City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@owen.mccue)
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HAWK HILL — Westtown coach Fran Burbidge entered the press room at Hagan Arena on Sunday afternoon drenched.

The Moose doused their coach with cups of water following last season’s Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association championship. They got Burbidge with the cups again following a 71-47 win over Friends’ Central.

To celebrate the program’s fourth straight PAISAA title, Westtown’s players also had a water jug waiting to surprise and soak Burbidge this season.

“We had to make it bigger than last year,” senior Olivia Jones said.

The Westtown girls basketball team celebrates with the PAISAA championship plaque. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

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Sophomore Jordyn Palmer led the way with 26 points and classmate Jessie Moses followed with 16, while senior Kennedy Henry joined them in double figures with 13. 

The Moose dominated defensively from the second quarter on to defeat their Friends Schools League rival for the third time this season.

“They’ve put themselves in a spot where there’s a lot of expectations, and I think there’s a lot taken for granted in what they do,” Burbidge said. “It’s almost ho-hum, they won by 30, but that’s (FCS) a good team. It gets underappreciated, yeah we’re talented, but they work and they compete and they come out each time.”

Senior Logyn Greer had seven points and Kaiya Rain Tucker had five points and a pair of assists in the first quarter to get the Phoenix out to a surprising 15-12 first quarter lead.

The Phoenix were up 20-19 with more than five minutes left in the second quarter when the Moose took control of the game with a suffocating defensive performance. Westtown ended the first half with 17 unanswered points to go up 37-19. The Moose didn’t allow a Phoenix point until the 5:43 mark in the third, building a 41-19 lead by that point.

“It all starts on the defensive end, making winning stops and getting stops that lead to transition points,” Jones said. “After the first quarter, Coach kind of was like, ‘We have no transition points right now,’ which isn’t usual for us. So we kind of just had to turn it up on defense, box out, rebound, which leads to transition points.”

Westtown overwhelmed FCS, 76-24, in last season’s PAISAA championship. A shorthanded Westtown squad survived a 63-54 scare from FCS in their Dec. 13 regular season meeting. It was a different story in the FSL title game on Feb. 7 when Westtown won 82-51.

The Moose have now won 14 in a row against the Phoenix, a streak that dates back to 2018.

“They’re a good team,” FCS coach Vinny Simpson said. “We’re good too, but they make adjustments and they make shots. There’s games where we can do a couple things, make a couple mistakes and get away with them. Against this team you can’t. I don’t know what it is, but they play very well against us. … They’ve got our number, and as a coach I’ve gotta figure it out.”

Seniors Greer (Colorado),Tucker (Siena), Nal’la Bennett (Stony Brook) and Jordyn Adderly (Coppin State) — for the last three years — and Saniyah Washington — for the last two — have helped Simpson turn the Phoenix into a local power in their own right.

The Moose denied them any hardware during their careers — three times in the FSL title game and twice in the PAISAA championship — but there’s still plenty they have accomplished.

“We put in so much work that I feel like people don’t see,” said Tucker, who led her team with 13 points. “Every weekend, every single day, after practice getting up shots. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t leave with anything, but I’m still grateful for the memories, the way I’ve grown as a person and a player.”

Vanesko, Palmer and Moses have had a hand in the last three PAISAA championships for Westtown. Vanesko and Palmer both described “trust” as a distinguishing trait for Westtown during their special run.

“I think going into it, it’s always been about that next man up mentality,” Vanesko said. “We have a lot of trust within each other. Boarding at Westtown, we’re with each other all the time, so we have a lot of chemistry on the team. We’re like sisters. We got out, we have fun, we hold each other accountable.”

Seniors Jones (Harvard), Henry (Villanova) and Kanyamiheto-Watson and classmates Aidan Langley (Towson) and Kennedy Hall (Boston College), who are injured, make up a lot of talent set to graduate after the season concludes.

Still, with Palmer, Moses, Vanesko back along with youngsters like freshman Ishana Sundararajan (five points), there’s no reason the Moose can’t start thinking about what celebrating fifth straight PAISAA title next season might look like.

“Next year it’s two (water jugs),” Palmer said.

NOTES >> The Moose are hopeful they still have basketball to be played. The Chipotle Nationals take place April 3-5 at Hamilton Southeastern High School in Fishers, Ind. and Burbidge sounded like he expected Westtown will be one of the programs invited.

“I would think there’s a very, very strong possibility they will be continuing to play,” Burbidge said. “We’ll take a little time off here, and we'll see how it plays out, but I don’t think they’re done playing basketball this year, and I think they’re excited to keep going and playing.”

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By Quarter
WT:   12  |  25  |  23  |  11  ||  71
FCS: 15  |   4   |  14  |  14  ||  47

Shooting
WT: 24-53 FG (7-20 3PT), 16-20 FT
FCS: 16-45 FG (5-10 3PT), 10-15 FT

Scoring
WT: Jordyn Palmer 26, Jessie Moses 16, Kennedy Henry 13, Atlee Vanesko 7, Ishana Sundararajan 5, Olivia Jones 4

FCS: Kaiya Rain Tucker 11, Faith Watson 11, Logyn Greer 9, Zya Small 7, Saniyah Washington 6, Nal’la Bennett 3