Harter on point as Souderton tops Hatboro-Horsham

HORSHAM >> Without even looking at the other stats, Souderton girls basketball coach Lynn Carroll almost did a double take at Casey Harter’s scoring total.

Harter, the Indians’ freshman point guard not only had a career day, she did it with a nearly perfect second half effort. Finishing with 20 points, Harter scored 13 after halftime to lead a strong Souderton effort Saturday.

Shaking their second half woes, the Indians topped host Hatboro-Horsham 51-33 in a weather-adjusted morning start.

“I feel like I’m getting better at being in control,” Harter said. “I’m trying to not to force anything. In the second half, we came out, did what we talked about and ran our plays.”

“At the beginning of the season, it’s always hard to predict how you’re going to be knowing freshmen are going to play a lot of minutes,” Carroll said. “If I had known Casey would be playing this well already, I would have had higher expectations for us. But, it’s a good win for us to get.”

The Hatters (7-8, 4-4 SOL American) employ a unique full-court defense that puts numbers right up under the basket and tries to make inbounding the ball a chore. It’s not a defense that’s easy to prepare for and not one teams see all that often, so that would have been enough for Souderton to deal with.

Instead, at least in the first half, the Indians (10-5, 3-4 SOL Continental) made it harder on themselves. Foul trouble had three starters on the bench by the end of the half but it was more the team’s shot selection and lack of execution on offense that held Souderton back.

Despite Hatters senior Cam Ryan scoring five points and assisting a three-pointer by Ava McKinney and six points from Alice Hall, the Indians defended well enough to go into the half down 19-18.

“Going into halftime with three starters on the bench in foul trouble, I was happy to only be down one,” Carroll said. “That’s not a kind of defense you see that often, it’s hard to replicate and prepare for that in practice. They’re very physical and you never know when or where the double team is coming and I thought our girls handled it well enough.”

With senior Mikaela Reese among the Indians players in foul trouble, Carroll cited the play of Teya McConnaha off the bench. The forward, who saw her most extended run of varsity minutes this past week, scored four points and helped firm up the effort on the glass after the Hatters were pulling down too many offensive rebounds for Souderton’s liking.

Reese came back to start the third and Souderton’s offensive execution picked up as a result. The senior forward dished three of her seven assists in the quarter, hitting Olivia Schneider twice and Hannah Alderfer as they cut to the rim for layups.

Souderton opened the quarter on a 6-0 run and out-scored the host Hatters 12-5 over the first 4:13 of the frame.

“We needed to have more composure on offense,” Harter, who was 3-of-3 in the quarter, said. “We ran our plays, took our time and didn’t have a short possession, one shot and done. We wanted to run through our plays until we could get the best shot.”

Souderton also adjusted to the Hatters’ defense in the second half. Prior to halftime, the Indians tried to break the press with a longer pass over the defense, but Ryan picked off a couple and nearly got to a few more.

In the second half, Souderton cleared out and had one player, usually Harter or Schneider, come back and get the ball. After nine first half turnovers, the Indians gave the ball away six times in the second half and were able to get into their halfcourt offense with more regularity.

“They did a nice job executing their offense and we knew coming in we had to keep them from running their offense,” Hatters coach Dennis Steinly said. “I thought we did a nice job in the backcourt causing turnovers but once they got set up, they really executed well.”

Hall led the Hatters with 10 points and seven offensive rebounds, McKinney had nine points and Ryan finished with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and three steals.

Offensively, the Hatters were doing a lot of things right but they couldn’t seem to finish.

“We did a decent job getting to the basket but struggled finishing the plays off,” Steinly said. “Their length caused us some problems. The girls did exactly what we wanted to do, we just didn’t finish enough.”

Reese and Harter helped make sure Souderton finished the game off. After losing a halftime lead and falling behind early in the fourth quarter in a loss to North Penn on Thursday, the Indians carried a 32-26 lead to the final frame Saturday and continued to build on it.

Reese had another all-around solid game even with fouls limiting her minutes. The forward posted 11 points, with seven coming in the fourth quarter to go with nine rebounds, seven assists and three blocks. Alderfer pulled in seven boards while Harter also added two blocks and a steal.

Souderton hosts Central Bucks West next Tuesday to begin a three-game week.

Harter, who was 3-of-6 from the floor and 1-of-2 at the line in the first half, went 5-of-5 from the floor in the second half and made 3-of-4 at the line. Aside from a couple turnovers, the freshman played her pace and only took the shots she wanted after halftime.

“Some of our plays, our goal is to get backdoor cuts and layups,” Harter, who plays AAU for the Comets, said. “On pick and rolls, sometimes they would switch but sometimes they didn’t, so it was open for me.”

“She just doesn’t look like a freshman, she plays like she’s been doing this for a while,” Carroll said of her point guard. “She played extremely well, handled their pressure, didn’t have many turnovers, made foul shots down the stretch.”

SOUDERTON 51, HATBORO-HORSHAM 33
SOUDERTON 10 8 14 19 – 51
HATBORO-HORSHAM 9 10 7 7 – 33
Souderton: Jordan Zimmerman 1 2-4 4, Olivia Schneider 2 4-6 8, Casey Harter 8 4-6 20, Hannah Alderfer 1 0-0 2, Mikaela Reese 2 7-8 11, Erin Bohmuller 1 0-0 2, Teya McConaha 1 2-2 4, Hayley Fenchel 0 0-1 0. Totals: 16 19-27 51
Hatboro-Horsham: Emily Thomas 2 2-2 6, Cam Ryan 3 1-2 7, Alice Hall 4 2-6 10, Ava McKinney 3 0-0 9. Totals: 12 5-10 33.
3-pointers: HH – McKinney 3.