Reese, Souderton roll past Council Rock North
FRANCONIA >> The lone senior on the Souderton girls basketball team, Mikaela Reese has tried to provide what she was looking for at the start of her Indians career.
“Just making everyone feel included,” she said. “As a freshman, I think that was my big thing – wanting to be friends with the older girls. They did that for me, they made me feel included, so that was my big thing on them to make sure I am their friend on the court and off the court, they can come to me for anything.”
Monday night, Reese did a bit of everything in getting Souderton’s week off to a winning start. She posted a double-double, finishing with a game-high 19 points to go with 10 rebounds while also chipping in five assists and a pair of blocks as Souderton rolled past Council Rock North 49-31 in the SOL nonconference matchup.
“In every way, she’s contributing,” said Souderton coach Lynn Carroll of Reese. “Certainly on the court. She’d be just as happy to pass the ball to somebody else and get them the two points. I mean, she’s continuing to dish out three, four five, assists and a night. Our leading scorer, averaging double digits, usually our leading rebounder. She has grown into a great leader, helping the girls along.”
Reese scored six points during a 12-4 run to end the second quarter that gave Big Red a 26-15 halftime lead. A Casey Harter 3-pointer early in the third made it 39-17 and from there the Souderton’s advantage never dipped into the single digits.
“Overall it was good to come get a win because I don’t know throughout every game this season we’ve just been improving a lot so it’s nice to be rewarded for that,” Big Red junior Olivia Schneider said. “And then going into our game tomorrow night (at Pennridge), league game it’s nice to have a win behind you.”
Schneider and Harter each added eight points for Souderton (6-4, 1-3 SOL Continental), which led by as much as 20 – 42-22 in the fourth – as it earned its fourth victory in the last five games.
“Olivia has been playing very consistent for us the last several weeks,” Carroll said. “Nine rebounds, eight points and I feel like it’s easy to kind of overlook those things but we keep preaching about the little things like boxing out and Liv is one of the ones, she’s just kind of leading the way by example of what it means to play defense in our program.”
Anna Cairone finished with 10 points to pace CR North (3-8, 2-2 SOL National), which lost its fifth straight.
Both teams are back in action 7 p.m. Tuesday – North hosts Central Bucks South in another SOL nonconference matchup while Souderton looks to get back into the Continental race visiting Pennridge.
“We’re right there,” Carroll said. “We had opportunities to beat North Penn and (Central Bucks) East and we didn’t. I think we can compete a little bit better with (Central Bucks) West than we did the first time. So, we still have two left to finish out the first cycle through but yeah it would be really nice to start winning some of these conference games.”
Souderton has won the past two Continental titles, part of a three-year run that included 73 wins, a District 1-6A title in 2018 and three PIAA appearances – reaching the state semis in 2017 and 2018. But with pretty much the entire group responsible for that success graduated, this Souderton side skews young –the varsity rostering featuring five freshmen.
“It’s completely different – completely different,” Carroll said. “For three years, I coached veteran teams and it’s almost like you have the older kids lead the way and show what needs to be done at practice and in games and other Mikaela and Olivia playing a little bit last year – yeah, we don’t have that.
“So, forgot how exhausting that is to rebuild in a sense that we have a lot of new faces but I’m always fortunate that the kids we have – the new faces that we have in the lineup – are talented basketball players.”
Four straight points from Cairone had CR North within 14-11 in the second quarter before Reese knocked down a 3-pointer. A Cairone jumper made it 17-13 but a Schneider jumper followed by a Reese 3-point play at 1:15 extended Souderton’s lead to 22-13.
“I think when you get a feel you’re kind of like, ‘OK,” said Reese, who scored seven of her 10 first-half points in the second quarter. “Sometimes, you know, you get a rough patch, you’re hesitant to shoot, I think you just got to build off of it and I think that’s just what helped me.”
A basket by Jaden Wan – who recorded eight point on the night – cut North’s deficit to seven but Hannah Alderfer scored the half’s last four points – converting a reverse layup off a Reese assist to put Big Red up 11 at the break.
In the third, Wan scored inside to make it 26-17 but Harter’s triple and a Hayley Fenchel layup pushed Souderton’s advantage to 14.
Abby Jones’ 3-point play off a drive at 3:42 had North within 31-20 only for Big Red to collected nine of the quarter’s last 11 points – Reese capping the run with a three for a 40-22 lead.
“At halftime we kind of reiterated how we just need to not force shots and just wait until things open up cause they will,” Schneider said. “And just work the ball, go through plays, all that stuff. And push the ball but also make sure we’re not forcing anything. I think that helped a lot.”
A basket by Harter to opening scoring in the fourth gave Souderton its biggest lead at 42-22.
Youth Hoops
Monday’s game was SHYBA Night, with the youngsters from the Souderton Harleysville Youth Basketball Association participating in the pregame introductions and played during halftime.
“I feel like I was just there,” Schneider said. “We were talking about it at halftime how we felt like we were just playing SHYBA in second grade. It feels like yesterday.”
