Arena, youthful Jenkintown too much for Delco Christian

NORTHAMPTON TWP. >> After Caroline Arena’s fourth consecutive basket in the third quarter Saturday, the Jenkintown student section rang up a “she’s a freshman” chant for the forward.

Had they wanted to, the Drakes faithful could’ve screamed themselves hoarse with that refrain, for much more than just Arena’s benefit.

Arena provided the second-half spark as No. 4 Jenkintown pulled away from No. 2 Delco Christian for a 43-33 win in the District One Class A final at Council Rock South High School.

Arena scored 11 points. And as much as her hot shooting in the third quarter stood out, she’s just another wunderkind on a Drakes team that rolls a six-player rotation of all freshmen and sophomores.

“It’s really exciting,” Arena said. “It’s a lot of pressure, but it’s really fun. We know that we can get better, so we just have to keep working.”

The grizzled veteran of the group, sophomore guard Jennifer Kremp, led the way with 13 points, including a 3-pointer as time expired in the third

quarter to stretch the lead to 12. Freshman Natalie Kolb grabbed 15 rebounds as the Drakes dominated the offensive glass, ending up with 13 more field goal attempts than Delco Christian.

The spry Jenkintown lineup also informed its defensive approach, lumping full-court pressure on Delco Christian and extracting 21 turnovers. The defensive intensity had the biggest impact when Delco Christian’s surest ballhandler, Siani McNeil, sat with first-half foul trouble. Once the Knights got behind, the press made mounting a comeback that much more difficult.

“Once they started hitting their shots, it was hard to get back,” guard Claudia Norton said. “They were getting all the rebounds. We kind of needed a pushback, and we didn’t get that today.”

Most impressive was how the youthful Drakes (22-5) didn’t bat an eyelid at an all-around ragged start to the affair. They capitalized on just two of their first 20 attempts from the field before a stretch of three consecutive makes — started by a Kremp four-point play — late in the second quarter stretched the lead to seven.

Amelia Mulvaney led Jenkintown at halftime with eight points, but it came on just 3-for-11 shooting. Even Arena came up empty on her first eight attempts from the floor. But she persevered, powering a 6-0 spurt in the third that caused a 23-19 edge to balloon to 29-19, effectively putting away Delco Christian and its sputtering offense.

“We usually start off a little bit better, so I was a little bit nervous,” Arena said. “But we picked it up in the second half, which was good. We’ve worked on doing better in the second half because we sometimes let (opponents) back into the game after halftime, but we pulled it out.”

Delco Christian, meanwhile, couldn’t generate consistent offense. McNeil got them going with seven first-half points, but she and Shirley Piotrowski alternated foul trouble in the first half, squandering the Knights’ distinct height advantage and nullifying McNeil’s menacing lane presence that resulted in four blocks and eight rebounds to go with 12 points.  

Norton provided a spark in the third quarter, but missed shots piled up. Piotrowski misfired on four quality mid-range chances in the third. DC didn’t hit its first 3-pointer until an Emma Ellsworth triple splashed home with 2:38 to play in the fourth, narrowing the deficit to 38-29.

A Norton drive would trim the margin to eight two possessions later, but that’s as near as Delco Christian could come. Its cause was hurt by an 8-for-22 day from the foul line (though Jenkintown also shot less than 50 percent at 13-for-28).

With Delco Christian having sealed a trip to the PIAA Tournament, all that remains is to shrug off Saturday’s loss and build for states.

“We had a reset period in the middle of the season,” said Norton, who scored nine points. “So we plan on doing that again and working hard to get back.”