City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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WEST CHESTER — West Chester Rustin and West Chester East’s girls battled for three quarters of a Ches-Mont playoff opening-round game, neither one able to make a move. 

Any bucket was met with a response; every stop seemingly matched in kind. The largest lead through three quarters was three points, the two district rivals in lockstep. And though both teams had plenty of veterans to turn to, it was two Rustin underclassmen who made all the difference. 

Key shots by sophomore Claire Rydel and freshman Mackenzie Stackhouse ended up sparking the Golden Knights early in the fourth quarter, Rustin holding on the rest of the way for a 50-44 win over the Vikings. 

“It feels really good and to help my team out also feels really good,” said Stackhouse, a 5-foot-4 guard whose last name carries some significant weight around Rustin. “It started with all of us together, not just a couple people. Everybody contributed and it was a good team win.”

Rustin will play Ches-Mont National champs Downingtown East (20-2) in the Ches-Mont semifinals, Saturday (Feb. 8) at West Chester University. The game will tip after the Downingtown West/Unionville semifinal, which starts at 4:30 PM. 

The younger sister of Riley Stackhouse, who led Rustin to the Ches-Mont and District 1 5A titles as a junior two years ago, Mackenzie was all set to be next to play for their mother, Lauren Stackhouse, before Lauren took the head job at Delaware Valley University last fall. Instead, it’s Lauren’s former assistant, Jim Falcone, who’s coaching the Golden Knights (14-8), who recovered nicely after losses in their first three games of the season.

Mackenzie said she got some valuable advice from her sister about finding success as a freshman at the high school varsity level. 

“(Riley) would tell me 'you’re always going to make mistakes, but the best thing to do is just to push through them and get back on defense or back on offense and fix them,'" she said.

Lauren and Riley were both in the stands cheering along as Mackenzie, who comes off the bench for Rustin to help spell (and play alongside) junior standout Jenna Kraft, knocked down a corner 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter. That one, along with one by Rydel and then a Rydel floater, formed an 8-0 run that turned what had been a 31-28 East lead into a 36-31 Rustin edge, the game’s most significant momentum swing — and perhaps its only one. 

Stackhouse added a pair of foul shots with 4:40 left to restore a five-point edge, going 4-of-4 from the line in the game as she finished with seven points.

“It makes us a better team, a more well-rounded team [when they’re hitting shots],” Falcone said. “Claire had a phenomenal game last game, played a great game again tonight [...] and Mackenzie has been a phenomenal job, arguably one of our best foul-shooters, that’s why she’s on the court at the end of the game.”

East didn’t fold. The Vikings got as close as 41-40 with 2:22 left after a 3-pointer and pair of foul shots by sophomore Kayla Cochran, but couldn’t get over the hump. 

Rustin responded with a bucket by junior Samantha Curran off a feed from Kraft, who broke through the defense on an inbounds play a minute later to make it 46-40 with 50 seconds remaining. She also put the finishing touches on the game with a pair of foul shots with 4.3 seconds left, capping off a 17-point, five-assist, two-steal outing. 

“We just couldn’t build on anything,” East coach Erin Listrani said. “When we did one thing well, we didn’t get the stop we needed, didn’t get the rebound we needed, didn’t execute when we needed. We couldn’t put two things together tonight and credit to Rush for putting us in that position.”

Cochran led East (11-12) with 15 points, adding five rebounds and three assists. Junior wing Lauren Horan scored 10, senior forward Sofia Keith had nine with five rebounds and three blocks and senior guard Annalise Kubasko scored eight points and grabbed eight rebounds.

Rydel finished with nine points, five rebounds, three steals and two assists, the 5-foot-8 wing coming off a 17-point game in Rustin’s regular-season finale. Like many of her teammates, she had to find her role on a team in the post-Riley Stackhouse era, but these Knights are carving out their own legacy at this point. 

Rustin’s success this year has been led by the play of Kraft and senior Sara Betchyk (8 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks), but having the underclassmen step up is critical for their long-term success. 

“I think we’re very connected, I think the defense led us to get to a good offense and we just took it from there, one step at a time,” Rydel said. “I think we grew as a team tremendously [this season]. I think we definitely have our lapses, but we grew.”

Rustin didn’t play Downingtown East this year, Falcone saying he’d only watched a little bit of tape on the Cougars this season. Darren Domsohn and quite a few of his players were in attendance at Rustin scouting out the competition, his group of sophomores and juniors taking a big step forward from a year ago. 

East, meanwhile, will wait on the final District 1 5A rankings to come out on Monday. The Vikings are currently No. 11 in the unofficial rankings, the top 12 making the field; No. 13 Academy Park still has one regular-season game left against No. 7 Strath Haven, a result that the Vikings’ coaches are watching closely. Rustin, at No. 5 in the rankings, is securely in the field. 

“The message for the girls is just to regroup,” Listrani said. “What I told them is regardless of what happened tonight, we can play with anyone in District 1 5A, anyone. We could be back here [at Rustin] as a 12-5 matchup. Just told them to take the weekend off and let’s regroup on Monday with good news on Sunday that we’re in.”

By Quarter
WCE: 10  |  12  |   9   |  13  ||  44
WCR:  9   |  12  |   7   |  22  ||  50

Shooting
WCE: 14-46 FG (3-17 3PT), 13-18 FT
WCR: 17-45 FG (4-14 3PT), 12-22 FT

Scoring
WCE: Kayla Cochran 15, Lauren Horan 10, Sofia Keith 9, Annalise Kubasko 8, Siena Sweeney 2

WCR: Jenna Kraft 17, Claire Rydel 9, Sara Betchyk 8, Mackenzie Stackhouse 7, Samantha Curran 5, Natalia Cipolloni 3