St. Basil blows past Bristol in District 1-AA semifinals

UPPER DUBLIN >> St. Basil walked into Upper Dublin High School Tuesday night on a business trip, the semifinals of the District One AA playoff against Bristol.

The Panthers took care of business early scoring enough points in the first quarter to win the game and very sparingly used its starters in the second half as they rolled to a 69-15 win over the Warriors. The performance was sharp and especially impressive for team that hadn’t played a game in more than two weeks.

“We had a real good practice yesterday so I felt pretty good coming into today,” St. Basil coach Terry Mancini said. “Our girls really responded well which was great to see.”

“We have seniors and we keep telling them they’re playing for tomorrow’s now. They don’t want the season to end and of course we don’t as coaches so I think you saw that tonight. It was a business trip for us.”

St. Basil used the game to flex its depth. The Panthers used 15 players in the game — three players scored in double figures, including a game-high 11 points. from Danielle McCurdy. Eight players made multiple field goals.

St. Basil isn’t your normal AA team. Forged in the fire of the AACA, playing some of the top teams in the area, the Panthers entered the game with 20-3 record. Their three losses — a tough one point loss to Mount St Joseph, which was recently eliminated in District 1-AAAA playoff playback and a pair of losses to Gywnedd Mercy Academy, a team primed to make a deep state run in the Class AAA bracket.

“Our league is so good that it prepares you for these types of games,” Mancini said. “Every team in our league gives you a battle and it’s just great preparation for these two games that we’re playing. If you look around in AAA you have three of our teams playing and The Mount just lost the other day but the games are just a grind.”

The next order of business for the Panthers is the district final against New Hope Solebury coming off of a 42-23 romping of Calvary Christian.

“They’re a lot improved, we played them last year and because of the layoff we came out a little flat and took care of business then,” said Mancini of New Hope. “They know us, we know them. It’s just a matter of execution and coming out and ready to play like we did tonight.”