Still perfect: Undefeated Henderson stops Susquehannock to advance to state quarterfinals

New Holland >> It seems that every time West Chester Henderson takes the basketball court this winter, they make history.

Wednesday night, the Warriors wrote one more chapter to their epic 2017-18 season story, defeating Susquehannock, 57-47, in the second round of the PIAA 5A state tournament.

“This is the furthest a Henderson team has ever gone in States, it’s great and I want the season to keep going,” said Henderson senior forward Abbey Shea, whose potent scoring underneath (seven field goals), strong rebounding and interior defense helped keep the Warriors (29-0) on the victory trail Wednesday at Garden Spot High School.

With the victory, the District 1 champions advance to the state quarterfinals, where they will play District 12 champ Archbishop Wood (20-7) Saturday. Last year, the Warriors lost to Wood in the first round of States.

“We were down [to Wood] by only three points with three minutes to play, it was an emotional game, but we’re ready to come back again,” said Shea.

Wednesday evening, the Warriors faced a Susquehannock team that featured basically the same cast which won the District 3 title last year. Susquehannock’s biggest player was 5-11 junior forward Jaden Walker, a potent scorer who tallied 18 points Wednesday night.

Right off the bat, Susquehannock (23-7) hit a couple of threes to take a 6-0 lead. But it didn’t rattle the undefeated Warriors.

“We’ve been in that spot before, we’ve been down by more than six points,” said a smiling Henderson senior guard Erin Torrance. “We had a good time, kept our composure and came back.”
Henderson came back with a vengeance, going on a 17-2 run to take a 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. It was a lead they never lost.

During the run, the Warriors were clicking on all cylinders offensively – Shea and Grace Ferguson were working their way inside for scores, junior guard Erin Thompson went 6-for-6 from the free throw line, and senior point guard Maddie DePrisco nailed a trey from the left corner with two seconds left.

The Warriors were relying on their help defense to keep Walker and her teammates quiet during the run.

“We knew that [Susquehannock] had some great shooters and we had to adjust to that,” said Shea. “After the first few minutes, once we were able to talk more on defense, we were able to slow them down.

“We knew [Walker] was a great player, big and rough, but you try to deny her the ball, try to move your feet a lot and rely on your help.”

Thompson, who led all scorers with 21 points, said, “We were pouncing on Walker, we had to be all over her, she’s a really athletic kid. Our help defense was good down inside, kept them from getting second chance points, and we kept fighting for balls, we were really scrappy [tonight].”

Just before the half ended, Thompson and senior guard Adrienne Smith made back-to-back steals and subsequent layups that gave Henderson a 30-23 halftime lead.

In the second half, one of Susquehannock’s bigs, 5-foot-10 senior forward/center Anna Mahan, got into foul trouble. When Mahan got her fourth foul in the third quarter, she came out of the game, and Henderson went on a brief 7-0 run to take a 41-30 lead.

“We wanted to attack the basket, and we knew that [Susquehannock] wasn’t incredibly deep, so we felt pretty good about going to the basket,” said Henderson head coach Greta Neff. “We can get to the [free throw] line and make our points there.”

Just before the buzzer sounded to end the third quarter, Thompson forced a shot from three-point territory, drew a foul, and made all three attempts from the charity stripe to give Henderson a 46-34 lead at the end of three periods.

“We work on free throw shooting in practice every day,” said Thompson. “We’ve probably shot thousands of free throws [in practice] this season.” Neff said, “These girls just play hard every minute, they love to get out there. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

And next on Henderson’s schedule is Archbishop Wood.

“We’ll take whoever comes at us,” said Neff prior to the completion of the Wood-Twin Valley contest. “Right now, we’re just excited to be together for another couple of days. We just keep extending the season and having fun.”

West Chester Henderson 57, Susquehannock 47
SUSQUEHANNOCK (47): Robert 0 0-0 0, Tanura 0 3-4 3, Walker 8 0-0 18, Galbreath 4 2-2 12, Gemmill 5 1-1 12, Duvall 0 2-2 2, Mahan 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 8-9 47.
WEST CHESTER HENDERSON (57): DePrisco 2 3-6 9, Thompson 3 15-19 21, Torrance 1 2-2 4, Smith 1 0-0 2, Shea 7 0-2 14, Ferguson 3 1-4 7. Totals 17 21-33 57.
Susquehannock                   8 15 11 13 – 47
West Chester Henderson 17 13 16 11 – 57
3-point goals: Walker 2, Galbreath 2, Gemmill, DePrisco 2.