Great Valley rallies past Unionville to stay unbeaten in division

EAST MARLBOROUGH – It’s still a little early to be making any girls’ basketball predictions, but through a dozen games it sure looks like Great Valley could be in the thick of the Ches-Mont American title chase.

The Patriots are just now getting healthy, and yet head coach Alex Venarchik’s squad is off to a nice start, which continued on Thursday with a come-from-behind 44-40 road win over Unionville. Trailing by four heading into the final period, Great Valley outscored the Indians 20-12 the rest of the way.

“The girls are learning that if they play hard and play together, they can compete against some good teams,” Venarchik said.

Now 3-0 in league play, Great Valley is 10-2 overall even though starters like Emma DeRobertis and Ashley Sullivan have missed playing time with injuries. Both played on Thursday, with DeRobertis and reserve Leah Valyo each playing for the first time in a long time.

“We are just learning how to play together,” Venarchik pointed out. “We haven’t even had a full practice with everybody, so we are trying to get all of our players back into the mix.”

Unionville’s Emma Dempsey scored 10 of her 14 points in the fourth quarter, but the rest of her teammates combined for just a couple free throws. The Indians fall to 0-2 in the Ches-Mont American (6-4 overall).

“We just kind of fell apart late,” said Unionville head coach Fred Ellzy. “We didn’t take care of the ball, there were some scoring opportunities we didn’t capitalize on, and that cost us the game.”

Sophomore Gracen Curley poured in a game-high 17 points for the Pats, including a pair of 3-pointers that started the comeback. But Great Valley didn’t take the lead for good until senior Tessa Libertoscioli scored a fast-break bucket with 1:46 on the clock, and then closed it out at the line.

“It showed that we aren’t going to give up and that we wanted the win,” said Libertatoscioli, who scored all of her 12 points in the second half.

“We realized we needed to flip the switch and get into gear because this is a league opponent.”

The Patriots turned it over 13 times in the first half alone, but limited that number to four in the second. Despite all of the turnovers, Great Valley took a 15-14 lead into the half thanks to an earlier 10-0 rally. Unionville trailed by as much as seven but scored the final three buckets of the second quarter.

The Indians then staged a 14-4 run to go ahead 28-24, and looked poised to get the win after three quarters, but the finish was a nightmare.

“We work a lot of attacking and getting to the basket, and I know it’s frustrating for the girls when shots don’t drop,” Ellzy said. “But we have to keep going at it, keep working hard.”

Curley finished with five 3-pointers, which was more than all of the other participants combined.

“She made some big buckets,” Venarchik said. “For a sophomore, she’s really come alive within the last four games. She is more comfortable and shooting it with confidence.”

The Patriots entered the contest in the top-five of the District 1 5A power rankings, and should be moving up. And even though Venarchik is pleased with the start, he’s not taking anything for granted.

“We still have to play (West Chester) Rustin twice, we still have another one against Unionville and we still have to go to Kennett,” he said. “We still have the bulk of our league to go, so we are just going to go game-by-game.”

Great Valley 44, Unionville 40

Great Valley             5 10 9 20 — 44

Unionville                 6 8 14 12 — 40

GREAT VALLEY – Libertoscioli 2 7-10 12; DeRobertis 2 0-0 4; Sullivan 3 2-2 9; DuPont 0 2-4 2; Sioutis 0 0-2 0; Curley 6 0-0 17. Totals 13 11-18 44.

UNIONVILLE – Barrett 0 2-2 2; Baughan 1 0-0 2; Ioccoca 5 0-0 10; Brown 1 0-1 2; Dempsey 5 2-5 14; Robbins 2 2-4 6; Budow 1 1-2 3. Totals 15 7-14 40.

Three-pointers: Sullivan, Curley 5, Dempsey 3.