss (11 points) and Lauren Palangio (7 points) hitting their only attempts of the night. 

“Anybody on this team can shoot, everybody has the green light,” Riepe said. “if you’re open, catch it, shoot it, unconsciously. If you’re open, we want you to shoot it. That’s our mindset.”

The Tigers even had a few made 3s called off due to fouls; on another occasion, Taylor Hinkle buried a straightaway triple right as Holy Family head coach Bernadette Laukaitis called timeout. The Holy Family supporters in attendance let out an audible “aww” from the stands; Laukaitis, laughing, called out to them “give me a break!” as she walked to her huddle. 

That Holy Family played so well on its rival’s homecourt isn’t too surprising, given that Laukaitis’ squad — ranked No. 21 in the latest D-II CSC poll — beat No. 5 Seton Hill and lost to No. 3 Bentley by six just ahead of the holidays. But they’re playing without senior Ava Morrow, who went down two games into the season with a torn ACL; joining her on the sidelines against Chestnut Hill is sophomore Kara Meredith, who suffered an arm injury against Seton Hill and is out for another month or so.

So far, it hasn’t mattered in the slightest. Hinkle (13.7 ppg, 10.7 rpg) is having an All-CACC type of season once again and Laukaitis is getting strong production from her bench, including a pair of local freshman guards in Lola Ibarrondo (Neshaminy) and Amy Ngo (Upper Dublin). The Tigers are out-rebounding opponents by nine boards per game and limiting their opponents to 25.7% from 3-point range, without any one superstar to rely upon. 

“Obviously we have a lot of confidence, we have full confidence in each other, full confidence in our team, I think we all know what we can do,” said Riepe, a 5-foot-9 guard from Marlboro (N.J.) and education major who starts her semester as a student teacher at Comly Elementary on Monday. “This is a special team, I’ve been part of this team for four years, this is my fourth year, I think this is probably the most special team I’ve been on, but we don’t want to get too high because we know what that can do.” 

While Riepe was at Holy Family through last year’s issues, Carter was going through her own struggles. Then a sophomore at Saint Rose (N.Y.), the 5-7 guard was forced into the transfer portal due to her former school’s unexpected closure. She ended up at Holy Family after emailing all sorts of regional programs during the season last year, Laukaitis’ quick response catching her eye. She’s currently second on the Tigers in scoring (9.0 ppg) and their leader in minutes played (30.6), hitting 24-of-60 (40.0%) from 3-point range and 43.9% overall. 

“It’s [been] totally beyond expectations for me,” she said. “I’m a very introverted person so being able to open up to a whole new group of people is kind of difficult for me, but these guys made it so easy, they made it so comfortable and I just completely opened up to them.

“I feel this team can accomplish great things,” she added, “The way that we’ve been playing recently and if we just continue to build on that, I feel like we’d be the team to beat and I think that’s a great mindset to have.”

Chestnut Hill (6-9, 2-1) got 15 points off the bench from junior guard and Owen J. Roberts product Avery White. The two programs will have their rematch on Feb. 5 at Holy Family. 

As for the rest of the area’s D-II scene…

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— In the men’s game, a season-best outing from fifth-year guard Tommy Gardler got the Griffins by the Tigers, CHC beating HFU 65-62 in a physical contest. Gardler, a Marple Newtown grad who started his career at USciences before transferring to La Salle following that school’s closure, hadn’t been a rotation player since the 2021-22 season but is finding his shot again, hitting double figures in two of the last three games. He was 3-of-6 from 3-point range against Holy Family for a season-best 12 points.

“There was nothing like being on a Fran Dunphy team even as a walk-on,” Gardler texted CoBL afterwards. “The confidence I gained was truthfully immeasurable, but finally getting the opportunity to play meaningful minutes feels really good.”

Gardler’s output was one behind senior forward Neal Hill for the team lead; Hill had 13 points and 15 rebounds. Trailing by five at halftime, Chestnut Hill went in front with a 14-0 run midway through the second half, Gardler hitting the first of three 3-pointers in that stretch to help the Griffins get downhill. Chestnut Hill (5-8, 1-2) never trailed again.

“Tonight was a fun win where everyone contributed and you can see flashes of what we’re building towards,” Gardler texted. “The fact that it was against Holy Family, where my mother babysat Coach [Ryan] Haigh, made it even more fun for me. It’s always competitive when you get to [play] against familiar faces.”

 Holy Family (6-9, 0-3) got 15 points from Najee Courtney but couldn’t overcome a 33.3% game (21-of-63) from the floor.

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— West Chester’s men had a 12-game win streak snapped Wednesday night thanks to a 77-68 loss at East Stroudsburg. The Rams (12-3, 7-1 PSAC) had lost their first two games of the season but none since until running into the Warriors (11-3, 5-2), who forced 25 WCU turnovers to pull off the win. Damien Blair’s squad, which next hosts Kutztown on Saturday before a week off, has four players in double figures led by senior guard Elijah Allen (15.7 ppg) and senior forward Joshua Walker (11.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg), though it was junior Davante Dennis who went off for 23 points against ESU. 

The Rams’ women, on the other hand, beat ESU 77-72 in overtime as they continue to alternate wins and losses this season. West Chester (6-9, 3-5 PSAC) lost five of its first six games of the season but has generally been playing better basketball since Dec. 1, though stringing together wins continues to be an elusive task. Senior wing Michelle Kozicki is having a monster year, averaging 20.5 ppg and 10.0 rpg, with Anna McTamney (16.3 ppg) not behind her; freshman twins Bella Mazur (9.4 ppg) and Ava Mazur (6.5 ppg) are also both off to strong starts to their college careers.

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— The city’s other CACC programs, Jefferson’s men’s and women’s squads, had Wednesday night off between Saturday games at Dominican and upcoming ones at home against Felician. Jefferson’s men sit at 8-5 overall (2-1 CACC), having lost to North leader Dominican 77-72 over the weekend. Head coach Jimmy Reilly has four players averaging double figures, led by senior guard Ashton Miller (15.2 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and junior forward Justin Hawkins (14.8 ppg, 6.4 rpg); they’ve also been getting quality minutes of late from senior guard Troy McGregor, who scored a total of five points in his first 10 appearances (10.0 mpg) but has 25 points total in his last three games (25.7 mpg). The Rams are the only team in the CACC South with a winning overall record, so the league’s certainly wide open as it heads into the meat of conference play.

The Rams’ women have hit a little bit of a skid, losing four of their last five to fall to 7-5 (1-2 CACC). It doesn’t help that Jefferson’s had to play all but the first three games without Sam Yencha, out for the season due to injury after averaging 15.7 ppg and 11.3 ppg in the three contests she played in. In her absence, senior guard Emma Kuczynski and senior forward Cassie Murphy have stepped up, both averaging 14.4 ppg, Murphy adding in four double-doubles and a team-leading 9.0 rpg.

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