Shanahan recovers to thump Tennent

DOWNINGTOWN — Ninth-seeded Bishop Shanhan found themselves in a dog fight with No. 24 William Tennent on Saturday in the first round of the District 1 Class AAAA girls basketball playoffs.

Shanahan was able to overcome a slow start to knock off the Panthers, 60-48. The win was the fourth straight for the Eagles and they set a school record for victories in a season at 22-3.

Shanahan will hit the road in the second round to face No. 8 North Penn, a 45-20 winner over Downingtown West, on Wednesday.

The Eagles, fresh off their Ches-Mont championship, stumbled out of the blocks.

Following an early made free throw by Shanahan’s Rachel Parker, William Tennent (13-10) started a 9-0 run to stun the lower seed. Tennent seemed to greatly disrupt the Shanahan offense with a full-court press and was easily penetrating its 2-3 zone defense.

Shanahan recovered to lead 14-9 after one.

The Panthers kept the game within reach, only trailing 26-25, when Shanhan coach Fran Burbridge called time out with 5:43 left in the third quarter.

“I’m not sure that, that was the golden key that opened it up for us or not, but I thought we did stop getting rushy after that,’ he explained. “We got a couple good possessions and more

importantly we got a couple of good defensive stops. Once we settled down and kinda played out for us.’

The Eagles went on a 7-0 run as Devon Adams and Kelly Basile highlighted the spurt.

Adams had four key points in the paint on back-to-back possessions, while Basile capped off the run with a 3-pointer from the corner before the Panthers called time with 4:30 left, down, 43-25. Shanahan was able to hold Tennent at bay the rest of the game.

Adams finished the game with 10 points and Basile had five.

Panthers coach Paul Eltre talked about the ambition his players showed and how they made it more stressful for a top-ten seed in Shanahan.

“It’s the one thing I can’t complain about, we try to get every ounce out of them and they played really hard,’ Eltre said. “We knew we were up for a challenge with the pieces that they had so

we did everything we could to give us the best chance to win and the bottom line is that they executed when they need to and had some other players that we weren’t expecting to step up and

play so I have to give them credit for that.’

Ciara Forde added that the Eagles came out a little flat to start the game but one shot was able to stop the run and keep Shanahan close in the early stages.

“I think the beginning we weren’t making a lot of shots and that slowed us down a lot,’ she said. “And as soon as Jen Sendi made that 3-pointer that really gave us a lot of momentum going forward.’

Sendi was Forde’s replacement in the early part of the first quarter and as soon as she entered the game she knocked down a 3-pointer from the left wing that gave new life to the Shanahan bench and the crowd.

Sendi finished the game with six points on two 3-pointers in the first half.

Forde and Grace Phillips highlighted the Shanahan scoring.

Forde was just about everywhere on the court, tallying five rebounds and five steals to go along with her 12 points.

“I haven’t been that great with rebounding the past few games so that’s what ive been working on,’ Forde said. “So it was good to have it come together today.’

Phillips was fairly consistent all game with her best quarter being the fourth. Going 6-of-7 at the free-throw line and knocking down a big 3-pointer at the 3:56 mark that Forde described as “the definition of clutch,’ for a 47-39 advantage.

Phillips had a game-high 18 points. Burbridge added that Phillips’ clutch three was a result of a changing of offensive schemes.

“We were running her (Phillips) down from the corner and she got a few shots from there but it just wasn’t the spot she was comfortable with tonight,’ he said. “So we kind of changed it up a

little bit and flashed her up at the top of the key to give her a different look and different feel for it. And Grace is really energetic kid and you know she really rebounds the ball well. She’ll knock down more shots than she won’t and that was a big three, but she’s hit a lot of big shots for us all year long.’

Burbridge also added that at this stage of the game it does not matter who you play, all you know as that you will have to fight every single game like Saturday.

“You get into these type of tournaments, it’s a ‘ survive and move on’,’ he said. “They don’t ask you how many did you win by or how are the games going. It’s just are you able to show up

for the next game and play on.’