Four by Four: Jenkintown’s seniors get District 1 Class A sweep with win over Faith Christian
JENKINTOWN >> As the final seconds ticked off the clock of their fourth straight District 1 Class A championship, Jenkintown’s four seniors found each other on the floor.
Winning doesn’t get old, and the Drakes’ quartet of seniors made little effort to hide that fact as Molly Walsh and Carly Mulvaney came together first, followed by Cady Westkaemper and Lauren Brockwell and finally the rest of their teammates. They’ve won a lot together, but this one was still special.
Jenkintown’s seniors won their fourth straight and the program picked up its sixth consecutive Class A title as the top-seeded Drakes topped No. 2 Faith Christian Academy 57-47.
“I think this year’s is actually extra special to us,” Walsh said. “With COVID and everything, we had no idea what was going to happen and for us, with it all being one-and-done we had to go out and do it.”
The win also marked a milestone for Drakes coach Jim Romano, who recorded his 700th career victory. His 600th win came early in the 2017-18 season when this year’s seniors were freshmen.
Tuesday’s title tilt was the third meeting for the teams this winter and while Jenkintown (15-1) did win all three, the Lions (11-5) have proven to be a formidable opponent. The first game, played on the opening night of the season, went double overtime before the Drakes emerged victorious and a fast start by FCA had Jenkintown on the ropes early last month.
Similar to that second game, Faith Christian came out energized and aggressive against the zone defense Jenkintown started out in on Tuesday. The Lions didn’t shoot quite as well but still out-hustled the hosts and took a 13-7 lead with three minutes left in the frame and held a 13-11 edge at the quarter break.
FCA built its lead back to 17-11 but the Jenkintown seniors fueled an 11-0 run that turned the score around. Mulvaney found junior Katie McGrath to start the run then Westkaemper, the team’s ace defender at point guard, had a steal turn into a layup and Walsh cashed in a steal with an and-one that gave the Drakes their first lead before Westkaemper ended the run with a 3-pointer.
“We try to use that 3-2 to save the players’ legs and foul and get adjusted to the game and we move on from there,” Romano said. “We put a little difference in knowing their top three kids – (Joy Hissner, Bella Forker and Sydney Heller) – are really good players.”
Westkaemper, not known for her scoring, was left open by Faith’s defense early so the senior made the Lions pay with seven first half points. Brockwell didn’t have her best shooting night, but the senior tallied three points and had seven important rebounds.
McGrath, the only non-senior starter for Jenkintown, ended the first half with a layup for a 26-20 lead.
Jenkintown bagged the first five points of the second half, taking an 11-point lead before Sydney Heller erupted. The Lions senior guard, also the program’s all-time leading scorer, ended her high school career with a tremendous effort by scoring a game-best 22 that included eight straight in a 10-0 FCA run that cut the lead to a single point.
“You know she did not want to lose this game,” Romano said of Heller. “That’s what you expect out of a senior and she played great.”
Mulvaney, a 1,000-point scorer, answered with the next five for her side while bookending a great defensive stand by Westkaemper to get the ball back. Walsh’s trey put the Drakes up 39-32 going to the fourth but FCA had another push to make.
“We have the confidence of knowing what we can do,” Mulvaney, who netted 18 points, said. “We know it comes down to locking down on defense and eventually, we’ll start to make our shots. If we stick to what we’re good at, we faith in ourselves and that’s how this game went.”
Jenkintown seniors Lauren Brockwell (14), Cady Westkaemper (1), Molly Walsh (15) and Carly Mulvaney (22) clip a piece of net after winning their fourth straight District I A title pic.twitter.com/ADN1C6HCAr
— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) March 10, 2021
Forker didn’t have a huge scoring game with nine points, but the forward had seven assists including one to Mikayla Hissner on a 3-pointer that got the deficit back to single digits. Joy Hissner followed with a score of her own to cut the Drakes lead to 45-41 with 5:30 to go.
A basket by Walsh, who scored 18 on 6-of-8 shooting, restored a 48-41 lead but the Lions whittled it back to five on two free throws by Forker and later got within 50-44 with 3:03 to go. That was the closest Faith Christian would get again as McGrath played stellar defense on Heller down the stretch keeping the dynamic guard scoreless over the final 6:53 of regulation.
“It just comes back to knowing what we’re best at,” Walsh said. “We’re always looking to get it to who’s hot or who’s feeling it but when we get the ball down the court, we just look for whoever is open and we finish well when we need to.”
The winner of Tuesday’s game was supposed to play a District 12 representative in a regional final Friday but without an eligible team to face, the Drakes move on to the PIAA tournament against the District 2 champion on March 17.
Entering the final stretch of their Jenkintown careers, the team’s four seniors are hoping to have that winning feeling a few more times. Their junior year was cut short in the middle of a state playoff run and while they helped deliver Jenkintown its first state title as freshmen, they want to end things with another.
“I’m treasuring every moment on the floor playing with all my friends, I just don’t ever want that to end,” Mulvaney said. “I just want to keep playing as long as I can.”
“We all know where we want to be at the end, which is together,” Walsh added.
JENKINTOWN 57, FAITH CHRISTIAN 47
JENKINTOWN 11 15 13 18 – 57
FAITH CHRISTIAN ACADEMY 13 7 12 15 – 47
Jenkintown: Cady Westkaemper 3 0-0 7, Katie McGrath 4 2-6 11, Lauren Brockwell 0 3-4 3, Molly Walsh 6 4-4 18, Carly Mulvaney 4 9-11 18. Totals: 17 18-25 57.
Faith Christian: Sydney Heller 6 7-7 22, Joy Hissner 2 0-0 4, Bella Forker 1 6-6 9, Abby Bowersock 1 1-2 3, Kendall Garber 1 0-0 2, Mikayla Hissner 3 0-0 7. Totals: 14 14-15 47.
3-pointers: J – Walsh 2, Mulvaney, McGrath, Westkaemper; FCA – Heller 3, Forker, M Hissner.
