Spring-Ford takes advantage of time off, tops Marple Newtown in District 1-AAAA opener

ROYERSFORD — The Spring-Ford girls basketball team had plenty of time on its hands.

After being the odd team out of the Pioneer Athletic Conference playoffs, the Rams were left to only practice while the Final Four played out, unable to defend their title as the former three-time league champions.

It was not an especially welcomed break.

“I thought it was nice to have a break but I was really ready to play since we haven’t for two weeks. I think that helped us a lot because it really fired us up,’ junior Molly Hynes said.

It couldn’t have been a welcome break from District 1-AAAA playoff first-round opponent Marple Newtown’s standpoint either.

Spring-Ford came out intense from the opening tip and built a 15-point lead after the first quarter and Locke and Hynes scored in double-figures to lead the No. 16 Rams to a 60-45 victory over the No. 17 Tigers Saturday afternoon.

Locke had 13 points and was a first-quarter defensive force with four steals (five overall) while Hynes scored 12 and Julia Roshelli scored nine to complement solid defensive work on Tigers’ standout senior guard Rylee Power, who ended with a game-high 16 points.

“We were pretty mad that we weren’t in the PAC-10 playoffs so we’re taking it to districts. We want this,’ Locke said.

Not only is it another district-level win for Spring-Ford (15-8), participants of the last two PIAA Class AAAA championship games, it sets up a massive third meeting with top-seeded Boyertown, which defeated Central Bucks East Friday night.

The game is set for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, which isn’t soon enough from the Rams’ view after taking the Bears to the wire in both regular-season meetings.

“We’re playing Boyertown,’ Hynes said with an excited laugh. “I’ve never been so excited.’

The matchup is made possible by the Rams’ return to stifling defense, something they feel has been lost at times this season.

“The past couple seasons we’ve taken so much pride in our defense and we kind of feel like it’s gotten away from us this year so we’re really focusing on defense in this playoff season. That’s where we thought our losses came from — that we weren’t shutting teams out like we usually did,’ Locke said.

It wasn’t easy for the Tigers to handle, even with three future college players in Power (West Chester), Carley Hamilton (Carnegie Mellon), who scored eight points, and Nicole Smythe (Delaware Valley).

“We see that same type of pressure against Garnet Valley and a couple teams in our league but they’re obviously a great program with great athletes and great basketball players,’ Marple Newtown coach Mike Colgan said. “We definitely started slow with the speed they showed on defense and getting up and down the floor. You can’t practice against that at Marple. We looked at it on film but it’s hard to anticipate the speed when you’re looking at it on film.’

The result was a 19-0 run into the second quarter to build a 21-4 lead on a pretty runner by Hynes for Spring-Ford. Spring-Ford extended the lead to as much as 21, Sydney Wagner’s runner and the foul boosting it to 44-23.

Marple Newtown, which concluded its season at 16-7, rallied at the end of the third quarter and into the fourth, cutting the deficit to 50-40 on Morgan McAndrews’ 3-pointer. But the Rams were back on track when Locke assisted Abby Beyer (eight points) for an easy layup and they were on their way to the second round.

Spring-Ford’s layoff allowed it to focus its attention solely on the Tigers.

“We studied this team, we watched film on them, knew who their best players were, knew who was guarding them and focused on just this game. We weren’t trying to look ahead at anything,’ Locke said.

The Rams certainly are now.

NOTES — Spring-Ford head coach Mickey McDaniel was not at the game due to illness. Assistant Geoff Kahler handled head coaching duties in his absence. … Marple’s Hamilton had a game-high 10 rebounds while Locke led Spring-Ford with six. … Spring-Ford was 23-for-46 from the floor, including 6-for-7 by Hynes. Marple Newtown was 18-for-44.