City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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If you’re a girls’ high school basketball fan in Delco or Chester County, we’ve got the place for you to be on Saturday. 

Our third-annual CoBL Girls’ Winter Classic is taking the form this year of a District 1 and Downingtown hoops showcase, coming up in just a few days on December 13 at Downingtown West High School. All three of D’Town’s hoops programs — Bishop Shanahan, Downingtown West and Downingtown East — are participating, along with five others from around the Philly ‘burbs. 

We’ve got representatives from the Ches-Mont, Central League, Catholic Academies (AACA) and Catholic League all coming up for what should be four high-quality games.

Admission will be $10 for adults and $5 for high school students (with valid ID). The entire event will also be streaming on BallerTV. 

Here’s a look at each of the four: 

Springfield (Delco.) vs. Merion Mercy (12:00 PM)
Things get underway with a Central League vs. AACA matchup, as two terrific coaches in Springfield’s Ky McNichol and Merion Mercy’s Shanette Lee match wits with one another as the Cougars and Golden Bears face off. Merion Mercy’s already off to a 4-1 start this season, more than halfway to last year's win total, as Lee has one of the more promising groups to come through Montgomery Avenue in quite some time. Springfield’s season is only just getting underway, the Cougars beating Bonner in their opener last Friday night and haven’t played again since. 

Though they do have several upperclassmen in key roles — including senior guard Maddy Kydd, senior forward Kate McGovern and juniors Maeve O’Rourke and Mia Krause — Lee’s Golden Bears are fairly young. Sophomore Dylan Hall, a 5-10 wing, is their brightest young prospect, but they’ve also been getting strong play from freshman guard Hannah Kenefick and freshman wing Amara Gittens, along with sophomore guard Emerson Wiegand, all part of a deep rotation Lee is happy to rotate through. Springfield a bit more veteran leadership in the form of seniors Lil DiTrolio and Macy Gougler and junior Abbie McFarland, but the Cougars also have some exciting underclassmen in sophomore Adi DiTrolio and a strong freshman class led by wing/forward Alice Murphy. 

Bishop Shanahan vs. Bonner-Prendergast (1:45 PM)

It’s an all-Catholic School matchup in the second game as the Eagles “host” the Friars, though Shanahan plays in the Ches-Mont and Prendie in the PCL. Shanahan, coached by Jim Powers, won the District 1 5A championship in 2024 and still has a few pieces left over from that squad, most notably senior guard Carmel Ambrose, whose older sister Faith was one of the stars on that team; senior guard Lauren Foster (5-7), junior wing Taylor Bollenbach (6-0) and junior center Annie Udo (5-10) give them good size and junior point guard Abby Garrity sets the table. 

Bonner-Prendergast’s been an afterthought in the Catholic League the last few years, but Sarah Monaghan has eyes on changing that. The former Pandas standout wants to get them back to where they were when she was tearing up the courts and had them in the mix with the Carrolls and O’Hara’s of the world. She’s got a team to build on, consisting mostly of sophomores and juniors, including a talented sophomore lead guard in Kayla Epps, who will do much of the heavy lifting along with 5-10 sophomore wing Skylar Rothley, sophomore guard Alaya Dorsey (5-3) and juniors Allie Polinski (5-7) and Gionna Pagan (5-5).

Downingtown East vs. Conestoga (3:30 PM)
The second half of the event features two big-time 6A matchups, with four programs who all want to be playing well into the postseason. Downingtown East came into the season as one of the potential favorites in all of District 1 6A, with a senior-laden, battle-tested group featuring 6-0 wing Charlotte Aldridge, a versatile sharpshooter and UTEP commit, along with guards Chloe Hunold (5-6), Grace Hodges (5-6) and Jazlyn Boyd (5-7), all seniors; junior guard Kendall Chiavelli (5-9) is a third-year starter and perhaps coach Darren Domsohn’s most well-rounded scorer. 

Conestoga has its own Division I recruit to rely on in senior guard Ryann Jennings, who’s going to have a lot of responsibility for first-year head coach Ken Doyle due to some unfortunate offseason injuries taking a few veteran pieces off the court for the Pioneers this season. Jennings, a 5-11 Lehigh commit, is a quality scorer from all three levels; she’s joined by fellow seniors Libby Brown, a 5-4 Ursinus commit, and 5-8 wing Maggie Neary, as the team’s leaders. Sophomore wing Maren Gallagher and junior guard Niya Lynch are two other names to know for the Pioneers. 

Downingtown West vs. Lower Merion (5:15 PM)
The host Whippets close things out with a game against the Aces, a good early-season test for both sides. Downingtown West comes in with a deep and strong group under head coach Mike Young, including senior wing Ellie Dexter (5-8), senior forward Kelsey Meenan (5-10), junior point guard Hayden Blair (5-5) and junior forward Addy Lefever (6-0) as upperclassmen plus some terrific sophomores in Kylee Domsohn, Eme McCosmey and Macie Osunde, all of whom got plenty of experience as high school rookies. 

Look for some quality paint play in this one thanks to the 6-0 Domsohn and her counterpart, Lower Merion sophomore Ella Liberatoscioli, a 6-0 post who’s coming off a quality debut season of her own. The Aces have a deep 2028 group, including guard Natalia Kasmer, one of their go-to offensive options; junior guard Arry Glover has stepped up big for head coach Erin Laney, who’s working with a group missing two seniors due to torn ACLs.