By Dan Arkans (@danarkans)
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Warrington – The Central Bucks South girls basketball team certainly knows how to bring the boom to Senior Night.
That’s what happens when you have seven seniors on the squad. It also doesn’t hurt when the Mill Creek Dance Team comes out to support as well as the Lenape Valley youth basketball program.
The crowd was certainly there, so was the excitement despite South getting in a 14-point halftime deficit. The comeback came and so did the much-needed 52-48 overtime thriller over Pennridge.
South (11-10) needed the victory to stay afloat for the postseason. The Titans bumped up a couple notches to 23rd in the District 1 6A rankings, while Pennridge dipped down to 16th. Only the top 24 qualify for the postseason. The Titans still likely need a win against Souderton on Tuesday to qualify.
Ella Wheeler (left) and Mia Klein led the Central Bucks South girls basketball team to a 52-48 overtime victory over Pennridge on Friday (Dan Arkans/CoBL)
“At the beginning I told my parents I might puke during this,” said senior Mia Klein, who finished the evening with 19 points and five assists.
Klein and Ella Wheeler took a backseat to the other seniors on this night as Emma Carver, Rylee Campbell, Morgan McKeever, Sophie Mills and Megan Schmidt got the start.
In fact the Titans got off to a 7-4 start behind those seniors. The Rams though ran off the final 11 points of the quarter as South trailed 15-7.
“I just don’t think we were ready to go,” said Wheeler. “Before the game we were distracted. We had to get our momentum.”
Ella Brown, who finished with 20 points and 12 boards for Pennridge, kept on hitting buckets and two 3-pointers from Samantha Murphy helped the Rams continue to control the game with a 28-14 lead at the break.
“Coach gave us a really motivating pep talk during halftime,” Wheeler said. “We have nothing to lose. We really need this win to make the postseason. It was senior night. All you can do is put it all out there. Everybody comes out to watch, so you wanna do good. It’s our last home game. You are never going to play again on that court. What do you have to lose?”
When Brown started the second half with another bucket, the Rams led 30-14. It was possible the stress of senior night and the playoff implications was getting to the Titans, but slowly the rebounds and scoring came.
When Wheeler (10 points, 5 rebounds) hit her first points of the night with 3:20 to go in the third quarter it was all of the sudden a single digit game. Once the scoring came, so did the press and the Titans were only down 36-31 after three.
“All senior nights are exciting,” Klein said. “Your friends are there, your families are there. It’s really stressful considering they are counting on you to win the game. At the end of it, it’s so exciting. The night being about you, the team coming together, all of that is exciting.”
Both offenses began heating up in the fourth quarter and it wasn’t until a steal and score from Wheeler the momentum really took off. South was down 42-38 with under three minutes left and Pennridge didn’t score another basket during regulation.
“I actually think my halftime talks are too business,” said South head coach Beth Mattern. “Today it wasn’t about the business. It was more about the people, the feelings, the energy, what we needed to bring to that aspect of the game. When you are down double digits on senior night your last home game of the season I was proud how they responded. I thought the atmosphere was unreal. Having that dance team, the Lenape Valley basketball players were here. People showed out for our seniors. I thought the energy was so great, you could just feel the swell of energy from the fans, the players.”
The full-court defense then took over, winning South the game as another steal and bucket from Klein closed the deficit to 42-40 with 1:39 left. South got a bucket from Gabby Tropea, which Pennridge answered with a free throw from Madison Lapp.
South still trailed 44-42 with 10 seconds left. Off an inbounds play under her own hoop, Klein got the ball and it was just like she was back in elementary school for a left-handed layup.
“Oh my God I wasn’t able to hit a shot all week,” Klein said. “It all worked out, back to the fundamentals and prayed for the best. I didn’t think I had my hand on it at first. It was kind of more of a surprise than anything else. Right back to what you learned in fifth grade, hit it with your left hand.”
Nerves were around both teams in overtime, but Klein settled things down for the Titans with her only 3-pointer of the game and a 47-44 lead with 2:39 left, the first lead for South since 7-6 in the first quarter. Murphy answered for the Rams with a pair of free throws, but Jules Tropea scored in the paint off a dish from Klein and a 49-46 lead with 51 seconds left.
“When I walked into the gym (after halftime) I could kind of feel a lot of pressure,” Mattern said. “There are a lot of eyes on you. We weren’t living up to the score at that moment. It also brought the best out of us. Once we got a little momentum the energy lifted their spirits on the court.”
South was able to nail the win down at the free-throw line, hitting 3 of 4 in the last 15 seconds. Pennridge’s Emily DeHaven was blocked by Gabby Tropea and finally, finally the Titans could celebrate.
“We are all best friends,” Wheeler said. “We do everything together. We aren’t just basketball friends. They are my best friends out of school too. Basketball is something we get to do together.”
All that is left for South is one more game against Souderton on Tuesday and a shot at the postseason.
“Hearing the crowd for us was such a big thing,” Klein said. “We don’t usually get this many people. That eruption of noise was so cool and different. It really gave us that energy to come back.”
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By Quarter
Pennridge 15-13-8-8-4-48
CB South 7-7-17-13-8-52
Scoring
Pennridge (48): Brown 20; Dehaven 9; Verbit 5; Murphy 10; Lapp 4.
CB South (52): Schmidt 3; McKeever 2; Klein 19; J.Tropea 13; G.Tropea 5; Wheeler 10.
Tag(s): Home High School Girls HS Suburban One (G) SOL Colonial (G) Central Bucks South Pennridge