McGriff drops 20 as Knights top Trojans

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Prasham Jobanputra

Val McGriff in the post. She finished the game with 20 points.

TOWAMENCIN- Games on back-to-back nights for the girls basketball team and they came out with two blowouts.  They followed yesterday’s 19-point victory over the Quakertown Panthers, with a 29-point blowout.

The North Penn Knights (13-5) beat the Wissahickon Trojans (7-11) 72-43, in a Wednesday night game in the North Penn high school gymnasium.

“I talked last night about being more consistent and I think this time of year especially as we head into playoffs, we want to make sure we’re doing that and I think we did a nice job of that tonight,” Head Coach Jen Carangi said.

The night started off in a back and forth battle.  Kaitlyn McGeary got the first points of the game with a layup with 7:36 left in the opening quarter.  Carley Adams responded immediately with a bucket on the other side to tie the game at 2.  With 6:59 left in the first quarter Rebecca Selverian got an offensive rebound and put it back in to give the Trojans a 4-2 lead.  The Knights tied it back up at four, as Alli Lindsay got a nice bounce pass to Val McGriff for a layup.  With 5:31 left in the first quarter, Lindsay threw a long pass to Adams who scored and was fouled.  After the made free throw, the Knights were up 7-4.  The Trojans tied the game at 9 with 3:44 left in the quarter, thanks to a three from Anna Schools.  Lindsay went to the foul line and knocked down both free throws to give the Knights an 11-9 lead.  They then built that lead up to double digits as the score after one quarter was 22-11.

A big part of building that lead was the tear that McGriff went on in the first quarter.  She had 12 points in the first quarter.

“For the past couple games, I’ve been too focused on outside shooting and that’s what kinda led to my snowballing in a negative way, but staying in the post and realizing that I’m stronger than most of the girls on the other team, taking it in the post is my bread and butter of the game,” McGriff said.

After an Abby Plaugher three-pointer with a 1:37 left in the first half, the Knights had a 20-point lead, 38-18, and never looked back.

“I think we got contributions from a lot of different people.  I feel like when our bench went in tonight there was no drop in level.  I feel like there are times where we have lapses, and it’s from both players who are on the floor and our bench players, we have lapses at times that go on for minutes and in that time, it usually allows the other team to get back into it and I don’t think tonight we had that,” Coach Carangi said.

The Knights will have a big matchup Friday night at CB West against the Bucks.  The Knights lost this game earlier in the season, 57-45.

“Big game.  Right now they’re leading the conference so I told the girls, it’s a great opportunity for us to go in there and surprise maybe a little upset,” Coach Carangi said.

Wissahickon: Prestipino 2 pts, Selverian 2 pts, Verrier 2 pts, Dreyer 2 pts, Hyatt 3 pts, Friedman 3 pts, Fadel 3 pts, McGeary 4 pts, Dubin 6 pts, Schools 16 pts

North Penn: Johns 2 pts, Dunn 2 pts, Cleary 3 pts, Doran 3 pts, Mullaly 3 pts, Plaza 5 pts, Adams 9 pts, Plaugher 10 pts, Lindsay 15 pts, McGriff 20 pts