TOWAMENCIN- The last time the North Penn Girls played basketball,  it wasn’t pretty. After their loss to CB West, it wasn’t clear whether the upset was a wake up call or a sign of a bad rut.

“I was concerned today coming in with how the girls were going to respond after their last loss,” said Head Coach Maggie DeMarteleire.

While Coach DeMarteleire may have been concerned, the Knights wanted to come out and prove to their coach that she had no reason to doubt her number one seeded team in the District One Playoffs.

“Coach wanted to see how we would bounce back from the West loss, and we wanted to show her that that wasn’t us, that isn’t how we play basketball. Tonight, we played North Penn basketball,” said Sam Carangi.

The North Penn Knights (21-3) did in fact play what they term “North Penn basketball” against the Spring-ford Rams (17-8) in a high scoring 60-21 victory that will be sending them to the third round of playoffs against Abington.

“[North Penn] was terrific without question. They were coming off of that tough loss against CB West and there was a hunger [to win] out there. They were not going to be denied tonight,” said Spring-ford Head Coach Mickey McDaniel.

North Penn was on fire from the first blow of the whistle. The Knights set the tone for the game early with their many rebounds and steals on defense. North Penn’s smooth transitions from defense to offense also allowed them to increase the pace of the game while building their impressive lead. Jess Huber led the Knights with 10 points in their 15-2 lead going into the second quarter.

“We wanted to get on them from the start, and I think we did a good job of doing that. From there on out we didn’t let up,” said Huber.

In the second quarter, Sam Carangi took offensive control for the Knights with 9 points, 6 of which were off of back to back three pointers. The Knights also maintained their explosiveness on defense which helped them in leading 32-9 going into the half. Juniors Bri Hewlett and Jess McKenzie were a relentless duo under the net grabbing many rebounds and put heavy pressure on the Ram’s offense.

“It’s all about defense for us. If we don’t box out and rebound, then we are not going to win games. As the game went on, we were limiting [Springford] to one shot and done, and that really got us going,” said Carangi.

The Knights’ scored the most points in the third quarter, outscoring the Rams 20-8.

“They are just a very offensive team. The make their shots, they know how to score, and I think it was hard to stop them tonight,” said Spring-ford’s Maddie Haney.

Huber again was a major factor in the Knights’ success, earning 8 points and hustling back on defense. For Spring-ford, Haney led scoring with 5 points in the quarter, but the Rams still trailed 52-17 going into the final quarter.

“It’s hard when you are down by so much to keep up your momentum, but I think overall we were still pretty positive,” said Haney.

For the last eight minutes, North Penn rotated in their underclassmen who took care of business for the rest of the game, outscoring the Rams 8-4.

“I thought that tonight our kids did everything we asked of them. They played smart basketball for thirty-two minutes, they stayed to the game plan for thirty-two minutes, and they played with confidence for thirty-two minutes,” said DeMarteleire.

SCORING

North Penn 15 32 52 60

Jess Huber, 20; Sam Carangi, 15; Irisa Ye, 9; Carly Adams, 4; Bri Hewlett, 4; Jenny Hulmes, 2; Alaina Mullaly, 2; Kate Early, 2; Jess McKenzie, 2

Spring-ford 2 9 17 21

Maddie Haney, 11; Ali Higgins, 4; Dez Engle, 3; Alyssa Conway, 3

To catch more game coverage, check out NPTV’s HD coverage announced by Jake Loburak and Anissa Gardizy.