Lansdale Catholic tops Souderton; St Basil defense impresses
FRANCONIA >> Sometimes, it’s not about the start but the finish.
At least that was the case for Lansdale Catholic’s boys basketball team and free throws on Friday night. After three not-so-great quarters at the stripe, the Crusaders made them when they needed to in the fourth quarter to keep themselves ahead of host Souderton.
With a couple free throws the difference between playing the championship of the Jim Church Classic or the consolation game, LC put away enough to pick up a 51-48 win.
“We weren’t so great before the fourth quarter but Jimmy (Boccella) got up there and knocked down some key ones for us,” LC coach Joe Corbett said. “He helped keep that distance of two or three shots late in the game.”
LC will face Germantown Academy, a 51-46 overtime winner against Quakertown, in Saturday’s final at 5 p.m. It’s Corbett’s third year in charge of the Crusaders and the first time his team will play in the tournament final, a fact not lost on him and something he had hoped to change entering play on Friday.
Aside from the free throws, which was led by guard Jimmy Boccella going 6-of-7 at the line in the fourth, the Crusaders had a key 12-0 run in the third quarter and relied on their defense to top the Indians.
Souderton, under second-year head coach Tim Brown, is still in a state of transition with a number of new players in both the starting lineup and overall rotation and a hybridized offense that’s blending some of last year with some new ideas for this season. Brown expects it’ll probably take a few games to get everyone and everything on the same page, which is fine, but he was very happy with what his guys showed him on Friday.
“They tend to be moved by the emotions of the game, they had that 12-0 run and we just kept the heads down and kept at it,” Brown said. “It was a shot for us, but I was proud of the way they responded. As much as we want to win and as much as there’s no thing as a moral victory, those guys handled themselves really well as guys who hadn’t really seen varsity time before.”
Much like Souderton, LC is also a relatively fresh-looking squad. But it’s one that plays well into what Corbett wants the team to do.
“We’ve really put a focus this year of defense,” Corbett said. “We’re a little more athletic and I thought we had a nice scouting report on their tendencies and where they liked to go. They had a lot of right-handed guys and we made them go left and the guys did a good job of keeping them contained.”
Corbett said his team took a little while to adjust to Souderton’s defense, especially the Indians keying on shooter Jack Kusters. LC is still working on finding a better shot instead of the first shot, especially from beyond the arc and Corbett cited a driving bucket by Tim Cunane as a big score in setting the tone.
LC is looking forward to facing Germantown Academy, with Corbett comparing the Patriots to some of the teams the Crusaders will see in the Catholic League. They’re also happy it’ll be in the last game of the event and not an early afternoon consolation.
“It’s a great feeling to play in this championship game and that was our goal,” Corbett said. “We played in the consolation game two years in a row so these guys are excited and I’m excited for them. I’m so happy for the seniors.”
STEAL CITY
For the first minute or so of play, it was striking to see St. Basil Academy without Natalie Kucowski on the floor. Now a freshman playing key minutes at Lafayette, the 6-foot-3 Kucowski was a four-year fixture in the center for the Panthers, an all-state defensive deterrent with range past the 3-point line.
But the high school world moves on and St. Basil is still confident it’ll be a team to contend with all season. If the Panthers play defense like they did on Friday, it may be tough to argue with them. St. Basil created 24 steals in its 67-27 romp over St. Hubert in the Jim Church Classic.
“We have a lot of girls who played soccer, they were coming off playing in the state championship game, we didn’t even start the first day (of practice) because of that, but I was very pleased with our defense today,” St Basil coach Terry Mancini said. “That’s what won games for us last year and today, our third quarter was outstanding.”
Mancini believes this is a deeper team than last year, which went about seven or eight deep. Nine players saw minutes in the first quarter alone and they all don’t have to score to be effective. Casey Remolde led the scoring with 14 points while senior Jules Gura had five steals, Paulina Storck had three assists and freshman Danae Carter had six offensive rebounds.
“I think it’s going to help us down the road, especially in our league,” Mancini said. “I was pleased with our effort today.”
Manicini coached Souderton AD Dennis Stanton at La Salle High School, so when Stanton asked him to join the tournament field, Mancini was happy to do it. The Panthers face Souderton in Saturday’s final and it’ll be a good early test for the defending District 1/11 3A champions.
MATURITY MOMENT
Germantown Academy freshman Jordan Longino has already shown he’s going to be a very good high school basketball player. But he is just a freshman, so there will be plenty of learning moments coming for him over the next four years.
He got one on Friday, after missing two late free throws in the fourth quarter and seeing Quakertown’s Jon Rey bury a 3-pointer to force overtime.
Instead of letting the misses get to him, Longino went out and scored six of the Patriots’ first eight points in overtime. He was also a big reason they were even in position to play for overtime, scoring 22 points as GA rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit.
With Brian Basile and Lucas Traina out of the game due to injuries, Longino stepped up as a scorer and playmaker. He found Colten Smith for two crucial 3-pointers to finish the comeback and also trusted classmate Lacey Snowden with the ball in the fourth quarter and overtime.
SISTER, SISTER
St. Basil coach Terry Mancini has had a number of sisters come through the program in his tenure.
While he’s had a set of three sisters before, he had never had all three on the roster at the same time until this year. Friday, for a few minutes, senior Cheryl, junior Casey and freshman Shannon Remolde were all on the floor at the same time.
Mancini said it happened in a few of the team’s scrimmages and it’ll certainly happen again this season, but it was still a cool moment. Cheryl and Casey are holdover starters from last season while Shannon earned her way to a reserve role off the bench.
With the outcome all but decided, the team’s other set of siblings, senior Paulina and sophomore Maria Storck also got to play the last few minutes together.
The Panthers’ two sets of sisters will face Souderton’s twin guards, Megan and Curran O’Donnell, in Saturday’s championship game at 3 p.m.
