Council Rock North girls basketball returns to the court with everything intact (GALLERY)
NEWTOWN – Scholastic sports are really part of an evolutionary process. You start as a youngster trying to prove your merit and end up as seasoned veteran, ready to inspire others.
Becca Margolis, stellar point guard for Council Rock North, can fully appreciate the system. She well remembers her first introduction to Rock basketball. “As a sophomore, I don’t want to say I wasn’t concerned with the team, but I was trying to make my spot on the team. Now, I am trying to help others determine their role.”
Even as a young player, Becca already showed a smooth playmaking ability and an uncanny knack for hitting big shots. Her sophomore and junior year, she earned consecutive first team all-Suburban One League National Conference honors.
Her junior season, she helped the Rock win its first league title and state berth since 2011. Becca led the team in scoring with 12.5 points per game. She also contributed 3.6 assists, 3.7 steals and 3.3 rebounds a game.
PHOTOS: Council Rock North 2017 girls basketball vs CB South
As notable as these marks are, Becca understandably wants her senior year to be her best. “I am very excited to play with the players I have this year, especially for my senior year. It’s very important to me who I get to play with my last season of high school basketball. I really appreciate it that I get to spend it with Mackenzie Tinner, Kaelin Mealey, Camryn Polinsky, Dana Bandurick and all the other girls. I’m so excited to play with them this year and to try to make the best of my last season.”
Council Rock seems to have all the pieces necessary to match last season when they made it all the way to the second round of the state playoffs. In Becca’s estimation, “We have all the components. We have our big players. Mackenzie Tinner (6’1” center) just committed. She’s gotten a lot better as a player and she is doing well as a captain. Overall, we have a lot of talent in different areas. We are a very athletic and fast-paced team. Also, we’ve played together since seventh- and eighth-grade, so there is a lot of chemistry.”
Dana Bandurick’s recovery from knee surgery lends added potency to the Rock attack, a fact Becca as captain fully appreciates. “We definitely need her. She helps a lot, offensively. She’s really good at going to the basket. Dana’s a very versatile player.”
The balanced offensive attack coupled with an aggressive defense leads to some lofty but realistic season goals. “We talked to coach Lou (Palkovics) about goals we wanted to set as a team and individually. Some goals we have are to win the league championship and the district championship and then see how far we can go at states.”
Personally, Becca wants to be the best she can be as team captain. “I feel like focusing less on my own game and concentrating more on being a leader and bringing out the best in my teammates and being a positive influence on everyone. I have to lead by example. I have people looking up to me and I don’t want to let them down.”
A good example of Becca’s influence came early in this young season. The Rock lost a 48-42 heartbreaker to Central Bucks South. “Every other year, we played CB South we got killed. Even though we lost, we learned form it. Going out of that game, I felt awful and thought I could have handled it so much better. We made a lot of turnovers and didn’t play aggressive defense.”
A true leader, Becca set out to rectify the mistakes. In the Rock’s next game against William Tennant, she set a blistering example. She scored eight points to propel the Indians to an early 15-6 lead.
Helped by Sydney Blum’s game-high 20 points off the bench, the Rock went on to a dominating 50-30 win.
“We were really focused on learning from the mistakes we made at CB South. I was still personally bummed about that loss. We all took our frustrations and emotions from the last game. We realized we needed to play to our potential.”
With Becca providing the leadership, the Indians should be a real force in the SOL this year.
