Cumberland Valley too much for Boyertown, cruises 48-23
HARRISBURG — Been there, done that.
The Boyertown girls basketball team couldn’t say that ahead of its PIAA Class AAAA tournament first-round matchup.
Their opponent … they’ve been there, gone to the top, then did it again for good measure and planted a flag — 2013-14 PIAA Class AAAA champions.
Cumberland Valley showed why it is finalists of the past two title games and the reigning champions as junior Kelly Jekot and the Eagles put on a dominant display with a 48-23 victory over Boyertown on Friday night at Harrisburg High School.
Jekot, a Villanova recruit, had 20 points and 12 rebounds while junior Morgan Baughman scored eight for District 3 champion CV, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the third quarter that put the game well out of reach at 38-11.
“A big thing was you saw a team that’s been in the state playoffs before and a team that wasn’t. They had more energy and confidence out there and it showed,’ Boyertown coach Jason Bieber said.
The Bears were led by sophomore Abby Kapp’s nine points while junior Ali Bauman had four.
“We haven’t been in this position before,’ Kapp said. “I’m sure we’ll learn from this game and work on the things we need to work on. Next season we’ll come back in be in a better position than we were this year.
“I felt like we matched up well with them, a lot of things just didn’t go our way. We forced a lot of things in the beginning and just didn’t get into a flow. It wasn’t our night.’
Boyertown, the No. 10 seed from District 1, was unable to match the regular-season success it had while going undefeated on the way to a Pioneer Athletic Conference championship. But since a loss to Spring-Ford in the second round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs, things haven’t been so easy, the campaign ending with back-to-back losses, in the District 1 ninth-place playback game to Radnor and Friday night against CV.
The Eagles (28-1) aren’t exactly a charitable team when it comes to taking it easy on an opponent either.
“Our goal was to shut them down defensively and our offense would come after that. I think we started off really well and getting to the basket,’ Jekot said.
“It’s a good feeling (to be defending our title), especially after beating a team like Boyertown. They came in with 27 wins and for us to keep them under 25 points was pretty big. That was one of our goals, to shut them down with our defense.’
The Bears, who were without regular starter Maria Garofolo, looked to be patient on offense from the outset, but with each failed possession the pressure grew while Jekot already looked in fine form. Forward Meghan Rhoades (four points) and point guard Taylor Sneidman keyed a 10-1 run through the first quarter for a 16-7 lead.
The Bears got the necessary stops in the second quarter but were cold from the floor, scoring just four points on baskets by Kapp and Sarafina Valenti, and trailed 24-11 at the midpoint.
It all unraveled to start the third quarter.
“Their pressure really got to us at the beginning of the second half and we couldn’t recover from it,’ Kapp said.
Baughman’s bang-bang 3-pointers gave Cumberland Valley a 12-0 run to start the third quarter and a 38-11 lead. Sam Brensinger’s putback jumper stopped the bleeding with 2:50 remaining in the third but there was no coming back.
There may have been no coming back Friday, but that isn’t the case for a Boyertown team that loses just two seniors — starting guard Jordan Webb and reserve Hannah Jaskuta — that can have a bright future.
They got a glimpse of where the top is.
“I said to the girls in the locker room, ‘ You see where we are. And that’s where we want to be,” Bieber said. “Now we need to figure out how to make that next step because we have the majority of our team back next year.
“We had a special team. They’re a hard-working and tight-knit group and a great group to be with. We won another PAC-10 championship — third time in six years we’ve done that — third time in six years we’ve made the state playoffs so there’s a lot of positives we can take away from the season.’
NOTES — Cumberland Valley meets the winner of Saturday’s matchup between District 1 No. 3 Downingtown East and District 3 No. 4 Cedar Crest. … Boyertown had 24 turnovers to 16 for Cumberland Valley.
