City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of CoBL’s “Prepping for Preps” series, which will take a look at many of the top high school programs in the region as part of our 2025-26 season preview coverage. The complete list of schools previewed thus far can be found here.)

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It’s been a productive offseason for the North Penn girls. 

Brianna Cullen has kept her Knights busy since the end of last season, which saw them go 13-13 and lose in the District 1 6A playback rounds. There have been summer and fall leagues and shootouts, spring and fall open gyms, a deep group of returners from sophomores through seniors all coming out with regularity to give Cullen a deep group to work with all year long. 

“The message at the end of the year was we have to get better, every single person has to develop,” she said. “So how are we going to do that? We’ll put the time in when we can. 

“In the past, we’ve had a hard time with numbers, this fall with tournaments, we’ve had like 15 girls every time.”

That’s an encouraging sign for the North Penn alum, who guided them to 25 wins and into the state quarterfinals in 2024, just her third year as their head coach. Now entering her fifth year, Cullen has to deal with the graduation of a four-year starter at point guard in Cam Crowley along with Leah Mikulski and Lily McGee, but has a new strength to rely on in the form of a couple high-upside wings. 

Junior Lily Brown and sophomore Paityn Debro form a potent 1-2 punch for the Knights, both 5-foot-10, skilled and versatile, with the ability to play multiple positions on the court. 

Brown is entering her third year as a starter, coming off a summer where she picked up her first Division I offer, from New Hampshire. Though not a natural point guard, she’ll play with the ball in her hands more this year, and will be the team’s go-to offensive option, especially in crunch time.

“Lily’s one of those players that she’s 100%, 100% of the time,” Cullen said. “I think her biggest challenge this year is to not put everything on herself. [...] She’s developed her game all-around, which is great to see. She’s such a hard worker and has such a work ethic that it’s hard not to admire that.”

Debro enjoyed a quality freshman season, able to work in slowly as a tertiary offensive option while helping out defensively with her length and athleticism. The training wheels are off now, the spotlight swinging much more in her direction this season as she steps up alongside Brown as one of the Knights’ featured players. 

“I did not know I was going to play that much as a freshman, I didn’t know I was going to be as good as I was as a freshman,” Debro said. “It gives me a really good confidence boost, to know that I’m wanted and I’m going to be a good fit for this team.”

“I think she’s doing really well,” Brown said. “She’s very versatile in the paint, she has a lot of moves, she’s doing really good at getting rebounds and put-backs. Overall, she’s a really strong player in the paint, and I’m looking forward for her to grow even more.”

They’re not the only starters back. Senior Tallie Smink, a 5-5 guard, was in the lineup last year, while juniors Lacie Haddock (5-8) and Mehya Godhania (5-3) were in the rotation as well. 

Godhania, whose older brother Ahmaar was one of the North Penn boys’ leaders last year, will step into a starting role in the backcourt; she and junior Saniah Hammond, the JV starting point guard last year, will handle a lot of the point guard duties. 

Senior Cailin Halfpenny and Maura Miller and sophomore Ava Wood are also back from last year’s varsity roster. Outside of Brown, they’re almost all going to be in new positions from last year, and will have to mature together quickly for the Knights to live up to their potential.

“We have to communicate a lot more than we did last year,” Debro said, “because we have a whole new group of people coming in, and there’s going to be a lot of people on the team that might get playing time.”

“Lily and Talia have varsity experience in big moments, [and] some of the sophomores got it last year,” Cullen said, “but there’s a difference between coming off the bench and experiencing big moments, like playoff moments, with senior leadership versus now being the one who really has to be level-headed in those moments.”

The Knights have a friendly schedule to get off to a strong start. Seven of the first nine games and 11 of their first 14 overall are at home; the flip side is that seven of their final nine are on the road. Central Bucks East and Central Bucks South will likely be the biggest competitors in the Suburban One Colonial, where North Penn finished second last year with an 8-2 record. 

A quality league record almost certainly means a berth in the District 1 6A playoffs, which sees 10 of its 24 entrants on to the state tournament. Make the field, and anything can happen.

“The motivator always is just to make [the] playoffs,” Cullen said. “We still have girls on that team from that run two years ago, they want to get back to that feeling of we’re making playoffs and we’re successful in playoffs.”