O’Donnell, Reese lead Souderton past CB West for 13th straight win

DOYLESTOWN >> Early foul trouble meant Souderton girls basketball’s Megan O’Donnell and Mikaela Reese were both pinned to the bench in the second quarter.

But the duo made up for the missed time on the court in the second half of Tuesday night’s matchup with host Central Bucks West.

O’Donnell and Reese quickly swung control back to Big Red early in the third quarter, combining for the Indians’ first 14 points after the break and scoring 26 of the team’s 30 second-half points as the Souderton held off the Bucks 49-40 to stay perfect in the Suburban One League Continental Conference.

“It’s definitely not fun for me to sit on the bench the whole second quarter but it gave me motivation to come out like that,” O’Donnell said. “My teammates did such a good job in the second quarter kind of covering me and Mikaela’s butts.”

Reese and O’Donnell each scored 13 points after the break with both finishing with a game-high 15 points as the Indians (13-1, 8-0 conference) extended their win streak to 12 in a row. West led 20-19 at the break but Souderton opened the third with a seven-point burst — Reese knocking down a jumper than O’Donnell posting the next five — and from there the Indians never trailed in the contest.

“Just trying to get open. We were down, I’m pretty sure, in the second half by one so I think everyone just motivated each other,” Reese said. “And that just drived me to get open and Meg was making amazing plays, driving to the net and dishing off to me so she was very key in that.”

Megan Walbrandt scored all 10 of her points in the first half for the Indians, who won their fifth straight over the Bucks (9-6, 5-3) and moved closer to securing back-to-back SOL Continental titles. The Indians can clinch at least a share of the conference crown with a win Friday when they host Central Bucks South at 7 p.m.

“At halftime we talked obviously about turnover issues and they were getting offensive rebounds, but I was happy being down one with Mikaela and Megan O’Donnell on the bench of the entire second quarter,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “We got good minutes out of Erica (Stephens) and Olivia (Schneider) there in the second quarter but I was very happy only being down one in that situation.”

“And then I think we just executed well in the second half. Our defense, I thought, was really good. And this was good team effort I think.”

Maddie Burke 14 points paced CB West, which dropped its second straight. Bucks coach Terry Rakowsky attributed the loss to West losing its defensive focus.

“We just didn’t rotate down,” Rakowsky said. “We got the ball on the one side of the court and our kids are standing out there looking at the other side and kids are driving and we’re not rotating down, they’re just not. And we’re been working on that for weeks. I think what happens is they get a little tired like everybody and you go back to bad habits.”

The Bucks, who had won four straight and seven of eight prior to its current two-game skid, is home again Thursday as it takes on Pennridge at 7 p.m.

“We have Pennridge who plays hard and then we’re out and we play Trinity (Saturday) who’s like one loss and then we got to West Catholic (Sunday) who’s like one loss or whatever,” Rakowsky said. “I don’t really care about like we were missing shots, it’s the little things we’re not doing consistently and that’s what adds up.”

CB West capped the first half with an 8-1 run — Burke getting into the lane and getting a shot to drop in the final seconds to put the Bucks ahead 20-19 at halftime.

Reese’s jumper to start the third had Souderton up a point with O’Donnell driving to the basket for two and the foul at 5:31 — completing the 3-point play to make it 24-20. O’Donnell then connected on runner to push the lead to six.

“My plan was just to take care and control of the ball and I kind of just exploded offensively,” O’Donnell said. “And we all got together on defense and played really well together.”

Burke hit a jumper to make it 26-22 but O’Donnell pushed the ball up court and found Reese for a 3-point play at 3:26. O’Donnell then drove for two more, giving the Indians a 31-22 lead.

“She’s the fire in terms of like feisty and fist pumps after something good happens,” said Carroll of O’Donnell. “Every team I think is better when they have one of those kids. Most of the other one’s are pretty even-keeled but Mo’s kind of the energizer for us and how she played offensively in the second half I mean if she wasn’t finishing a layup she was getting a layup for Mikaela or she was making really, really god decisions.”

Souderton was up nine again at 33-24 after two from Reese but Burke’s late jumper made it 35-29 at the end of the quarter with an Izzy Treon bucket to open scoring in the fourth cutting the margin to 35-31. Souderton, however, responded with the next six points — two Reese baskets sandwiching a pair of Megan Bealer free throws — to give the Indians their first double-digit advantage at 41-31.

“Having here out as long as we did in the first half — she’s our leading scoring right now — and she’s rarely in foul trouble,” said Carroll of Reese. “So it was a little bit of an adjustment. People were out of position, Megan Walbrandt had to play the point in the second quarter but we felt good about getting the ball Mikaela down low in the second half.”

Consecutive 3-pointers from Olivia Irons had the Bucks within 41-37 with 1:43 remaining but Reese made two from the foul line at 1:10 with O’Donnell hitting a pair of free throws eight seconds later, putting Souderton up 45-37. O’Donnell’s two foul shots with 9.6 seconds left gave the Indians their biggest lead at 49-37.

Souderton held an 8-7 advantage at the end of the first quarter after two Walbrandt free throws with 13.1 seconds. West pulled even 10-10 on a Jess Broskey putback but Walbrandt drained back-to-back triples to put the Indians up 16-10.

A Curran O’Donnell basket made it 18-12 Souderton before West ran off six straight points to tie things at 18 on Emily Spratt’s two free throws with 37.0 seconds left in the half. A Stephens foul shot at 19.8 seconds had Souderton back up 19-18 but Burke’s late bucket gave West the 20-19 edge at intermission.