Souderton rebounds from slow start to get past Pennridge
EAST ROCKHILL >> Down 10 points in the opening quarter is a tough spot for any team to be in, let alone a struggling six-win squad that has had its share of disappointments this season.
Luckily for Souderton, its girls didn’t let the early deficit bother them as the Indians stormed back in the second half on their way to a 53-48 win over Suburban One League Continental Conference foe Pennridge.
“Over the course of this season we have really been hanging close with a bunch of teams in our conference,” said Souderton head coach Lynn Carroll. “In my opinion it’s the most competitive conference in District 1 and we’ve been just falling short to a bunch of those teams and we’ve been hanging in and hanging in. I’m just really pleased with the amount of growth that this shows our team has made.”
It certainly wasn’t an easy comeback by any stretch of the imagination.
Just three minutes in, the Rams had already built a 12-2 lead and were showing little signs of slowing down.
Forward Lydia Konstanzer had a game-high 20 for Pennridge, including six in the first quarter, as every starter managed to hit a shot for them in the first eight minutes.
After they had built a 20-12 lead over the Indians at the end of the first, Carroll made sure her team knew just how badly they were playing on defense, reminding them they were on pace to give up a whopping 80 points.
“Yeah we weren’t real happy about that 20, 80 (points against) would have been something, said Carroll. “We didn’t switch up our defense or anything we just wanted to try and limit Konstanzer and (Devon) Rimmer. How do we force the other kids to step up and have to win the game, and they had some kids step up but we knew we couldn’t let those two kill us, so we just stuck to the game plan.”
Whatever they did, it worked.
After allowing the Rams to shoot 64 percent from the field in the first quarter, the defense buckled down and held them to 10-of-38 shooting for the rest of the game.
“Their defense was great and they did an excellent job pressuring our guards,” said Pennridge head coach Lindsey Tennett. “We were making all our shots in that first quarter and from there on out it was a lot of misses. We’ve been trying to work as a team on our shooting percentage and it started out looking great but if you can’t make shots it’ll hurt you.”
Countering the big play from Konstanzer was a balanced attack from Souderton. Three players managed to reach double figures, and perhaps the most impressive of the three was sophomore Alana Cardona, who had Konstanzer on her for most of the night and still managed to finish with 11 points of her own.
“She (Cardona) shows no fear,” said Carroll. “She’s playing against a senior that’s going to be playing in college next year and she had no fear and no hesitation. You can’t really teach that, some kids just come with that and it’s been great with her.”
Even as they were improving their team defense, the Indians just could not get enough momentum to finally capture the lead. That was until a big three-pointer from a player going through a little bit of a dry spell finally gave them the 33-32 advantage in the third.
“Marissa Sandone, who only even had four points and has not been shooting well lately hit that really big three,” said Carroll. “She was 0 for the last week so for her to even take that shot after feeling the way that she’s been feeling was huge.”
After Sandone hit that three the Indians never looked back, Maintaining the lead for the rest of the game and proving that while they’re record may not show it, they’re still a competitive team in their conference that can beat anyone on any night.
