City of Basketball Love

Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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CONESTOGA -- The clock has almost struck midnight on Ryann Jennings’ Conestoga career. But the stakes are just winding up for the superstar 5-11 guard and her Pioneer teammates, starting with a gritty win in a rematch against Garnet Valley.

The Jaguars snagged a tight win against Conestoga in December, but Saturday was a different story as the Pioneers pulled away, 43-37, to their 13th league win of the year (14-8 overall) and snapped a four-game losing streak against Garnet Valley going back to 2024. 

“Every game with Garnet Valley is such an intense game and I feel like it can go either way every time,” Jennings said. “We really played with all of our effort today and I think that’s how we pulled out the win. We’ve just gotten better throughout the season and I think we just play as a team really well and as the season goes on, you play better and I just think we’re playing well together and it’s just really fun out there.”

Conestoga's Ryann Jennings (right) shoots over a defender during the Pioneers' win over Garnet Valley on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

'Stoga's latest win also came with huge postseason implications for both teams.

Heading into play today, Conestoga was the No. 17 seed in the unofficial District 1 6A rankings, one spot out of hosting a first-round game. On the flipside, Garnet Valley was hanging onto the No. 7 seed, hoping to lock in a top-eight seed and bye into the second round.

Not only did it mark 10 in a row for Conestoga (snapping the Jaguars’ six-game win streak), it pulled the Pioneers ahead of Garnet Valley (now 12-3 in Central League play) into first place in the Central League. If they can hold off a dangerous Haverford High team on Tuesday, they could hang onto first place heading into the postseason.

“Our focus is to be the number one team from the start and winning on Tuesday will allow us to be the number one seed [in the Central League],” Conestoga head coach Ken Doyle said post-game. “So getting the win today was a huge opportunity for us to set up [the road ahead].”

To make a deep run in districts and states, they’ll need the best from Jennings. Saturday was an excellent sign as the Lehigh commit looked impressive against Garnet Valley, finishing with 20 points, 14 rebounds, four assists and two steals, showing off everything that made her the Central League MVP a season ago. For Doyle, who took the Conestoga job last summer with A.J. Thompson’s departure, he’s only needed one season to see she’s the genuine article and the leader of this team, both on and off the court.

“She’s just a tremendous young lady, not only as a player but as a person and she is one of the most unselfish players that I’ve ever come across,” Doyle said. “She just picks her teammates up and shares them with her teammates and her teammates believe in themselves because of a player like Ryann.”

Even with Jennings’ success today, Doyle was impressed with the resilience and grit his team showed in a dogfight of a game but believes they can play even better in the days and weeks to come.

“We really battled today, we didn’t really have it offensively, they did a lot of different things to junk it up defensively, to get us out of our rhythm,” Doyle said. “We’ve been scoring a lot the last few games, so it’s just definitely a change of pace and forcing a lot of turnovers. [...] But the girls really dug in deep and made a good effort down the stretch for us.”

Maren Gallagher (23) scored eight of her 12 points in the fourth quarter. (Photo: Dan Hilferty/CoBL)

Beyond Jennings, sophomore Maren Gallagher made a huge impact against the Jaguars with her sharpshooting, scoring eight in the fourth quarter including two threes. With a shorthanded roster early in the year due to injuries, it allowed the guard to play a big role early and that experience is coming in handy in the late season, especially on a healthier roster.

“She’s been a really big help for us,” Doyle said. “We’ve been healthy for the last two and a half weeks, so it’s allowed some of the younger girls to step up a bit like Maren, because some older leadership is around now that hasn’t been there. So at the beginning of the year, not just her, all the young kids got a lot of experience because we were just playing basically a JV team outside of a couple seniors.”

Saturday also showed off the senior core for Conestoga, with senior Maggie Neary nailing a three-pointer at the third-quarter’s buzzer to tie the game at 28 all. Down this stretch marks her, Jennings and Ursinus commit Libby Brown’s (four assists, two rebounds against Garnet Valley) final games together - sentimental moments for a trio that’s played together since Kindergarten, starting with that big-time matchup with Haverford High on Tuesday.

“It’s so great, we’re all so close and it’s just so fun out there playing with your best friends,” Jennings said. “We just really love playing with each other [and] we’re gonna just prepare, prepare the same way we prepared for [Garnet Valley] and we’re just gonna put all of our effort in practice and it’ll show in the games.”

By Quarter
Conestoga:  7  |  9  |  12  |  15  ||  43
GV:    12  |  4  |  12  |  9  ||  37

Shooting
Conestoga: Ryann Jennings 20, Maren Gallagher 12, Maggie Neary 7, Natalie Garzio 4

Garnet Valley: Kylie Adamski 14, Reese Hunter 9, Amanda Bilson 8, Addison Adamski 5, Katie Dwyer 1