Knights clash with Titans and come out victorious
Junior Carley Adams finds senior Cayla Sharkey out of the post for an easy layup.
TOWAMENCIN- “I think the rest of the team wants to win for the seniors and from the second we stepped on the floor tonight it was just energy,” Head Coach Jen Carangi said
The North Penn Knights (9-12) beat the CB South Titans (12-9) 54-48 in the North Penn gymnasium on a Tuesday night matchup and senior night.
The seniors from the 2018-19 girls basketball team; #3 Cayla Sharkey (left) and #4 Alayna Faison (right).
Junior Alaina Mullaly got things started with a three-pointer for the first three points of the game. A free throw from South’s Allie Burke tied the game at 3 but then Mullaly made a jumper off an assist from sophomore Alli Lindsay to jump out ahead 5-3. With 4:10 left in the first quarter, Taylor Hinkle tied the game at 5 with a jumper and then the Titans took their first lead of the game with a layup from Mackenzie Erb. Mullaly a three to put the Knights ahead 8-7 and then the Knights built a 5-point lead thanks to two buckets from junior Val McGriff, one of the them off a pretty assist from senior Alayna Faison. The Knights had a 15-10 lead after the first quarter.
The Titans retook the lead with a layup from Burke and the score was 19-18. The Knights didn’t let the last for long as Lindsay found sophomore Rachel Dunn for a layup. Senior Cayla Sharkey made a three with 1:04 left in the first half to tie the game at 23. Erin Kelly made layup for the last bucket of the half and the Titans took a 25-23 lead into halftime.
A jumper from Lindsay tied the game at 25 with 7:38 left in the third quarter. Sharkey broke that tie with an offensive rebound and put back. The Titans retook the lead again with a 3 from Alexa Brodie and the score was 28-27 with 5:49 left in the third quarter. Lindsay made a three with 4:38 left in the quarter to give the Knights a 30-28 lead and eventual 33-32 lead into the final quarter.
Brodie’s bucket gave the Titans a 33-31 lead but the Knights took it back with 6:48 left in the final quarter after Faison’s offensive rebound and put back. Both teams went back and forth and the game was tied at 45 after a layup from Burke. Lindsay found Sharkey for a basket that made the score 47-45 in favor of the Knights and Mullaly made two free throws to put the game away with 49.9 seconds left.
Junior Alaina Mullaly releases her free throw to give the Knights a 49-45 lead.
“All I knew was that I had to make those because before this game our goal is to go into playoffs and that’s all we wanted. And knowing this was a huge game for us, South is a very good team and we knew that we just had to win this time,” Mullaly said after scoring 16 points.
And the seniors, Cayla Sharkey and Alayna Faison, capped off their senior nights with a win.
“Huge, last time I’m ever gonna play in this gym, huge win. Everyone contributed somehow. It was a great team effort all around,” Sharkey said with a smile.
“It’s nice to have the team pull together just for us on our senior night. We all had that fire to win and I really appreciate that,” Faison said also with a grin.
The Knights will be back on the court Thursday for their last regular season game and it will be the against the Pennridge Rams.
“Keep playing. We wanna keep playing. We’re playing for our lives right now. If we win on Thursday night we should get into the playoffs and then the whole season starts over again,” Coach Carangi said.
North Penn: Mullaly 16 pts, Lindsay 10 pts, Sharkey 9 pts, McGriff 8 pts, Adams 7 pts, Faison 2 pts, Dunn 2 pts
CB South: Brodie 19 pts, Hinkle 11 pts, Erb 5 pts, Burke 5 pts, Cervera 5 pts, Schaller 3 pts
