Fogg reaches 1,000 in Morrisville’s BAL quarterfinal loss to Jenkintown girls basketball

JENKINTOWN – If only visiting Morrisville could have erased a white-hot shooting performance by the Jenkintown team in the first quarter, the Lady Bulldogs might have stood a chance Tuesday night, Feb. 14 in the Bicentennial Athletic League (BAL) quarterfinal against the top-seeded Drakes.

That’s not going to happen so Morrisville will have to live with a 59-46 loss to Jenkintown, which advances to face Lower Moreland in the BAL semifinals Thursday on the Drakes’ home court.

“It was not the result we wanted but I was happy; the last time we left here, I think we scored 20-some points,” said Bulldogs head coach Dave Howell. “The girls put up a lot better effort than what we did the last time we played here.”

The good news is that senior Gabby Fogg reached 1,000 points for her career in this game and Morrisville gets another crack at Jenkintown in districts. The Bulldogs will square off against the Drakes in the opening round of the District 1–D-12 Class A Tournament Feb. 24 on Jenkintown’s home court.

The game Howell was referring to was a 59-17 loss his team suffered the third week in January in a regular season matchup with the Drakes. And he’s right – Morrisville played much better this time around.

The Bulldogs had no answer for the hot-shooting Jenkintown girls, however. The Drakes poured 10 balls into the basket in the first period, including five 3-pointers, helping the home team out to a 25-11 lead by the end of the initial frame.

“Jenkintown is a tough opponent; they do everything well – they shoot threes, finish,” added Howell. “Their outside shooting was absolutely terrific.”

When Morrisville pushed its defense out to the perimeter, that left Jenkintown sophomore Natalie Kolb open underneath and the Drakes forward made three straight layups in the first period.

“We lost people and that’s one of the things we talked about in timeout,” explained Howell. “We tried to play back-line defense and tried to help more and we just couldn’t do it.”

“You see how they stretch you out; we had to adjust.”

Just five minutes into the game, the Bulldogs were trailing the Drakes, 20-2. Morrisville closed the first quarter out with a 9-5 run, thanks to buckets by sophomore Enijah King (16 pts.), junior Tiara McClease (7) and seniors Mondalaya Council (4) and Fogg, who canned a 3-pointer to close the gap to nine points.

Jenkintown junior Ashley Kremp (14 pts.) hit her third jump shot – her first two were threes – and her sister Jen Kremp (19) poured her third 3-pointer into the basket in the closing moments of the initial frame, putting the Drakes up 14, heading into the second.

King helped the Bulldogs keep pace in the second period, hitting a shot off the glass off a feed from Council, a pair of free throws, a jumper and a layup, both off feeds from McClease, and finally a layup off a feed from Council.

Enijah accounted for 10 of Morrisville’s points in the second quarter, though she was held to just two points in each of the last two frames.

“She played terrific; her and Gabby (Fogg) are sidekicks,” said Howell.

“They work together and practice together – they do a lot for the team and they’ve done very well.”

King missed three foul shots in the first half however and Fogg missed five free throws, for the game. Fogg was dead-on accurate when she canned a pair of shots from the stripe with 5:40 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The points were the last two Fogg needed to reach 1,000 for her career.

Fogg said she was nervous when she stepped up to the line, knowing she had missed four of eight previous free throws in the contest.

“I was extremely nervous,” she said. “I knew I needed to get 1,000 in this game because I want to go into the next game with a clear head.”

Fogg is Morrisville’s second consecutive 1,000-point scorer, coming just one year after Class of 2016 graduateDenise Sacco  accomplished the same feat. After the game, she talked more about team mantras than her own scoring accomplishment.

“It’s not just about me; it’s about my team,” said Fogg. “Normally, we play Jenkintown and we get blown out by 30-plus points. So the fact that we only lost by (13) tonight shows we worked really, really hard. And that just means so much.”

After 10 years guiding the Bulldogs, Howell has seen a good number of standouts come through the program. Fogg is one of the more memorable players, he says.

“She’s been fantastic,” said Howell. “She’s given us a low-post presence since her freshman year. This is very-well deserved for her.”

“Every year she has come back and improved her game and improved her numbers every year.

“If I had a poster child for a kid who works hard on her game and gets better all the time, it’s her.”

The Drakes helped cement their 18th win of the season with another fine shooting performance in the third period, hitting 7-of-11 from the floor for a 64 percent success rate. Ashley Kremp got the home team started with her fourth 3-pointer in the contest, Kolb hit a shot off the glass and an open layup and her sister Mia hit a putback basket.

Capping off an 11-4 scoring run by Jenkintown was starter Caroline Arena, who canned a layup then followed up with a jumper that put the Drakes up, 49-27 midway through the third period.

Fogg scored eight of her team-high 18 points in the third quarter, hitting two shots from the floor including a shot off the glass off a feed from King and making four of six free throws. Defensively, Morrisville lost track of Jen Kremp and Natalie Kolb (10 pts.) who finished the quarter out, each with open layups.

“I don’t think we ever really adjusted completely,” admitted Howell. “But we got the girls not to help as much and to stay closer to their girl and try to get them to move their feet a little bit.

“Not to just catch and shoot, because they are excellent at catching and shooting.”

Perhaps inspired by Fogg’s 1000 points, the Bulldogs forced a turnover by the Drakes then Fogg went coast-to-coast on a layup before coming up with a block on the defensive end of the court.

McClease then drove the length of the court for a basket then followed with the and-one for a 3-point play then King hit a putback bucket to help Morrisville close within 13 at 57-44. Fogg made just one of her next two foul shots as did senior reserve Imani Coley.

Free throw shooting was a problem for the Bulldogs in this game – they made just 11 of 24 foul shots, good for only a 45 percent rate. The Drakes made seven-of-10 free throws, good for a 70 percent clip.

Junior Amelia Mulvaney hit seven points for Jenkintown including jumpers she made in the second and fourth periods.

TOP PHOTO: Jenkintown sophomore Mia Kolb goes after a loose ball along with Morrisville senior Mondalaya Council, right, in BAL girls basketball quarterfinal Feb. 14 on the Drakes’ home court. (Steve Sherman – 21st-Century Media)

Contact Steve Sherman at ssherman@21st-Centurymedia.com or @BucksLocalSport on Twitter

BAL QUARTERFINAL

Jenkintown 59, Morrisville 46

(Feb. 14 at Morrisville)

Morrisville         11 12 10 13 – 46

Jenkintown        25 13 15 6 – 59

MORRISVILLE (13-11) — Dieyonna Graham 0 0-1 0, Natrece Harper 0 0-0 0, Tiara McClease 3 1-4 7, Enijah King 7 2-5 16, Mondalaya Council 2 0-0 4, Ivory Pacheco 0 0-0 0, Gabrielle Fogg 5 7-12 18, Siani Simmons Holman 0 0-0 0, Imani Coley 0 1-2 1; TOTALS — 17 11-24 46.

JENKINTOWN (18-5) — Adira Harris 0 0-0 0, Jen Kremp 5 6-6 19, Mia Kolb 2 0-0 5, Georgia Griffin 0 0-0 0, Courtney Todaro 0 0-0 0, Ashley Kremp 5 0-0 14, Gabby Jackmon 0 0-0 0, Natalie Kolb 5 0-0 10, Caroline Arena 2 0-2 4, Amelia Mulvaney 3 1-2 7, Cassidy Robbins 0 0-0 0; TOTALS — 22 7-10 59.

3-POINT GOALS: M — Fogg; J — A. Kremp 5, J. Kremp 3, M. Kolb.