West Chester East handles William Tennent
WHITEMARSH >> West Chester East faced a scare during the third quarter against William Tennent Friday night, but the game was never truly in doubt.
The Vikings led by double digits for most of the first half and responded strong when Tennent cut it to single digits midway through the third quarter.
WC East quickly built the lead back up and closed out a 51-40 win on opening night of the 7th Annual Lady Colonials Holiday Tournament at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School’s Gym West.
East faces host Plymouth Whitemarsh in the championship Saturday at 4 p.m.
The Vikings held a 15-point lead at halftime, 29-14.
After East made the first basket of the third quarter, Tennent (2-6, 0-2 SOL National) hit three straight three-pointers for a 9-0 run and cut its deficit to eight, 31-23.
That’s as close as they’d get.
East senior Marisa McDonald scored five straight points to get the lead back to 13 and they closed out the third with a 40-27 lead.
“They came out right away at the half like, ‘We’re going to win this game, we’re coming back right here,’” McDonald said. “We were starting to get frazzled and people started getting beat, started getting fouls and we just all had to calm down and play the way we were playing before.
“Once we started scoring again we knew we had it and we just knew if we play the way we know how to play we were going to be good,”
McDonald and Lauren Klieber scored all of the Vikings points in the second half. McDonald had 10 after halftime and Klieber had 12.
“We definitely play off of each other really well,” McDonald said of herself and Klieber. “I know that whenever we need to get it done Lauren’s my girl.”
McDonald finished with a game-high 17 points and Klieber added 16.
Hannah Reimel led Tennent with 12 points, Chelsea Meltzer added 11 and Caitlyn Somerville nine.
It was East’s defense that helped the Vikings build a comfortable first-half lead. Tennent was limited to just five made field goals and 14 points in the opening 16 minutes.
“We all made sure we were in the right spots defensively and helping each other out recovering,” McDonald said.
