City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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WARRINGTON >> For the first time in their four years at William Tennent, Avery Kocur and Halie Staub are playing on a team with expectations.

The Panthers have never been a basketball powerhouse and in their first two seasons, their teams didn’t win a lot. That changed last season when for the first time in 10 years, William Tennent’s season extended into the District 1 playoffs and prompted this year’s group to set some goals for itself.

It took a half to get there in Tuesday’s season opener, but Tennent played like a team with an expectation it would win in a 52-37 victory at CB South.

“Our coaches have been pushing us a lot more,” Staub said. “They’ve made sure everyone is more committed to the team, pushing everyone so we’re all working harder and playing with more confidence.”

Tennent finished with a 9-13 record in Kocur and Staub’s freshman season and the same record again the next year. Last season, they flipped that around to a 14-8 mark in the regular season which was enough to get the Panthers in the Class 6A bracket as the No. 19 seed before they lost their first round game at Pennsbury.

Kocur, a Holy Family recruit, has been a first team All-SOL Freedom Division selection each of the last three years while Staub was a second team pick as a junior and honorable mention each of her first two years. They’ve practically been teammates year-round their entire high school run as well, both of them playing summers for the PA Royals and developing a really robust combination on the court. 

For their final season together, they’re also aiming a little higher than just some all-league consideration.

“It’s one of our goals this year, I think we all feel like we have an opportunity to win the division,” Kocur said. “That’s our main goal, along with making the playoffs again, so that’s what we’re looking for this season.”

Last year, Tennent finished 6-4 in the SOL Freedom as part of a three-way tie for second behind Cheltenham, which went 10-0 in the division during a breakout season. Cheltenham had some changes this offseason but the Freedom division’s other Panthers are still a formidable threat and the William Tennent players are well aware that just because they want to win a division title, it doesn’t mean their tablemates in the standings are going to just let them.

Tennent coach Laura Whitney has been committed to the program for a decade now and she was eager to see how the team came back after its first look at success with this current group. 

“We came in a little hungry this year, knowing what’s at stake and what it takes,” Whitney said. “Our goals are definitely making it back to the playoffs and even if we can get a higher seed or maybe even host a first round game, that would be awesome.

“Our division has always been pretty competitive, we don’t know everything about all the teams yet but I expect Cheltenham to be a top team but we definitely have a goal of competing and trying to cut down some nets.”

Madisyn Rodebaugh is the only other senior on the roster this year, otherwise it’s all juniors, sophomores and freshmen behind the all-league senior backcourt. Junior Megan Volz established herself as a sophomore last season and Whitney could tell early on that the forward, who gives up a few inches to some opponents in the paint at 5-foot-8, put the work in this summer playing with Total Skills to get better.

Freshman Hannah Wong made her varsity debut and first start for Tennent on Tuesday and sophomore Carissa Malpezzi rounded out the first five with sophomore Giada Cosenza and junior Aubrey Lynch the two off the bench. Devon MacDonald, a freshman guard, is another player the coaches expect can be a varsity contributor later in the season.

“I’ve been here for 10 years and this is one of our deeper teams,” Whitney said. “The core group that we have returning plus the energy and the talent with our younger girls, we’re hoping that all can mix together. It’s still early in the season, so we’re still learning how to play with each other and learn our rhythm but we’re excited about what’s upcoming.”

Kocur and Staub cited Cosenza and Malpezzi as the teammates they saw a lot of improvement in from the end of last year to the start of team workouts in the fall. Winning is a good motivator and Kocur added that where in years past probably fewer than five girls would show up to an open gym, they had to close to every player showing regularly this fall.

The senior guard attributed that to Whitney, who put her team in a few extra preseason events outside the annual fall league the Panthers run to get a head start on building continuity. 

At least in the first half on Tuesday, that continuity wasn’t there. CB South, which had started its season 1-1 over the weekend in West Chester Henderson’s tip-off event, looked more like the team playing with expectations in the opening 16 minutes.

Senior Jules Tropea, who paced the Titans with a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds, led an inspired effort as the 6-foot forward stepped out to the perimeter as the lead defender on Kocur. The Titans’ defense kept the Panthers bottled up and the hosts were the more aggressive team offensively and especially rebounding the ball.

By the time Tennent retreated into halftime, the Panthers trailed 19-13 after shooting just 6-of-25 and without much ball movement.

“We talked about what we needed to do,” Kocur said. “We came out and only allowed three points in the third quarter, so it was definitely our defense that sparked us.”

Staub can be a total pest on defense and after not making the Titans feel her presence in the first half, the senior guard started going after the ball and creating the live ball turnovers that could get her team out and running.

“Once some of our shots started falling, we got more confident,” Staub, who led all scorers with 19 points, said. “We had more looks.”

Malpezzi found Volz inside for a hoop that kicked off a 12-0 Panthers run to close the third quarter, the team getting its first lead of the night on a pair of Staub foul shots with 2:34 left in the frame, then extended the run to 17 straight points as the fourth quarter opened.

It wasn’t all Staub and Kocur either. Malpezzi had two scores and two assists in the run while Volz notched all 12 of her points after halftime with eight coming in the final frame.  

Even in school, Kocur has seen a change. The senior said there’s a little bit of a buzz about their team and even classmates and friends are sharing in the expectation they’ll be a playoff team again.

“It’s holding us to a high standard and pushing us to do better with each game,” Kocur, who had 17 points and four assists, said. “There aren’t that many teams at Tennent that make the playoffs so being one of those teams is awesome and it makes us a little more known in school.”

“Now that we’re seniors and we’re seeing these freshmen coming in excited about the season, it shows our program is building,” Staub added.

The other day in practice, Kocur and Staub decided to trade roles. Kocur, who can be a flamethrower from the three-point line when she’s dialed in, started driving to the rim more while Staub, who barrels into the lane and can find ways to contort in difficult layups, stepped out to work on shooting.

Fittingly the basket that capped the game-turning 17-0 run came from that. Kocur got into the paint and when she was cut off, kicked out to Staub on the wing with her longtime teammate draining the three to give the Panthers a 15-point lead.

It was also emblematic of the way Kocur turned her slow first half around and the kind of response a team playing with expectations needs to see from its leaders.

“I thought Avery took a big step, last year she loved the outside shot so she could kind of settle for that,” Whitney said. “She showed a lot of maturity in the second half not falling back on that and being able to take it to the basket. Sometimes offense can be contagious, the ball starts going in for one person and it kind of opens it up and the next person feels more confident to take that next shot.”

Staub believes the most important factor that will help the Panthers play to their expectations is simply staying committed to them every day. The senior guards know their younger teammates follow their lead, so they played with better energy in the second half Tuesday and the entire group’s level rose with them.

In years past, Kocur and Staub walked into some games knowing the outcome before the ball had even tipped. Now, they’re not going in intimidated but instead with an expectation they can win.

It’s a good feeling to have.

“I did that today,” Kocur said. “I always get nervous before all my games but today, it was one of those where I felt like ‘I know we can win this game,’ and we all played that way.”

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By Quarter

WILLIAM TENNENT 7 | 6 | 17 | 22 || 52

CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 9 | 10 | 3 | 15 || 37

Scoring

WT: Halie Staub 19, Avery Kocur 17, Megan Volz 12, Carissa Malpezzi 4
CBS: Jules Tropea 16, Rylie DiCesare 9, Riley Campbell 4, Gabby Tropea 4, Anna Granito 2, Alex Tropea 2