C.B. South blasts Henderson in district play-in action
WEST CHESTER >> First a warning for all Ches-Mont girls basketball teams prepping for the 2021 postseason: if Central Bucks South is the 19th best team in all of the District 1 6A bracket, look out for the rest of the Suburban One League participants.
In district play-in action on Saturday afternoon, the 19th seeded Titans went on the road, led from start to finish and blasted No. 14 West Chester Henderson, 43-26. CB South advances to the round of 16 to take on rival Central Bucks East. The Warriors season ends abruptly with an 11-8 mark.
“I give CB South all of the credit – they made us very uneasy for the entire game,” acknowledged Henderson head coach Greta Neff.
Thanks to COVID-19, it was a shortened regular season with very few non-conference contests. That means that the seeding process is going to be much less precise than, perhaps, ever.
“Everybody beats up on everybody in their league, so the strength of schedule doesn’t come into play as much as it used to,” Neff explained. “I think there are a lot of misleading seeds out there, to be honest.”
Forward Taylor Hinkle dominated the action for the Titans, scoring 17 of her game-high 21 points in the first half. The junior wound up with as many made buckets (nine) and the Warriors’ entire roster combined.
“Taylor is definitely our offensive leader,” said South head coach Beth Mattern.
“She has size, she works the whole game through and is a nice ballplayer,” Neff added.
Now 9-8 overall, CB South raced out to a double-digit lead early in the second quarter. Sparked by freshman guard Whitney Evans, Henderson cut it to 17-14 only to see Hinkle scored the final seven points and give the Titans a 24-14 lead at the half.
“We got a lot of good shots that just wouldn’t fall,” Evans said. “We couldn’t finish and we didn’t get many second-chance shots.”
Rebounding was a problem throughout for the Warriors, especially in the first half.
“We didn’t rebound for anything and it was a lot of one-and-done when we had the ball,” Neff pointed out. “(South) scored all of its points on transition, or on second and third shots. They just took it to us.”
Using a half-court, trapping defense in the third quarter, the Warriors forced five quick turnovers, scored seven in a row and pulled to within seven. But Henderson was unable to maintain that offensive pace.
“You can use the gimmicks for so long,” Neff said. “We needed to convert more on offense to continue with that.”
At the five minute mark of the final period and ahead 37-26, the Titans began milking the clock. The Warriors had five possessions the rest of the way and did not score another point.
“I thought this was it best all-around team effort for four quarters,” Mattern said. “It was nice to see. This group really has grown over the past couple years to get to this point.”
Evans ended her first high school season with a team-high 10 points and senior Molly Manion added eight in the final game of her career. When asked about her rookie season, Evans said: “It’s all about teamwork and I learned that you don’t have to do anything by yourself. If you stay motivated and positive, good things will happen.”
The rest of the Henderson lineup, however, combined to score just eight.
“We just couldn’t get shots to fall,” Neff said. “We have to get to the basket and work for better opportunities, but even when we had opportunities, we dropped the ball – literally.”
In addition to Manion, it was the final high school game for Molly Nanni, Hannah Meredith, Emma Kleckner and Ellie Shea. A five seniors played in the regular rotation.
“We have a lot of seniors who have put a lot of time into this,” Neff said. “COVID kind of disrupted thing and didn’t allow us to put in some things over the summer.
“Everybody came back and did the best they could, but in a short season like this, I thought our kids did a nice job adjusting and going as far as we could.”
Central Bucks South 43, West Chester Henderson 26
C.B. SOUTH – White 0 2-2 2; Hinkle 9 2-2 21; Sauers 2 0-0 4; McSorley 2 2-2 6; Samayoa 1 1-2 4; Erb 2 0-0 4; Tantum 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 7-8 43.
W.C. HENDERSON – DePrisco 1 0-0 3; Forcine 1 0-0 2; Manion 4 0-0 8; Evans 2 4-4 10; J. Shea 0 1-2 1; G. Nanni 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 5-6 26.
C.B. South 11 13 9 10 – 43
W.C. Henderson 5 9 10 2 – 26
3-pointers: Hinkle, Samayoa, DePrisco, Evans 2.
