City of Basketball Love

Joseph Santoliquito (@JSantoliquito)

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MALVERN, PA — Everyone on the Great Valley court Thursday night was far too young to remember nor know anything about the classic science fiction TV series The Twilight Zone. The anthology was based on standalone dramas featuring ordinary people in surreal situations. For 32 minutes, that is the special, stationary place everyone seemed to be, as the game between Great Valley and West Chester Rustin was eerily reminiscent of the climatic buzzer-beater that took place last season.

It was the same two teams. On the same court. In the same gym. The primary players were the same, too, ending the same way—a last-second shot.

The difference, this time, was that Rustin came out on top, 33-31, on a Claire Rydel layup with 1.9 seconds to play, created by a length-of-the-court bolt of lightning sprint by the Golden Knights’ human jet Jenna Kraft.

The victory gave Rustin (7-6 overall) sole possession of first place in the Ches-Mont League American Conference as the only undefeated team at 4-0, while Great Valley (7-7, 3-1) suffered its first league loss.

Rydel led all scorers with 15 points, followed by Kraft’s eight and Mackenzie Stackhouse’s 5, while Great Valley was led by eight points each from Damaris Jones and Kacee Magee, whose clutch three at the top of the arc tied it at 31-31 with 9 seconds left to play.

It’s what set up the heroics of Rydel and Kraft.

After Magee tied it, everyone in the gym knew who was getting the ball—the 5-foot-2 senior ball of fire Kraft. Rustin coach Jim Falcone designed a play for Kraft to speed her way up the floor, and it looked like Great Valley had defended her well as she zipped up the right side with two Patriots trailing her.

What went unnoticed, however, was Rydel stealthily coming down the left. As two Great Valley defenders converged on Kraft as she neared the basket, she led Rydel with a bounce pass, and the 5-7 junior kissed it off the glass for the game-winning points with 1.9 seconds left. Great Valley was unable to get the ball inbounds at the final buzzer.

Last season, on the same court, involving the same two teams, in the same situation, it was Great Valley junior Maddie Walsh, then a sophomore, that buried a corner three-pointer at the buzzer for a 45-42 Great Valley victory.

Kraft remembers exactly where she was on the court when Walsh made the shot. This time, with the ball in her hands, she was determined the outcome would be different.

“This is crazy, because it is the same exact scenario as last year, even when we played them at home last year and beat them in overtime, they hit a buzzer-beater (by Magee) that sent it into overtime,” said Kraft, who is considering playing softball in college at Villanova. “I was sent to go this time. I turned the corner and saw two girls come at me. I saw a glimpse of (Rydel) and knew she would be there. I led her and she finished.

“I was never in a game quite like this. And I am too young for the Twilight Zone. I had no doubts dribbling down the court. I trust my team and I believe we would have pulled through in overtime.”

Rydel never hit a game-winning shot like that, aside from her backyard. She was a foot away from Walsh when she hit the buzzer beater last year.

“This is crazy how close this game and that game last year was, but I never hit a shot like that before tonight,” Rydel said. “It is crazy, but it felt good. Jenna was going to take it to the basket, or feed me breaking. I came down the left, and Jenna saw me and hit me for the layup. There were no doubts, but I never dreamed of a shot like that.

“On the bigger picture, we’re hoping to do the same against Great Valley at our place a few weeks from now.”

Falcone was particularly pleased with how his team defended. Great Valley has a lot of ball possession, and Falcone’s focus was sustained defense.

“This game was eerily similar to last year,” he said. “We won that game on the defensive end. Frankly, we have been on the short end of buzzer beaters the past couple of years. How Jenna found Claire, I don’t know how she saw her. But nothing surprises me about Jenna. She has eyes on the back of her head.”  

Prior to the game, Great Valley coach Todd Fredrick’s edict to his team was “stay in front of Jenna,” which he continuously shouted throughout the game.

“Jenna is probably one of the best, and the biggest competitors that you will see in all of Pennsylvania,” he said. “It took two girls to guard her. She has a will to win, and she finds a way to do it. She’s also tough. But we have some tough kids, too. We had Reilly Lackman battle and instill her will, and she’s our post player, and she’s 5-7. Reilly fought for everything.

“We had some foul trouble and were a little tentative at times on defense. They had fouls to give, and what made Kacee’s shot so impressive, they had fouls to give and could not get to her. They made a phenomenal play in the end. You have to give credit to Jenna and Rustin. I do remember the Twilight Zone.”

Any moment, the visage of Rod Serling, famed creator of The Twilight Zone, would appear, cigarette in hand, with his base voice and precise diction explaining there is not much middle ground nor dimensions of imagination between Great Valley and Rustin, but a few seconds in time, in the same gym, between the same teams, perpetually playing the same intense game.

By Quarter
WC Rustin (7-6, 4-0 Ches-Mont American):    4 | 8 | 7 |14 || 33
Great Valley (7-7, 3-1 Ches-Mont American):  5 | 10 | 8 | 8 || 31

Scoring
WC Rustin: Claire Rydel 15, Jenna Kraft 8, Mackenzie Stackhouse 5, Gretchen Gillis 3, Caitlyn Black Riley Mears 2.

Great Valley: Kacee Magee 8, Damaris Jones 8, Maddie Walsh 5, Kate Weikert 5, Lauren Chain 2, Callie Cole 2, Reilly Lackman 1.

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Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter based in the Philadelphia area who began writing for CoBL in 2021 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on BlueSky here.