Neshaminy girls basketball cruises to its first SOL National win of the season at Bensalem
BENSALEM – If there’s one thing you can say about the Neshaminy girls basketball team is that the talent runs deeps this season.
Playing without the injured Devon Storms, an Honorable Mention All Suburban One League (SOL) player last season and the since-departed Third Teamer Maddie Murray, the Lady Skins dismantled SOL National Conference Bensalem 65-30 Thursday, Dec. 10 in the Owls’ next-to-new 45,000 square foot gymasium.
Neshaminy received 14 points off the bench and 23 from a pair of freshman starters in Allison Harvey (15) and Brooke Mullin (8).
“We’re definitely deeper this year,” stated Skins head coach Joe Lally. “Our two freshmen gave us great minutes today so we’re expecting big things from them. Our other players are making them better and that’s really going to make them come along faster.
“We’re a deep team so a lot of kids are going to get in. It’s going to be different kids on different nights.”
Neshaminy’s offense was led by senior Tiara Porterfield and Morgan Goldenbaum. The former hit a pair of threes in the first half and hit for seven points in the first half, staking the Skins to a 30-17 edge heading into the intermission.
“She was phenomenal; she’s been struggling with her shot a little bit so it was great to see her knock down some big shots today and be aggressive,” added Lally.
“It was really nice to see her play defense the way she did today more than anything.”
For her part, Goldenbaum knocked down three field goals in the first quarter, helping Neshaminy to a 16-8 lead by the end of the initial frame.
“Morgan is our senior leader and a lot of things run through Morgan; there’s a lot of pressure on her,” explained Lally. “So it’s nice when you have other kids that can do their job and make things a little easier.”
With two minutes remaining in the third period, Bensalem senior guard Lyric Lewis – who lead her team’s offense with 16 points – hit a 3-pointer to draw the Owls within 15. The Skins answered with four straight field goals, however, starting with a backdoor layup by Harvey off a feed from Goldenbaum, a driving layup by Porterfield, and two straight jumpers by Goldenbaum that were the byproducts of steals by Porterfield.
“It’s always nice to end a quarter like that; there’s no doubt that that definitely was a lift for us,” added Lally. “I think Tiara was behind two of those. She made another great play at the buzzer to deflect the ball, save it inbounds and give us the easy basket.”
The 15 points tallied by Harvey ignited the visitors, especially the first period when Allison scored seven points on a pair of layups and a three pointer. She registered 3-pointers in each of the first, third and fourth periods.
“She can shoot the ball but more than anything, she’s a good defender,” said Lally. “And she’s rebounded the ball well. For a young kid, that doesn’t usually happen. Usually, they have to learn that part of their game so we’re really happy with her complete game.”
With 5:45 remaining and Neshaminy on top 52-26, Lally cleared the bench – all except Mullin came out of the game.
“We want to get her post game going and get her leadership qualities and let her fell the responsibility,” Anytime you’re going to be with the ball on the floor and be a guard. We thought it was a good opportunity for her to lead the younger girls and she did a great job.”
Mullin scored six of her eight points in the second half, helping the Skins to their first win of the season. Neshaminy opened with three straight losses to Central Bucks rivals including a 14-point loss suffered at the hands of defending District 1 champion and 2015 state finalist CB West.
“We played tough competition to start; that sets us up in the future in our league,” said Lally. CB East, CB South and CB West is a tough start but I think our girls responded well.
“I have a lot of respect for our conference and the teams that are in there so that alone is going to tell us if we’re battle-ready.”
Last year, the Skins finished 14-7 overall, 9-5 in the SOL National Conference before falling at the hands of Perkiomen Valley in a District 1-AAAA opener. Abington won the division however after going unbeaten in the SOL and making its way to the D-1 finals and the PIAA quarterfinals.
Bensalem finished at the other end of the spectrum however, going 1-13 in the SOL, tied for dead last with Truman in the National Conference. The Owls are guided this year by first-year head coach Geoff Per.
“We worked on that 2-2-1 press in practice and I thought we did a nice job breaking it in the first half,
“We didn’t capitalize; our game plan was to break the press and that was to be our offense. Usually when you have a 2-on-1, you score off of it.
“I thought in the third quarter when the lead went from eight to 12 and from 12 to 16, instead of just being patient, we tried to hit home runs and throw the ball over three or four girls and you can’t do that.
“There are two ways to get killed in this press and that’s to try and dribble through it or try to pass it over four girls and we shot ourselves in the foot.”
With the loss, Bensalem falls to 2-2 overall, 1-1 in the SOL National Conference. The Owls began their season with a 66-45 loss to Pennridge but rebounded with double digit wins over Pennsbury and Little Flower.
NOTES: Bensalem peeled off midway through the post-game congratulations over some sort of silliness with the Owls P.A. announcer yelling at Lally to “just walk away.” Obviously shaken by the incident, Lally retreated to the locker room before reappearing minutes later, now recomposed. Neither coach wished to make any comments regarding the incident after the game.
Contact the author at ssherman@buckslocalnews.com, or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter
Neshaminy 65, Bensalem 30
(Dec. 9 at Bensalem)
Neshaminy 16 14 17 18 – 65
Bensalem 8 9 7 6 – 30
NESHAMINY
Allison Harvey 15, Tiara Porterfield 16, Josafinne McIlvaine 5, Morgan Goldenbaum 10, Emily Alexis 2, Thyra Tuttle 3, Taylor Kelley 4, Fiona McDonald 2, Brooke Mullin 8. TOTALS: 25 8-10–65.
3-POINT GOALS: Harvey 3, Porterfield 2, Kelly, Tuttle.
BENSALEM
Lyric Lewis 14, Samantha Werth 4, Savannah Jordan 4, Julia Rymarczuk 2, Destiny Rogers 2, Michaela Sit 2 Kathleen Rivera 2. TOTALS: 8 10-18–30.
3-POINT GOALS: Lewis 2, Werth, Jordan.
