Sluggish North Penn outlasts Neshaminy in SOL semifinals
NEWTOWN >> North Penn doesn’t usually miss all that many layups or foul shots but when it does happen, the Maidens usually make up for it on defense.
For the first half Saturday, that was the case as they opened up a nice lead on Neshaminy. After halftime, the Maidens were out of sorts in every aspect.
It got a little too close, but North Penn made enough plays down the stretch to pull out a 44-39 win in the SOL semifinals at Council Rock North.
“I was pleased with the first half, particularly defensively but I was not pleased with the second half,” Maidens coach Maggie deMarteleire said. “It was not for lack of effort, I thought our kids were playing hard, but they just were not playing smart. There just wasn’t a lot of positive energy.”
Sam Carangi drained a 3 to open the game, but the offense went dry after that as North Penn started settling for too many 3’s. After a timeout, the game changed and the Maidens started working inside, whether it was a drive, a pass or post-up. Carangi sparked things again with a steal, saunter down the floor and layup with 3:28 left in the first.
Bri Hewlett's first quarter buzzer-beater 3 @PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/1p6Xx9d0La
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 6, 2016
The beneficiary was Mikaela Giuliani, who scored a game-high 17 points for North Penn. The senior floated around the baseline and paint, establishing and re-establishing herself as her teammates started to find her. Giuliani had just two points at the end of the first, but her touches and movement opened up the offense and Bri Hewlett ended the first with a buzzer-beating corner 3-pointer.
“When we saw they were in a zone, we started to bomb away and we had to establish our inside-out game,” Giuliani said. “That’s what helped us in the first half.”
North Penn led 13-0 after one quarter and had a nearly 10-minute shutout before Allison Harvey sank a pair of 3-pointers to put Neshaminy on the board early in the second quarter. That was all North Penn allowed from the field, and the only other Neshaminy points came from two Devon Storms free throws at half with North Penn ahead 22-8.
When the teams came back out, North Penn looked like a different squad. After four total turnovers in the first half, the Maidens committed five giveaways in the third quarter alone. The communication on defense stopped and the team stopped rotating quickly to cover Neshaminy’s scorers.
Giuliani rebounds and scores her own miss @PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/TlD8kG7XRv
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) February 6, 2016
“We can’t be so inconsistent,” deMarteleire said. “We have too much experience on this team to be as inconsistent as we’ve been. We came out last Sunday against Garnet Valley and played lights-out, it was the best game we’ve had all year and I’m not saying we’re going to play like that every game but the second half today, we should never play like that.”
It wasn’t the prettiest effort, but it was another win for North Penn. The Maidens are back at it Monday at 6 p.m. in the SOL title game against Central Bucks West at Bensalem High School and they’re hoping it brings a different kind of performance.
“We have to pull together and relax and make sure everyone’s on the same page,” Giuliani said. “Even though we played like that, we still got the win and we’ll just continue to work hard and move forward.”
