City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue
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PLYMOUTH MEETING — The Souderton girls basketball defense makes things happen on the defensive end.

Often the culprit of the chaos is junior Kiera Fadden. Big Red first-year coach Eric Houston said Fadden, also a varsity softball player, reads opponents’ passes from the back of his defense like she reads fly balls in center field.

“Defense is definitely really big for us” Fadden told CoBL. “Coach E, that’s all he’s preached to us all year. And I think it really helps us transition. We get a big stop, and all the sudden that turns into multiple threes, multiple big points.”

Fadden contributed to a lockdown defensive effort from Souderton on Thursday night in a non-league game against Plymouth Whitemarsh. The Big Red kept the Colonials’ offense in check and used some timely shooting by junior Olivia Herron for a 37-31 victory that marked their seventh in a row.

Herron finished with a game-high 15 points and scored eight of her team’s nine fourth quarter points, including the go-ahead bucket with 36 seconds remaining.

“I think it’s really fun and we keep going up the ladder and we keep building our confidence and I think that confidence is a really good thing for our team,” Herron said.

Souderton (11-4) typically likes to force the pace of the game with full-court man-to-man pressure. The Plymouth Whitemarsh (9-4) backcourt somewhat neutralized that pressure Thursday as the Colonials jumped ahead 12-11 after a quarter of play.

Houston had his team in a zone for long stretches of the rest of the game, but Fadden and her teammates stayed aggressive. Souderton clenched down to hold the Colonials to just three points — on three free throws — in the second quarter and grab a 19-15 advantage at halftime.

Herron’s second triple of the game gave Souderton its largest lead, 28-17, with a little more than three minutes left in the third.

“Normally we press the whole entire game, man-to-man type of deal and everything like that,” Houston said. “But we realized how athletic their guards are off the dribble, so we had to contain it a little bit and limit those opportunities and force them to hit some shots. They actually hit some big shots at the end of the game.”

A quick PW burst to end the fourth closed the gap to six, and PW sophomore Grace Harvey knocked down a 3-pointer to get the 11-point Souderton lead down to eight, 28-25, with 7:25 to play. Fadden found Herron for another 3-point make to answer, but threes by Olivia Patete (11 points) and Harvey evened the score with 2:10 to play.

Luckily, Herron had another big shot in her too.

After the Souderton offense went quiet for more than four minutes of game action, Herron took an inbounds pass and found herself wide open, dribbling a few steps closer before sinking the go-ahead bucket with 36 seconds left on the clock. It was her fourth 3-point make of the game.

“We were just trying to look to get a shot for anyone,” Herron said. “And they totally just didn’t guard me, so I was like, ‘I have to shoot it.’ I already had three.”

PW got a decent look for a game-tying shot on the other end several feet beyond the arc, but it came up short and a solid box out from Fadden helped secure the ball for her team. Harvey nearly forced a steal to give the Colonials another chance to tie the game, but Souderton kept possession and two free throws by Herron with 4.2 seconds to go put the game on ice.

In a contest where points were hard to come by, Fadden stood out as she left her fingerprints on the game in a multitude of ways. She had three points and also grabbed six rebounds and added three assists, a block and a steal.

“I feel like my role is definitely more defensive minded — that’s how it’s always been here — and rebounding,” Fadden said. “But I feel like this year I’m stepping up more into an offensive-ish role. I’m still very much getting my teammates assists, rebounding, big defensive stops.”

The clutch rebound late was just the latest example of her impact being felt in clutch moments. She blocked a potentially tying three at the buzzer to seal a win over Council Rock South last week.

“She’s an athlete,” Houston said of Fadden. “She reads really well. She plays softball too, so that kind of helps. She plays the outfield. She reads with her eyes where they’re going with the ball. Sometimes she gets it, and sometimes she doesn’t but the majority of the time she gets the ball.”

Souderton dropped 10 of its last 11 games last season to finish the 2024-25 campaign with a 9-13 mark. They started this season at 4-4, unable to string together consecutive wins until the current seven-game win streak.

Thursday’s victory was the third in four 2026 contests for Souderton that were decided in the final few possessions. The goal is to continue that momentum through the last seven games of the regular season and into a postseason run after missing out on the district tournament a season ago.

“We’re just continuing to grow with our confidence, being mentally tough,” Houston said. “The game of basketball has a lot of runs in it, so therefore no matter how much you’re up a team can always make a comeback. That’s kind of what we’ve been facing a lot, but at the same time, we’ve kind of figured out how to sustain those runs and buckle down, take our time and just execute on the offensive end and also on the defensive side too.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh senior Joslyn Perez (2) is congratulated by her teammates after scoring in her return to action Thursday night. (Photo: Owen McCue/CoBL)

NOTES >> PW senior Joslyn Perez, who injured her knee last December, wasn’t originally expected to suit up for the Colonials. The Kutztown softball commit, who just recently was cleared to return to action, gave the Colonials a boost when she returned to the court for the first time in 13 months in the first quarter.

Perez scored a bucket just a few moments after entering the game in the first quarter, giving the Colonials a jolt. She finished with three points in the game in just a few minutes of action and could be a difference maker for PW down the stretch as she gets healthier. 

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By Quarter

Souderton 11 | 8 | 9 | 9 || 37

Plymouth Whitemarsh 12 | 3 | 7 | 9 || 31

Scoring

Souderton: Olivia Herron 15, Avie Sackor 6, Maddie Nentsiel 5, Madison Bealer 3, Mia Morgan 3, Kiera Fadden 3, Alaina Picard 2.

Plymouth Whitemarsh: Olivia Patete 11, Grace Harvey 7, Eliza Meersman 6, Mia Baron 4, Joslyn Perez 3.