City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WEST CHESTER >> Expectations and reality can be two very different things.

At the onset of the season, Unionville girls’ basketball expected to contend for the Ches-Mont American division title behind a senior-led lineup. The reality is that the Longhorns find themselves tied for the division lead but not quite in the manner they thought they’d be there.

It’s still the seniors leading the way, Shannon Megill and Izzy Della Barba doing plenty Tuesday night as Unionville downed host West Chester Rustin 38-28.

“I think it just shows how dedicated everyone is to this team,” Megill said. “Everyone is stepping up as much as they can and doing what they can.”

Megill, an Ursinus recruit, and Della Barba expected to be a major part of the Longhorns’ plans this season but they also expected classmate Elle Johnson to be right there with them leading the way. The reality is that Johnson, who has committed to Catholic, went down for the season with a torn ACL in Unionville’s first game and plans changed in a hurry.

Johnson, a first team All Ches-Mont selection as a junior, would have been the team’s lead ball-handler and likely would have been their top scorer and top perimeter player. Nobody was going to replace the senior guard’s production, so Longhorns coach Fred Ellzy told them not to try and instead, stick to the plan.

“I give these girls a lot of credit because they try to stick to the gameplans,” Ellzy said. “They don’t try to make up for other things not being around, they’re actually trying their best to stick to it. (Johnson) is a heck of a loss, not having her on the floor as our general and a captain, we knew going in it was going to be tough without her but the girls have been stepping up and doing well.”

Della Barba, who said she is not planning to play in college, took over point guard responsibilities while Megill has stepped into a role as the go-to scorer. Senior Bethany Bowden, a 6-foot-2 athlete committed to play goalkeeper at La Salle, has given the Longhorns a presence inside while senior Elise Kucharczuk has stepped into a role coming off the bench.

Unionville has also received a boost from junior Allie D’Angelo, freshman Alexa Puleo and sophomore Jenna Bowman while putting together a 12-3 run following the team’s 1-2 start.

“Losing a player like Elle definitely hurts but even off the court, she’s helping us, she’s guiding us,” Della Barba said. “Sticking to our defenses and our offenses is what gets the work done at the end of the day.”

Tuesday, Megill and Della Barba connected early, often and most importantly, in key moments as the Longhorns overcame a bit of a sloppy performance. Fortunately for them, their defense traveled and Unionville forced Rustin into an equally uneven showing.

“Our defense has gotten much better this year and tonight, our defense was huge,” Megill said. “Locking in on defense and seeing what it brings us on offense has been a huge factor we’ve grown with. Tonight, it was big and we have to continue to use it.”

Megill led the Longhorns with 18 points, the forward adding six rebounds, an assist and two steals. Della Barba stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, seven assists, a steal and a key charge taken in the fourth quarter.

They connected on the game’s opening basket, then Della Barba hit the three late in the first quarter that put Unionville ahead for good. After halftime, Della Barba netted another triple for Unionville’s first points of the third quarter after Rustin had cut it to five and when the Golden Knights got within three, then four late in the fourth, Della Barba found Megill for what became an and-one put back and then an open layup to extend it back to six both times.

“They’ve been with me the longest,” Ellzy said. “That’s what we expect and they try their best to get it done when they’re out there.”

Unionville needed their efforts, especially with 18 turnovers that helped keep the door open for Rustin to try and claw back into the game. The Golden Knights had won the first matchup between the two 43-41 on Jan. 7 but the hosts weren’t able to pick up the sweep due to their own turnover problems, foul trouble and a collectively off shooting night.

Rustin had 21 giveaways and as a team, shot 3-of-16 in the first half and 9-of-34 for the game. Junior Jenna Kraft led the home side with 15 points and while she played through foul trouble all night – picking up three in the second quarter, her fourth early in the third and fouling out in the final minute – she tried to spark a rally with 13 points and both her assists in the second half.

Earlier in the season, the Longhorns might have given the game away. While the two seniors expect better of themselves and the team as a whole, the reality was they made enough plays on both sides to prevent Rustin from taking over.

“We’re still making our mistakes, we have things to work on but if we keep grinding, we’ll get there,” Della Barba said. “If we stick to what we know, we’ll be fine.”

Megill said she’s found herself taking on a more vocal role this year, trying to emulate what she picked up from captains in previous seasons and being the person who keeps everyone together on the floor. Della Barba similarly has found the way the group has come together to be a significant factor in the success Unionville has had thus far.

Unionville has two division games left, visiting Kennett on Thursday and hosting Great Valley on Monday with a game against Coatesville in between on Saturday. Rustin meanwhile, visits Great Valley on Thursday and hosts Sun Valley on Monday to finish the regular season.

Tuesday’s win put them in a tie with West Chester Rustin for first place in the Ches-Mont American, the two teams also neck-and-neck for league playoff seeding and District 1 Class 5A standing. Unionville might have expected to be here, but the reality is the Longhorns still have to keep winning to meet some of their other expectations.

“I don’t think we’ve shown our full potential yet,” Megill said. “Even today, we had so many mistakes. We’ve had a few games where we got close to playing all-out, hopefully it comes in the playoffs and we can go much further than last year.

“I think a lot of people are going to step up and we’re going to show our full potential.”

By Quarter
UNIONVILLE 8 | 12 | 7 | 11 || 38
WEST CHESTER RUSTIN 7 | 2 | 8 | 11 || 28

Scoring
U: Shannon Megill 18, Izzy Della Barba 8, Allie D’Angelo 7, Jenna Bowman 3, Bethany Bowden 2

WCR: Jenna Kraft 15, Claire Rydel 7, Sara Betchyk 4, Caitlyn Black 2