VILLANOVA- Although they say history repeats itself, this was not the case Friday night at the Villanova Pavilion as the North Penn Lady Knights defeated Spring-Ford 61-53 in a district championship rematch from 2012.
“The win was huge and of course exciting. Everyone stepped up at the times needed and everyone battled. I’m really proud with the girls especially when Spring-Ford would make their runs, but we never gave up. The difference between this year and 2012 is that I think my sophomore year we were all nervous and didn’t have as strong as a team chemistry as we do this year. We were all confident and supportive of each other. The best feeling is knowing that nobody expected us to be league champs and now district champs and proving them all wrong is a true accomplishment,” said senior captain Vicky Tumasz.
As the contest began, the Rams hoped to get an early lead over the Lady Knights striking quickly and getting up 6-3. However as senior Erin Maher found teammate Vicky Tumasz for an across the court inbound pass, the Lady Knights went on a 10-0 run to finish out the quarter. The second quarter began with Spring-Ford looking to get even as they went on a 11-3 run early on in attempts to regain momentum. Freshman Sam Carangi and Tumasz quickly squashed the hope of a comeback run with assists from Maher as the Lady Knights high paced offense began to operate on all four cylinders. Freshman Irisa Ye also contributed to the Knights offensive success from the bench. North Penn finished out the half with a 32-21 lead over Spring-Ford.
“Obviously, our shooting has been phenomenal which is great. However, we cannot always rely on that. I felt like we did a very good job of preventing Spring Ford from driving to the basket. Our mental toughness was very evident – particularly in the 2nd half when we made several clutch free throws, and fought through some questionable calls by the officials. Two areas that we will spend time on this week are screen setting, and boxing out,” said head coach Maggie DeMarteleire.
The second half picked up right where the first half ended, with Tumasz dominating the offensive side of the ball. Tumasz scored 11 of North Penn’s first points. The Rams were caught attempting to catch up for the remainder of the half. Prohibited by a valiant effort defensively by the Lady Knight’s Bri Cullen, Maher and Mikaella Guliani. The Rams were unsuccessful falling to the Lady Knights 63-51.
“We have amazing team chemistry that has guided us through the most difficult games. We are a family and I wouldn’t want to share this with any other group of people,” continued Cullen.
“The win was huge. It meant everything to us and was a testament to our hard work and commitment to each other. It was a lot different than any other game because we didn’t just win a game, we won the district title and that’s something we’ll all take with us forever. Beating a team with a reputation like Spring-Ford speaks to how talented we are when we play to our ability, and just reinforces that we have a chance to do something special this post-season. When we faced them two years ago, we were so inexperienced and definitely let the pressure of playing in such a huge setting get to us. This time around, we were ready. We weren’t intimidated and played confidently for 32 minutes. This experience has been incredible, but moving forward, we realize it doesn’t stop here. We’re prepared to work our way through states and battle for 5 more games, because there is still one more title to be won,” commented Maher.
North Penn will play in a 1st round game Friday 7:30 at Plymouth Whitemarsh as they take on Lebanon.