Methacton locks down Unionville for district playoff win

Fairview Village >> Abby Penjuke didn’t want this to be her last game.

The Methacton senior had felt the disappointment of a first-round defeat a season ago, when the Warriors were bounced by Haverford by two points in the District 1-6A tournament. As the No. 9 seed Warriors allowed No. 24 Unionville back into the game during Saturday’s District 1-6A first round contest at Methacton, last season’s loss was on Penjuke’s mind.

Penjuke and Methacton cranked up their defensive pressure in the final quarter, holding Unioniville to just one point during the game’s final eight minutes, as the Warriors grabbed a 46-26 win to advance to the second round of the district tournament. They will travel to Downingtown East on Wednesday with a chance to lock up a state playoff spot.

“Once we felt ourselves getting out to a lead, we kept it going,” Penjuke said. “I think they had one point in the fourth quarter. We didn’t want to lose.”

Methacton looked in control during the game’s first few minutes as the Warriors used a full-court press to get out to a 14-6 lead after one period and expand that lead to 21-6 midway through the second quarter.
Penjuke, who scored 13 of her 15 points in the first half, and junior guard Sydney Tornetta accounted for all of the Warriors’ points before halftime.

“With the pressure, since we got a few steals off of it, it really sparked a lot of our defensive movement and got us up into their faces,” said Tornetta, who led all scorers with 17 points. “It really helped us get the momentum.”

“We came out with a lot of energy because we knew if we lost this would be our last game,” she added. “None of us wanted this to be our last game, so a lot of us were hype and ready to go.”

After the early storm by Methacton, Unionville settled into the game late in the second quarter. Led by sophomore Emma Dempsey, Unionville ended the first half on a 7-0 run, cutting its deficit to eight, 21-13.

Unionville continued to chip away at the Methacton lead after the break. The Warriors led 29-25 with 1:18 to go in the third quarter, and the game appeared headed for an exciting final period.

Dempsey scored 10 of her team-high 13 points in the second and third quarter as Unionville mounted its comeback. Senior Sam Ciccarelli added five points, and senior Olivia Cresta scored four points in the game for Unionville.

“She’s a rising sophomore in our program,” Unionville head coach Fred Ellzy said of Dempsey. “We’re looking forward to a lot of things from her in years to come. She kept us in the game. She played extremely hard. ”

Penjuke, who dove on the floor throughout the game, scooped up a loose ball and got an easy layup in the closing seconds of the third quarter to give Methacton a 31-25 advantage entering the fourth quarter.

The transition basket ended up being the start of a 12-0 run that put the Warriors up 41-25 less than three minutes later.

“They made the third quarter exciting, and that’s what playoff basketball is about,” Ellzy said of his team. “But where we’ve struggled all year is playing four strong quarters, and that came back to be a major factor again today.”

Like it did in the first quarter, Methacton ramped its defensive pressure back up in the final period. The Warriors forced four Unionville turnovers in the first two and a half minutes of the fourth quarter, which led to easy fastbreak points on the other end.

The first and only Unionville points of the fourth quarter didn’t come until a free throw with just more than three minutes left in the game.

“Definitely the defense was key to our whole game,” Tornetta said. “All of us were getting steals and getting rebounds. That helped a lot to keep us going and advance it down court and get transition plays.”

The emergence of junior Sydney Hargrove in the second half also helped the Warriors. After a scoreless first half, Hargrove scored 11 points in the second half. Freshman Nicole Timko was Methacton’s only other scorer with three points.

“She runs off adrenaline,” Penjuke said of Hargrove. “She plays tough. At one point in the third quarter, she got a foul, and I said, ‘You’re better than that.’ I set her straight. From there she just went up. She did very well.”

Saturday’s victory was Methacton’s second district win in the last three seasons. The Warriors have a chance to clinch a spot in the state playoffs with a win over Downingtown East. They haven’t advanced to states since 2014.

This is the fourth playoff appearance Unionville has made in Ellzy’s fifth year of coaching. He has yet to pick up his first playoff win, but underclassmen like Dempsey have him optimistic that it’s just a matter of time.

“Hopefully that’s in the future,” Ellzy said. “We have a great group of young talent coming up, and I’m hoping we have an opportunity at some point.”