Bonner & Prendergast on its guard in win over Bermudian Springs
MARPLE — With decades of results to draw on, there is little Bonner & Prendergast girls basketball coach Tom Stewart hasn’t seen, tried or mastered. So every 20-plus years or so, he figures, he will have the kind of talent that will thrive the way the Pandas did Saturday.
Aware that Bermudian Springs would likely go small for a PIAA Class 4A tournament opener, Stewart would choose to go smaller. Aware that a quick-strike offense would best suppress the Eagles’ upset notions, he would start not one guard, not two, not three, but four.
So he surrounded starting forward Ariana McGeary with unselfish, ball-handling guards Bridie McCann, Meave McCann, Alexis Eagan and Dakota McCaughan, watched the Pandas grab a quick lead and leave neutral-site Cardinal O’Hara with a thorough 59-35 victory.
The Pandas’ ball-control and passing were impressive. And, at least in Stewart’s experience, rare.
“In 2001,” he allowed, clicking off his first 18-year chunk, “we had Jamie Battinieri, Michelle Halligan and Erin Healy, and they could really handle the basketball.”
And?
“And of course, I had Donny Dodds,” the long-ago coach at all-boys St. James High said with a knowing laugh, digging another 23 years deeper. “And he could handle the basketball.”
Delaware County basketball legends, all. And with that rare four-guard lineup Saturday, the Pandas would prove not to be out of place in their veteran coach’s memory. With McCaughan controlling the ball and its movement, and with Meave McCann able to dribble through a short Bermudian lineup, the Pandas improved to 17-9 and earned a second-round date Wednesday against Lake-Lehman, a 65-43 winner Saturday over Jersey Shore.
“That’s definitely our strong suit, handling the ball and taking care of it, then bringing it back out for better decisions,” Meave McCann said. “We started four guards today because we looked at their lineup and our lineup, and it matched up better.”
That was made immediately clear when the Pandas were successful on three possessions within the first 55 seconds, Meave McCann sandwiching scores around a Bridie McCann bucket and eliciting a Bermudian Springs timeout. By the end of the first quarter, the Pandas had an 18-5 lead and something they knew would be of value: A quieted crowd of Eagles fans who had made the long trip from the Gettysburg area to match a Bonner & Prendie support group that needed only to make the short drive from Lansdowne Ave.
“That was very important,” Meave McCann said. “Because we know, and we could see from their fans, that they really wanted it. We knew we wanted it more and we were capable of doing it. So we took away their weak links early on and started running the ball.”
The Pandas’ speed advantage was quickly evident. And it proved relentless. When Bermudian Springs inched to within 28-17 late in the second, Prendie responded with passion. After an Alexis Eagan bucket, Bridie McCann buried a three with 39 seconds left. Eagan then beat the buzzer with a triple, good for a 19-point halftime lead.
“By getting on them early, it gave us momentum,” McCaughan said. “So we took the lead and had to make sure they would never catch up. And that helps us in the long run.”
Running short on comeback time, the Eagles tried to keep pace early in the second half, drawing quickly to within 39-23. But the Pandas scored 11 of the final 18 third-quarter points to maintain control. Meave McCann paced them with 17 points, and McGeary added 11. Bailey Ohmig had a team-high nine points for Bermudian Springs, which ended its season at 18-9.
Stewart has not decided whether to continue with his small lineup, which he first began to use with purpose a week earlier in a 70-38 postseason victory over Audenried, or to return to reliable Alexis Gleason. Saturday, Gleason shot an efficient 3-for-5 for eight points.
Stewart is content to stew on it for a while.
“The difference between this year and last year is that we are sharing the ball better, we trust each other more, and both of our bigs, Alexis and Ariana can score,” Stewart said. “So we’ll do OK. It just depends who we go against. Our kids are in pretty good shape. And Meave and Dakota can run all day.”
Every 20 years, longer maybe, Tom Stewart is happy to enjoy such a luxury.
