Bears make statement with takedown of Governor Mifflin
BOYERTOWN >> These were hustle plays, smart plays, aggressive plays. Not eye-popping highlight-tape material, maybe, from a surprising and resounding 50-34 Boyertown home victory over Governor Mifflin Friday night. But spliced all together, they could make a nice instructional video on winning basketball, the Boyertown way.
The new Boyertown way, sort of.
Several key graduation losses from an 18-7, district-qualifying team have forced there to be new contributors around fourth-year star Abby Kapp. The Mustangs, who entered Boyertown’s gym 4-0, might not have known much about them on their scouting report, but they’ll sure be seeing a lot of them when breaking down the game tape.
Keep in mind the team Boyertown took apart Friday was the District 3 Class 4A runner-up last season, albeit not exactly the same team due to some graduations, but still returning some significant players. Here’s a sampling of key plays, little things and big things that led to a gargantuan confidence-builder for the somewhat new-look Lady Bears:
• Junior Kylie Webb leads things off with a 3. Senior Katie Armstrong, like Webb a new starter this year, hits one later in the first quarter. Wait a minute, what’s Boyertown doing shooting 3’s? More specifically, why are other players besides the prolific Kapp hoisting from distance?
Enter the new Boyertown way. Lacking size, they launch when open.
“That’s a complete change of philosophy on the coaches’ side of things, because we were never a three-point shooting team,” acknowledged Boyertown coach Jason Bieber. “One of the things we talked about was we wanted to change what we did, because for years we had three six-footers on the floor. We’ve always been big, and now we’re not. We had to change what we did and build that confidence in them, and they’ve been doing a great job of knowing if they’re open, take the shot.”
• Armstrong follows her miss from outside and feeds a freshman, Avery Sweisfort, who is fouled and hits both free throws.
“That was another one of our goals – last year we weren’t as confident as a whole, we were scared to do certain things, so this year we’re trying to build up our team and confidence,” Armstrong said.
• Kapp, the focus of every team’s defense, finds Armstrong on a backdoor cut. “I think what she’s focused on this year is getting her teammates more involved,” Bieber said of the Bucknell-bound Kapp, whose 21 points against Governor Mifflin gave her 1,234 for her career as she passed Charlie Snell for No. 5 all-time on the Boyertown scoring list. “In the summer, she built her teammates’ confidence by getting them the ball.”
“I have unbelievable trust in my teammates,” Kapp said. “I know they can step up in tough situations and I know they have my back 100 percent of the time. We have amazing respect for everyone. Everyone listens to each other and it’s just a great team environment.”
• Tori Boalton keeps possessions alive by running down offensive rebounds.
• Allie Marcus, senior co-captain with Kapp, helps make the night miserable for the Governor Mifflin backcourt, starting with an early steal and foul-drawing drive down the lane.
Amid the new twists and contributors came an old Boyertown standby: suffocating defense. Roll the tape from Friday. Governor Mifflin appears to be missing from it. That’s because they were missing just about everything, courtesy the Lady Bears’ defense, which, shifting from zone to man, often forced the Mustangs toward their weakness, outside shooting. Collectively from the floor they were 8-for-40 for the night, 20 percent. The Lady Bears turned them over on the press and in halfcourt plenty as well.
“Defense is always there. Like our coach says, it comes from your heart,” Kapp said. “We played with a lot of heart and we got after them. In our program, defense is very important.”
Bieber and his players annually have high expectations. That’s why they challenge themselves early and often. Their first four opponents now have a combined record of 24-3. This gets the Lady Bears (2-2) ready to rock in a tough conference and especially for the playoffs. Last year they received a reality jolt in the district opener, an upset loss to Council Rock North.
Coming off a discouraging home loss to Methacton – Boyertown’s first homecourt regular-season setback in over two years – the big bounce-back against an athletic and experienced Governor Mifflin club showed the kind of toughness and resilience that can carry a team a long way.
“We need to continue to build,” Bieber said. “We graduated a lot of kids, but these kids have been playing really well, had a great offseason and have been working really hard. We have some new faces and they have to get adjusted to some critical situations.
“Abby and Allie Marcus are great leaders, and Katie’s going to step up huge this year. And we have a lot of good weapons. It’s going to be a fun year for us.”
