City of Basketball Love

Dan Arkans (@danarkans)    
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Warrington – Central Bucks East girls basketball coach Liz Potash had never seen such growth in one offseason from any player until she met Hailey Moran.

From her freshman season to her sophomore campaign, Potash noticed a night-and-day difference. She wasn’t a quiet off-the-ball player anymore. Moran ran the point last year as the Patriots finished fourth in District 1-6A and captured the SOL Colonial title.

What Moran, now a junior, is doing for her encore should be downright scary to the entire district.

“I worked really hard over the summer,” Moran said. “Last year I did the same thing. The goal is to increase my output by however much over the summer and get better every year.”

Moran has gotten better in every way after a summer touring with the Comets 16U GUAA team that plays in the Under Armour circuit. It was definitely a huge step up for the junior guard. 

She got to play a national schedule and her team advanced all the way to the championship game in July at Spooky Nook. There they came up a little short to a juggernaut from the West Virginia Thunder Johnson program.

 “Some of them didn’t miss,” said Moran of the competition she faced this summer. “I felt like I was playing in college. Those girls are definitely elite and it’s really cool to play with them. That’s what I aspire to be. That’s what I want to get to next year.”

All of Moran’s growth was on display in CB East’s 56-23 romp over rival CB South on Tuesday night. The junior guard finished with 20 points, six steals, three rebounds and one assist in a dominating performance, which showed her complete all-court game.

Moran scored in a variety of different ways, which showed her growth as an offensive talent. Perhaps more importantly it displayed her confidence to finish at the hoop, absorb contact, and also drill 3-point shots. By the way, her defense is pretty good, too.

“I said it last year that I have been coaching 20 years and have never seen so much growth in one offseason,” Potash said. “What she did to elevate herself another level is just unbelievable to add an outside shot, a pull-up. We go as she goes.”

“Last year I knew I was going to take over as point guard and be the main point guard,” Moran said. “This year was a whole different level. It’s my junior year, there’s not much time left. You got to put as much out there as you can. I am just trying to do my best, make sure the hard work will show. Coming into the season I am definitely more confident and ready to show everyone what I can do.” 

CB East had a very good 2024-25 season. This season, they have the look of a championship squad. The Patriots opened the game with their full-court press hitting on all cylinders as they ran off to a 16-1 lead and South managed just one free throw.

However, in the closing minutes of the quarter Moran was whistled for her second foul.

“I heard something recently on a podcast control the controllables,” Moran said. “Just don’t think about your mistakes, keep on moving forward. The first foul wasn’t a great foul, the second foul maybe wasn’t a foul I don’t know that’s probably biased. It’s definitely keeping my head up and not thinking about it. I also know I have to be there for my team, making sure I am making the right decision going forward.”

“She picks up two fouls in the first quarter and you think we can’t have you off the floor,” Potash said. “Even defensively she got her hands on a lot of balls. She’s smart there. The first foul shouldn’t have happened, but the second foul I looked right at her and I said, ‘Why? Don’t even go for it.’ She didn’t pick up a foul the rest of the game. We will take it.”

Moran sat for a grand total of one minuted and 24 seconds. When the second quarter started, Moran was on the floor hitting a pull-up jumper almost immediately. She scored six points, although she admitted to backing off defensively. Still, by the time the quarter was over, the score was a very football-looking 33-7.

“When they are that focused and locked in from the beginning we are able to play with anyone,” Potash said. “We did something similar to Pennridge. We were up 17-1 at the end of the first quarter. That’s a hard thing to crawl back from. Give these guys credit they keep pushing and they do it in a very respectful way. It’s a good thing.”

It certainly wasn't just the Moran show on Tuesday; seven players scored in all with Jess Lockwood scoring 12 points and Natalie Berndt 11. Lockwood hit two 3-pointers, while Berndt and Delaney Long also hit treys. Scoring will not be an issue for CB East.

“Every league game we are always fired up, especially any CB school,” Moran said. “It’s definitely we are trying to get that CB sweep we call it. Make sure East is on top and prioritizing it.”

The defense did the rest. In the first half a frenetic full-court press led to seven turnovers and three made baskets for South. East turned off the press in the second half, but not its effort. The Patriots added five steals in the second half and allowed 16 second-half points.

“We started that last year,” said Potash of their press. “If teams don’t have strong ball handlers we can get after them pretty good. What I really like is that we pulled the press off but our defense didn’t back off. We were able to do it out of man, we were able to do it out of zone. When you have some versatility you set yourselves up for a lot of fun.”

South did have more fun in the second half and had seven players themselves reach the scoring column. Anna Granito led the Titans with five points.

“Going into it I think we knew we were the better team,” Moran said. “I think we had to do all the little things, make sure we had good defense. We always prioritize fast starts, so getting a couple of tips on our press was big. Getting a couple of easy layups helped us to keep going. I think we were expecting to get a lot of points and pull out the win.”

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By Quarter

CB East:   16   |  17  |  14  |  9  ||  56
CB South   1    |   6   |   9   |  7  ||  23

Scoring

CB East (56): Berndt 11; Lockwood 12; Moran 20; Penecale 2; Williams 4; Long 5; Lolas 2
CB South (23): Zakrzewski 2; J. Tropea 3; DiCesare 4; A. Tropea 2; Campbell 3; G. Tropea 4; Granito 5