City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Dani Jeffries grew up on Sacred Heart basketball. 

The daughter of a Sacred Heart graduate, Jefferies has been going to the all-girls Catholic school in Bryn Mawr since pre-K, making this sophomore year her 12th overall on Bryn Mawr Ave. She was in second grade when Sacred Heart made the first in what’s been a run of state playoff appearances, a string which reached nine this year. 

“It was funny, we were watching a highlight film,” Sacred Heart coach Zach Shuler said. “I was showing the girls, ‘Dani, there you are in the 2nd grade, on the bleachers.’”

Now in her second year as a starter for the Lions, Jeffries is having the impact on the court she’s been waiting to make for a decade. With Jeffries and her teammates coming up with big shots late, Sacred Heart closed strong to take out Lancaster County Christian 37-32 at Lower Merion’s Kobe Bryant Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. 

Jeffries scored eight points, all in the second half, as Sacred Heart overcame a slow start to slide past Lancaster County — also the Lions — over the course of the second half. She also grabbed four rebounds, dished out four assists and grabbed two steals while playing at the point of attack both offensively and defensively for her squad. 

“It’s honestly so cool,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to be on that floor with Sacred Heart, but honestly it went by so fast since I was in second grade watching. It’s just really amazing to be on this team after watching it for so long, I’m really glad for that.”

Shuler said that it was when Jeffries was in middle school that he recognized that she would eventually be able to help his program at the varsity level, and to do so sooner rather than later. 

The 20th-year head coach said he brought the 5-foot-5 guard in for the team’s offseason workouts before her eighth grade year, part of the reason she was ready to jump right into a starting role as a freshman. 

“We knew going into as a 9th grader we knew she could play right away, just her skillset, and we were excited for it because her dad and mom were coaches, and she’s a gym rat, she’s a baller,” Shuler said. “She likes the ball in her hands and she gets us in our sets, just a great overall team player, does whatever you could ask of her.”

With the win, Sacred Heart advanced in the state playoffs for the eighth time in the last nine years. The previous eight, the Lions had been in the 2A bracket; this year, they’re in the 1A classification, going up against a new set of teams. 

In the second round, Sacred Heart will play District 3 champs Linville Hill Christian (22-2) at a time and venue to be announced. The Lions have only advanced past the second round once, making the quarterfinals in 2023 when Donohue’s buzzer-beater was the difference in a 42-40 win over Line Mountain.

Lancaster County Christian, the fourth seed out of District 3, presented a challenge with a sizable frontcourt led by 6-1 senior Alicia Fisher. Fisher was impressive, scoring 14 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, while fellow senior Faith Urenovitch added nine points, six assists and four rebounds. 

With Fisher and LCCS walling up on Sacred Heart standout and DeSales commit Keara McCaffrey, limiting the 6-0 forward to six points and seven rebounds — two weeks after McCaffrey put up 16 points and 26 rebounds in the District 1 championship game win over Delco Christian — Sacred Heart tried bombing away from the 3-point arc for much of the contest. 

Many of Sacred Heart’s looks were good, but weren’t falling; the Lions were 2-of-19 from 3-point range in the first half (5-31 for the game), while LCCS didn’t take a single trey, finishing 0-5 from deep. In the second half, Jeffries and junior guard Megan Donahoe (12 points) started getting more aggressive off the bounce, and the Sacred Heart offense started opening up. 

A 3-pointer from Donahue and one from senior Grace Brown had Sacred Heart up 24-23 by the end of the third quarter. Brown hit another to open the fourth, putting Sacred Heart up four in a game where every bucket felt like a five-pointer. Jeffries scored the next two buckets, her pull-up jumper from the elbow putting Sacred Heart up 33-25 with 3:45 remaining. 

“I think once we started to drive, it does open up a lot more shots, but also mentally for us, when we start thinking more aggressive and start to attack more, we’ll get the shots that we want to take,” Jeffries said. “It was great for us to start attacking and moving our offense around a little bit more.”

Sacred Heart sealed it at the line. McCaffrey was 4-for-4 from the line in the final minute, Donohue adding two more down the stretch. The Lions only committed five turnovers all game, getting balanced scoring from their starting lineup. 

“We have four seniors who contributed the last couple postseason runs and you could see them really relaxed out there in the fourth quarter,” Shuler said. “It does give us an advantage towards the end of the game where we know different scenarios and know how we want to play. We closed it out [...] you could tell they were relaxed, they’re confident, they work on it, and we want them on the line at the end.”

By Quarter
SHA:  5   |   7   |  12  |  13  ||  37
LCC:  8   |   6   |   9   |   9   ||  32

Shooting
SHA: 12-53 FG (5-31 3PT), 8-10 FT
LCC: 15-40 FG (0-5 3PT), 2-6 FT

Scoring
SHA: Megan Donohue 12, Grace Brown 9, Dani Jeffries 8, Keara McCaffrey 6, Bella Donohue 2

LCC: Alicia Fisher 14, Faith Urenovitch 9, Sophie MacCartney 4, Hannah Espershade 3, Abby Bates 2