Johnston earning points of a different sort for Springfield

LOWER MERION — Never one to garner a ton of hype on a basketball court, Carli Johnston has been an underrated, blue-collar player at Springfield throughout the years.

Johnston, a senior forward/guard who does all the tough jobs for the Cougars, has mostly stayed out of the spotlight. She doesn’t score a whole lot or grab headlines with her play, but she has helped win a lot ofgames at Springfield, even if her performances can go unnoticed.

Johnston is an exceptional defensive player and rebounding machine. She will stalk the opposing team’s best player, box out under the rim and fight for loose balls. Her game is all about toughness and grit.

Without her, Springfield (22-5) probably isn’t playing Saturday to try to win a second District 1 Class 5A championship. When the No. 1 Cougars tip-off with third-seeded Great Valley of the Ches-Mont League at Temple’s Liacouras Center at 1 o’clock, Johnston will be in the starting lineup.

“All of my hard work on the defensive end is finally paying off,” Johnston said following the Cougars’ victory over Mount St. Joseph in the semifinal round Tuesday. “And to help on the other side of the floor, that was great, too. But winning this game, that’s what was most important because we have been working so hard all season long to get here. We wanted to go to the finals.”

Johnston was responsible for defending impressive junior guard/forward Grace Niekelski. While she scored 20 points and basically kept her team from collapsing down the stretch, Niekelski was largely held in check, which is a testament to Johnston’s outstanding defense. She made two fourth-quarter steals to help the Cougars preserve their lead and eventual victory, and contributed offensively with four made free throws in the final minutes. 

Johnston’s value to the team cannot be understated, even when she is the third, fourth or fifth scoring option. After all, the Cougars have junior guard and 1,000-point scorer Alexa Abbonizio, who is among the top offensive players and 3-point shooters in Delco. The Cougars also have junior guard Rachel Conran, who delivered 16 points in the semifinals. Of course, there is senior point guard Alyssa Long, the engine of the entire operation. Long runs the offense and is, like Johnston, an awesome defensive player.

But Johnston will be the one mashing elbows, fighting for boards and effectively defending the best player on the other team.

“When you have a 5-11 guard in Niekelski who can post up, she’s a challenge to guard and I challenged Carli Johnston because Carli has the four- or five-inch disadvantage and she held her down,” Long said Tuesday night. “That was a great job by Carli. We held her down well in the post, and Carli was huge. We played great team defense and everyone did their job. That’s the most important thing, we just stress to do your job and we’ll get a win.”

Johnston and the Cougars will have their hands full against Great Valley, which features multiple scoring options. Junior guard Emily DuPont (15 points) and the team’s only senior, Tessa Liberatoscioli (17 points), were disruptive on both sides of the court in their lopsided victory over Radnor.

The Springfield seniors, Long and Johnston included, were wide-eyed freshmen when the team captured its first District 1 title in 2017. Many believed the Cougars would struggle this season after losing four-year starters and 1,000-point scorers Jordan D’Ambrosio and Belle Mastropietro to graduation. 

However, since dropping their first two games of the regular season, the Cougars have won 22 of their last 25 games on the way to earning this No. 1 tournament seed.

“I think we found out a lot about each other this year,” Long said. “People looked at us after we lost Jordan and Belle, two 1,000-point scorers, and they were like, ‘Well, how are they going to recover? Is it going to be a rebuilding year?’ We were questioned all year, but I think we proved in the league that we could win some games (19-1 Central League record) and now we’re going outside the league and winning games in districts.

“We have one more win to finish our story.”

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No. 10 Radnor made a surprising run to the semifinal round and looks to take home third place in the tournament, but doing so won’t be an easy task.

The Raiders have lived up to their 2019-20 team motto, “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out,” under longtime coach Mark Jordan, who gets the best from his players this time of the year.

Radnor has been led by senior forward Ellie Mueller, the program’s all-time leading scorer, as we’ll as junior combo guard Brienne Williams.

Win or lose, Radnor has locked up a spot in the PIAA Class 5A tournament, which commences next weekend.