Falcone, Garnet Valley stand tall to get to district semifinals

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CONCORD — The first part of the sequence Saturday was to be expected. The second, not so much.

That Downingtown East junior forward Bella Smuda, at a towering 6-foot-5, grabbed a rebound in the third quarter of the District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal wasn’t shocking. But what transpired next was enough to get the Garnet Valley crowd going. As Smuda went up for a shot, it was swatted from the lower reaches of the atmosphere by Garnet Valley guard Morgan Falcone (she’s 5-6, for the record).

“It was kind of funny because she brought the ball in front of me and I just hit it and everyone was going crazy,” Falcone said. “I never really blocks shots, and for it to be somebody that tall, it was really funny.”

Falcone’s block quickly turned into offense via a transition bucket for Jillian Nagy, one installment in the top-seeded Jaguars finally separating from the Cougars for a 57-46 win.

With Falcone’s rejection ringing through the stands, the Jags embarked on a 12-3 run to lead by nine after three quarters. The lead stretched to 13 in the fourth, and the Jags (24-1) bled the clock late to coast into Wednesday night’s District 1 semifinal. There, Garnet Valley will take on No. 4 Spring-Ford, which topped Upper Dublin in overtime, 41-39. The semifinal game is at 7:30 at Bensalem.

The focal point for No. 8 East is Smuda, the junior Liberty commit. With 18 points, 14 boards and four blocks, she justified the scouting-report attention.

But the Jags put the brakes on the Cougars’ offense after an explosive first quarter. East had 21 points after eight minutes, punctuated by Lauren Kent banking home a 34-footer at the buzzer. They’d score just 25 points the rest of the way. They made eight shots in the first quarter and seven in the final three.

“Going in, you never know how tall or how big a girl is or how quick or athletic they are,” Garnet forward Madi McKee said. “There’s so much that comes into it. So going into this game, we really didn’t know. … When we got out there, we just had to adjust to it.”

Part of the approach was to limit Smuda on both ends. Defensively, that meant a zone look that congested the middle. After starting 3-for-5 from the field, Smuda finished with two makes in her last 10 attempts. And despite her rebounding prowess, the Jaguars won that battle, 48-33.

McKee knew the plan inside and out, the 6-1 senior deputized as the scout-team stand-in for Smuda in practice, though she is careful to demarcate her and Smuda as two distinct classifications of tall.

McKee and Liesl Dentinger frustrated Smuda, altering shots with physical defense and sound positioning on the block. With active guards like Emily McAteer and Brianne Borcky, the rebounding battle was rarely one-on-one, which worked to the swarming Jags’ advantage.

“It was just working together,” McKee said. “If we didn’t have faith in each other and trust that we would be able to be there for helping the helper, honestly that’s the biggest thing.”

Falcone ensured Garnet Valley had the backcourt edge. The Jaguars won the turnover battle, 15-5. From the time Smuda got East (20-6) to within 36-35 in the third, GV held the Cougars to five points and six turnovers over the next six minutes.

Falcone generated offense around the shot-blocking threat, shooting 8-for-12 from the field for a team-high 16 points. Prepping for mid-range looks helped her exploit the sweet spot out of Smuda’s reach.

“I work on that a lot because sometimes when there’s somebody that big in the lane, you can’t keep going at them,” Falcone said. “Sometimes they’re going to block your shot or you’re not going to make it. Madi and I were really working the other day, doing pull-up shots and mid-range shots because when we watched film, we realized she just sits back in the lane and waits for girls to come at her and waits to block shots.”

“They knew that we help-sided everything, so they kept everything at the top,” Kent said. “And they slowed us down instead of speeding us up, which we don’t usually do so that was kind of tricky.”

McAteer (15 points, 13 rebounds) and McKee (15 points, 14 boards) each grabbed three steals. Borcky had a team-high five assists to go with eight points and eight boards despite sitting for six minutes in the late third and early fourth quarters with a combination of foul trouble and cramping in her leg.

Kent finished with 10 points after eight in the opening quarter. Caroline Brennan and Mary McFillin each hit two 3-pointers and combined for 13 points.

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Matthew De George

Matthew De George
Matthew De George is the Asst. Sports Editor and the lead Union writer for The Daily Times.

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