Alli Lindsay leads North Penn past Lansdale Catholic

LANSDALE >> North Penn got off to a fast start against Lansdale Catholic Thursday night and Alli Lindsay was a big reason why.

The Knights point guard scored 11 points in the first quarter to jump-start a 69-35 win over the Crusaders at Lansdale Catholic High School.

“My teammates found me off of the drives,” Lindsay said. “I was getting the open look. They were setting me up. There were some really good picks. We were all doing really well today. I guess I had a hot hand. These baskets are a little different than the ones we normally practice on, so I guess my shot was working tonight.”

Lindsay finished the game with 15 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

“She was huge tonight,” NP coach Jen Carangi said. “Whether taking the ball to the basket, just running the offense, knocking down shots on the outside — she did a little bit of everything and then defensively she was that person who was always in help position. We were trying to stop (Riley Devitis and Timaya Lewis-Eulsey) — she was the one who was there to pick up, rebound the ball and do all those little things that we need.”

Lindsay took on more of a distributor role in the second quarter. She was scoreless in the frame but dished out all three of her assists to help the Knights take a 36-18 lead into halftime.

“I definitely wanted to look for my teammates,” she said. “They were wide open. I knew that if I could get them the ball they’d be able to make that layup. We’re a team. We play like a team. There’s not an individual on our team that is our all star. We’re all amazing. We all play great. Some days some people are off, some days some people are on, but we’re a team.”

Kate Early and Val McGriff joined Lindsay in double figures with 10 points each and Carley Adams chipped in nine.

While the North Penn offense was lighting up the scoreboard, its defense was forcing turnovers for easy baskets. The Knights totalled 23 takeaways and made the Crusaders pay at the other end.

“We were able to get out and just pressure,” Carangi said. “That was the key … We knew if we could get out we could run, to make them earn every basket that they scored. We made it as difficult as possible for them to get down and I felt like we really did that.”

“Defense was very key for us,” Lindsay added. “That’s our main thing this year — we are doing new defenses, we’re switching off-and-on, different makes, different misses. It’s a big thing for us — defense is what we’re really focusing on. We spend most of our practices on it, too.”

Cross-town Rivals

North Penn and Landsdale Catholic are separated by less than four miles and have a lot of students that grew up together. It’s no different on the basketball court.

“I use to play at Corpus Christi with some of the girls,” Lindsay said. “A lot of them I’ve been playing with since I was really little. It was really nice playing against them again.”

Loss for LC

Lansdale Catholic struggled offensively all night. The Crusaders shot poorly from the field and struggled from the foul line (8-for-22) to go along with their 23 turnovers.

LC’s starters didn’t play in the second half until a couple injuries occurred in the fourth quarter.

Timaya Lewis-Eulsey led the team with 12 points, Lauren Edwards added seven and Erin Clark had five.