No. 1 seed Boyertown stays a step ahead of Central Bucks East in 53-38 win
BOYERTOWN — The Boyertown and Central Bucks East girls basketball are both on the incline.
A year ago, the Bears were the young, improving team laying the foundation for the future. They are now the No. 1 seed in the District 1-AAAA playoffs.
The Patriots meanwhile used a senior-filled lineup to make the PIAA Class AAAA playoffs last season and returned this year to grow with a core of sophomores and freshmen.
In the grand scheme, Boyertown is a step ahead. The same could be said when the two faced off in the first round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs.
The top seeds grabbed control in the middle two quarters and built a 27-point lead before closing out No. 32 C.B. East for a 53-38 Boyertown victory to make the second round of districts.
Abby Kapp led balanced Boyertown with 14 points while Ali Bauman and Maria Garofolo scored 11 and 10, respectively.
At 25-0 and coming off winning the Pioneer Athletic Conference championship on Wednesday, it’s all about the steps ahead for the Bears.
“It’s definitely exciting to know that we’re that much closer to going deeper in districts and even making a run in states,’ Bauman said. “Yes, we won PAC-10s, but as soon as we stepped on the court Thursday (for practice) it was over and it was a brand new game.’
The Bears will meet the winner of Saturday’s meeting between oh-so-familiar foe Spring-Ford, the No. 16 seed, and No. 17 Marple Newtown in the second round on Wednesday.
C.B. East’s season comes to an end with an 11-12 record, but not without battling back from 48-21 deficit to go on a 17-0 run into the fourth quarter to cut Boyertown’s lead to 48-38.
“They fight, they battle every single team they face,’ C.B. East coach Liz Potash said. “They easily could have gone in as a 32-seed and said, ‘ This is it,’ especially when (the Bears) made their run in the third quarter. It’s not who they are. They haven’t quit all year.’
The Patriots got 10 points from junior Kyra Scaliti (all in the third quarter), eight from promising freshman Bailey McManus and six from sophomore Briana Talbot, whose free throws got the deficit to 10 in the fourth.
But Boyertown’s aggressiveness on both ends of the floor enabled them to take charge in the second quarter by going on a 12-0 run, six coming from Garofolo. In total, the Bears had 16 steals (Kapp with four and Katie Armstrong, Alli Marcus and Sam Brensinger with three apiece), which spoke more to their quality than C.B. East’s inability.
That aggressiveness also got the Bears to the line a lot, going 10-for-17 in the first half (16-for-24 overall).
“The fouls in the first half really killed us,’ Potash said. “We sent them to the line way too many times.’
The Bears rattled the Patriots late in the third quarter and were up 27, but C.B. East refused to mail it in.
“We really got comfortable in where we were and Central Bucks East is a decent team — we felt 32nd wasn’t where they actually belonged. They fought for it,’ Bauman said.
Garofolo stopped the bleeding with an and-1 putback with 3:25 remaining to get Boyertown back in business.
But the Bears can expect a similar kind of fight every game the rest of the season. And next time the opponent may not be in the early stages of its redevelopment.
