Downingtown East closes out Shanahan with a 13-0 finishing surge
UWCHLAN – Nearing the midway point of the Ches-Mont girls’ basketball schedule, Downingtown East had already established itself as the team to beat. And along the way, the Cougars are developing more balance on offense to go along with star post player Bella Smuda.
But on Thursday, while his team was closing out a 51-34 win against visiting Bishop Shanahan, East head coach Tom Schurtz saw yet another promising sign.
“Poise is my takeaway from the game,” he said.
“It was important for us to stay calm,” added junior point guard Mary McFillin. “We’re the same core group that we’ve had for a while, so now we have the experience and we are ready.”
The Cougars led most of the way, but when the Eagles made a second half run – fueled by red-hot shooting from the perimeter – Schurtz’s squad responded forcefully, ending the game on a 13-0 run.
“At no point did I feel that any lead was safe,” Schurtz acknowledged. “(Shanahan) got really hot in the second half, but we never panicked. Sometimes opponents are going to do that, but I was proud of our girls and their ability to stay focused and trust what we are trying to do.”
Now 4-0 in the division (7-4 overall), East has now topped the other three Ches-Mont National contenders, which includes West Chester Henderson and West Chester East along with Shanahan. The Eagles, who played two games in two days due to Monday’s weather postponement, falls to 3-2, 7-4.
“I think there was an adrenaline rush because some of our shots were really long. We might have even air-balled a couple layups,” said Shanahan head coach Jim Powers.
“We were running a little faster in our brain than we needed to.”
Down by 13 at the half, the Eagles got back into contention with a barrage of 3-pointers. And when senior Kathryn Greenhut nailed her second of the second half, Shanahan had sliced the lead to 38-32 early in the fourth quarter.
But it wound up being the Eagles’ final points. Down the stretch, the Cougars got two buckets each from sophomores Cassidy Denning and Lauren Kent, and 3-pointer by Caroline Brennan, and an inside bucket by Smuda.
“We cut it to six and then made a bunch of tough decisions with the ball,” Powers explained. “We gave (East) a few easy buckets and we didn’t rebound very well. Little things like that came back to get us.”
On every possession, Shanahan put either Greenhut (6-foot-2) or Shannon Donahue (5-11) on Smuda, and then came with a double-team when she caught the ball in the post. It limited the 6-5 center to 14 points, but she still nearly amassed a triple-double with 11 rebounds and nine blocks.
“I’m happy with holding her to 14,” Powers said.
But Smuda got plenty of help from her teammates. The other four starters each scored at least eight points and combined to tally 33.
“We have a lot of goals that don’t focus on wins or points,” Schurtz said. “It’s about things like trying to create a better style basketball and today was the first game where I really felt we were completely bought-in.”
Thanks to a couple early 3-pointers by junior guard Jacey Petruno, the Eagles raced to a 7-4 lead. But the Cougars responded with eight straight to take the lead for good.
The contest really turned, however, in the second quarter as East outscored the Eagles 13-2 and take command at the half, 25-12.
“The hustle of everybody who played in that quarter was tremendous,” Schurtz said.
“Against a good team like (East) and you dig yourself a hole, it’s tough,” Powers added. “East is good and they don’t make many mistakes.”
Petruno paced Shanahan with 12 points and Greenhut added all eight of her points in the second half. But the Eagles turned it over 18 times, and were 2-for-9 from the free throw line.
“Two-for-nine is horrible,” Powers said. “That’s got to change. We need to do a better job.”
The Cougars will close out the first half of the regular season against Avon Grove on Jan. 17th.
“We’ve kind of established ourselves but we all know that everybody is going to be coming for us,” said McFillin, who scored eight points. “But we are coming for them.”
Downingtown East 51, Bishop Shanahan 34
BISHOP SHANAHAN – DiMarco 2 0-0 5; Greenhut 3 0-2 8; Donahue 2 0-4 4; Petruno 4 0-1 12; Wankmiller 1 2-2 5. Totals 12 2-9 34.
DOWNINGTOWN EAST – Denning 4 0-0 8; McFillin 3 0-0 8; Kent 3 3-4 9; Brennan 3 1-4 8; Smuda 6 2-2 14; Geary 2 0-0 4. Totals 21 6-10 51.
Bishop Shanahan 10 2 15 5 — 34
Downingtown East 12 13 13 13 — 51
Three-point goals: DiMarco, Greenhut 2, Petruno 4, Wankmiller, McFillin 2, Brennan.
