Garnet Valley secures first district title appearance with win over Spring-Ford

BENSALEM >> Kendall DiCamillo didn’t let her nerves take over in the second half of Garnet Valley’s District 1 Class 6A semifinal with Spring-Ford.

A sophomore on a senior-laden team, DiCamillo earns her minutes with hard work in practice. When she hops up off the bench during games, GV coach Joe Woods entrusts her to play top-level defense against a team’s hot shooter.

At Bensalem High School Wednesday, DiCamillo was told to guard Lucy Olsen and stop her from popping 3-pointers like Tic-Tacs. It’s what Olsen and her Spring-Ford mates accomplished with frequency in the first half, shooting 6-for-11 from beyond the arc en route to a comfortable, nine-point halftime lead.

Something had to change.

At the very least, top-seeded Garnet Valley had to do a better job at contesting the perimeter. Everywhere you looked, the fourth-seeded Rams had someone on the floor who could hit a 3-ball.

It was aggravating, but the Jags weren’t deterred when they came out of the locker room at halftime. They came out with a plan on making life miserable for Olsen and Spring-Ford’s shooters.

DiCamillo excelled on defense, Emily McAteer got the big points down the stretch and Garnet Valley rallied to claim a 42-40 victory. For the first time in program history, the Central League champion Jaguars (25-1) will play for a District 1 title when they meet No. 2 Neshaminy at Temple University’s Liacouras Center Saturday afternoon.

“I was so nervous, I wasn’t sure how I would do,” said DiCamillo, who added three rebounds and an assist. “I didn’t get a lot of time in the beginning of the season, so I know coming into a big game like this, I knew I had to step up.

“I knew I needed to shut (Olsen) down. That was my job and I did it.”

DiCamillo received a few words of encouragement before the second half.

“They just told me to stay with her and don’t let her breathe. Just stay on top of her and challenge her.”

While Olsen scored nine of her game-high 19 points after halftime, she was 1-for-7 from long range. As a team, Spring-Ford was 1-for-9 in the final two quarters.

“In the fourth quarter, we knew we had to play hard defense on No. 3 (Olsen), and that’s why we put one of our best defenders in Kendall on her,” McAteer said. “We always have someone we can look to who can play really hard defense. That’s the good thing about our team, I think, and it’s a scary thing that other teams have to worry about.”

Olsen hit a shot to put Spring-Ford ahead, 35-34, in the early moments of the fourth quarter. Olivia Olsen (10 points) added a basket to give the Rams a three-point advantage.

McAteer did the dirty work, cleaning up shots inside the paint and getting to the foul line, to ensure the Jags weren’t going to leave Bensalem High for the second year in a row empty-handed. It was on this floor last season where the Jags were rolled by Souderton in the semifinal round.

“We made history,” said guard Jill Nagy, whose eight points in the first half kept the Jags afloat. “It’s exhilarating. … In the first half, they hit 6-for-11 from 3, which is crazy. We knew that they weren’t going to go 6-for-11 again, let’s just say that, but we needed to defend the 3 better. We had to get out on them. No. 3 is a great player and she’s only a sophomore.”

The Jags had a bad feeling about returning to the site where they were eliminated from district title contention last winter, but by the time they stepped on the floor, they were ready to exorcise the demons.

“Coach Woods liked to say, it’s the Bensalem High School buggaboo,” Nagy said. “It’s really hot in there, too.”

And the lighting fixtures could use some work, too.

“Low-lighting,” McAteer said. “It can be a lot brighter.”

GV’s immediate future cannot be any brighter.

McAteer made a basket to trim the deficit to 37-36. Soon thereafter, with 2:42 left, the senior forward was hacked on a putback of her own miss and hit two free throws to put Garnet ahead to stay.

Emily Tiffan missed a 3-pointer on the other end and the Jags pulled in the rebound. Nagy hit a pair of freebies to make it 42-37. Olsen banked a 3-ball to get Spring-Ford within two. Borcky then missed a 1-and-1 at the foul line with five seconds left. Spring-Ford got the board and rushed up the court, but its 3-point try fell off the mark as time ran out.

“It’s really special,” added McAteer, who finished with game highs in points (15), rebounds (nine) and steals (three). “We’ve been working toward this the whole season. Our whole thing was, let’s be the first (team). Let’s make some history.”

Borcky collected only seven points, but came up with the big defensive rebound off the Tiffan miss. At the start of the third quarter, Borcky, who is bound for Drexel University, got the Jags’ offense flowing again when she assisted on back-to-back baskets from McAteer and Madi McKee. Garnet scored the first nine points out of the break, erasing what had been a 29-20 deficit.

Spring-Ford hadn’t lost to a Pennsylvania team all season. Wednesday’s loss marked the second straight year the Rams have fallen one win short of the district final.

Even still, coach Mickey McDaniel can’t complain. He was proud of his team’s effort and is looking forward to leading the club into its third-place game against Abington Friday night.

“The girls gave us everything they had tonight, but we just didn’t come out on top,” McDaniel said. “We’ll regroup here, get ready for Abington and get ready for the first round of states. We’re going to get our focus back to where it needs to be. They’re hurting right now, but they also know that there is a bigger picture ahead. They’ll get refocused and we have so much confidence in them to do that.”