Penn Wood gets revenge on Cheltenham with first-round win

CHELTENHAM >> For the second straight year, Cheltenham and Penn Wood found themselves meeting in the first round of the District 1-AAAA playoffs.
Last year, it was Cheltenham that came out on top, ending the Patriots’ season and sending them home for good.
This year, it was Penn Wood that would have the last laugh, and in dominating fashion, as they cruised past Cheltenham 68-27.
“Every time we played them since I’ve been here we’ve never beaten them,” said Penn Wood guard Dahnye Redd. “So it’s our senior year, it’s playoffs, and they knocked us out last year so we just had to beat them.”
From the opening tip you could tell Redd was determined to lift her team to a victory, as she scored 13 points in the first 8 minutes, never missing a field goal as they shot to an 18-12 lead.
“Yeah, I knew.” said Redd, when asked if she knew she was going to have a big game. “I was just so excited I just came out ready to play for this one.”
Even with Redd’s hot start, Cheltenham was able to hold their own early on.
Mia Leonard had seven of her own first quarter points for the Panthers and was a dominant rebounder, but as the game went on, they faded.
“We knew we were in for a battle.” said Cheltenham head coach Brendan Nolan. “We struggled with their pressure and didn’t handle it very well. We looked very disorganized at times and had to play some inexperienced kids at times in some important spots and it hurt us.”
Penn Wood’s pressure was definitely the breaking point for Cheltenham. Their guards couldn’t seem to handle the ball when pressed, which lead to turnovers and easy buckets on the other end.

Part of Cheltenham’s struggle was that they were missing their leading scorer, Ashley Jones, but even she wasn’t going to make up 40 points. Nolan was more critical of his teams practice habits than anything else when discussing how they struggled handling the ball.
“We just really don’t put enough pressure on each other at practice,” said Nolan. “In practice we’re the nicest team around, we don’t put any pressure on, we don’t push each other enough. So then, we get into a game like this and we just weren’t ready for it.”
That lack of preparation really showed in the second half after Redd picked up her third foul in the third quarter.
Cheltenham should have been able to use that time to mount a comeback, but the exact opposite happened, as Penn Wood turned a 13-point halftime lead to a 41-point victory.
“We just struggled scoring in that second half.” added Nolan. “(Dahnye) Redd had three fouls, she had to sit out that third quarter, and they came out and went on a 13-0 run. Their senior experience hurt us there.”
This is a tough way to end the season for Cheltenham, getting beaten in such a dominating fashion, especially after the way they started the year, but they have some solid players returning for next season, including Leonard.
“It’s tough to call this a good season,” said Nolan. “We started out 9-1 and the second half of the year was a rough one but we ended the season with kids that wanted to be part of the program and play as a team so hopefully we can build on that next year.”