City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@owen.mccue)
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HUNTINGTON VALLEY — No matter the record it brings into the postseason, Villa Maria is confident it has a chance to make some noise.

Coach Kathy McCartney’s program has reached the District 1 5A title game as a No. 7, 3 and 6 seed over the past three seasons, saving its best ball for February and March.

The trend appears to be continuing as the No. 6 Hurricanes resumed their playoff roll on Tuesday night with a 51-31 District 1 5A quarterfinal win over No. 3 Lower Moreland. 

Villa booked its spot in the PIAA playoffs for a fourth straight season and set up a Friday night semifinal matchup with the winner of Radnor and Strath Haven, who had their game postponed to Wednesday night.

“We’re taught very high standards at Villa, and I think the drive we have to win, we know playoffs it’s win or go home,” said junior Sophia Tray, who led her team with 20 points. “We don’t want to go home, so we’re just going to keep fighting."

Villa (15-11) hosted Lower Moreland (13-10) in its third game of the season on Dec. 2, falling 39-38 to the Lions. The first quarter hinted at another close battle, Lower Moreland jumping up 11-4 early before the Hurricanes scored nine of the final 10 points of the quarter to hold a 13-12 lead.

The strong close to the quarter for Villa never quite ended. The Hurricanes continued a 17-1 run to go ahead 21-12 before a triple by Lower Moreland’s Dani Brusha finally broke a seven and a half minute scoreless drought. Brusha led her team with 18 points. 

Villa junior Briella Romeo had all seven of her points in the second quarter to help the Hurricanes build a 28-17 halftime lead. They locked down defensively in the third, holding the Lions to just one point during the quarter to go up 41-18 heading into the final period.

“I think we knew we had to win. We wanted to keep going, especially for our seniors,” Romeo said. “We just kept playing together and moving the ball and it worked for us.”

Behind Tray, it was a balanced scoring effort for Villa with the team’s youngsters continuing to show confidence in the postseason. 

Freshman Erin Urbanski had eight points, and sophomore Ava Broadhurst had six points off the bench and grabbed four boards during the critical second quarter. Sophomore Rebecca Croft had six points to go along with 11 rebounds and two assists. 

“It’s been really exciting and we’re so proud of them,” Tray said. “Just coming from JV, swinging, playing a little and practicing with us, seeing their game elevate and become the players they are now is really fun for us.”

The Hurricanes entered this season off AACA and District 1 5A runner-up finishes with just Tray, Romeo and senior Abby Ferry back from last year’s main rotation. McCartney said she saw her team start to come together about a month ago, the confidence in her young players starting to shine through. 

The upperclassmen and their coach believe this is a group that’s come along way since its early December loss to Lower Moreland. It’s a tough claim to argue after Tuesday night’s dominant result against the Lions.

“I feel like we started the season with a fresh squad,” Tray said. “We only had a few returners. At the beginning of the season when we lost to them by one, we were learning how to play with one another and getting to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Twenty-something games into the season…

“Our chemistry is really coming together,” Romeo finished for her.

Lower Moreland will get a chance to extend its season in the playback bracket against the loser of Radnor and Strath Haven. The Lions ran into top seed Gwynedd Mercy in the playback bracket last year to end their season, but will get two more chances to punch their ticket with District 1 getting seven teams in the 5A bracket this season.

With its state playoff spot already secured, Villa turns its attention toward winning a district title. The Hurricanes have gone to three straight district championship games, winning in 2022 and losing in 2023 and 2024.

Work ethic is what McCartney said has her new-look group a win away from another title game appearance.

“They work really hard,” McCartney said. “They have all year long. So I knew we would get better, we’ve gotten bigger steps lately than maybe I thought we would make. … To their credit, they hung. I’ve been pretty hard on them I think and they’ve responded. They want to be good, so they’re an easy group to coach.”

Villa Maria 51, Lower Moreland 31

Lower Moreland 12 | 5 | 1 | 13 || 31

Villa Maria 13 | 15 | 13 | 8 || 51

Lower Moreland: Dani Brusha 18, Brianna McFerran 7, Maddy Rossiter 3, Maddie Broderick 2, Nikki Sahl 1.

Villa Maria: Sophia Tray 20, Erin Urbanski 8, Ava Broadhurst 8, Briella Romeo 7, Rebecca Craft 6, Abby Ferry 2