Harter, better, faster, stronger: point guard leading way for Souderton
WARRINGTON >> It was 93 feet of Casey Harter.
With the ball trapped in the corner, Harter kept her eyes darting between it and her mark on defense, just waiting for the chance to pounce. Finally, the ill-fated pass from the Central Bucks South player stuck in the corner came and Harter jumped, picking it off, turning toward the rim and accelerating to beat two now-chasing defenders to the rim for a layup in the second quarter of Monday’s road win in the Titans’ gym.
The Souderton junior has always been a good defensive player, but it’s gone up another level this year just like her offensive game has for the SOL Colonial-leading Indians, who bolstered that lead with Monday’s 38-27 win pace by Harter’s 14 points and six steals.
“You just have to forget about the last play and keep focusing on the next one,” Harter said. “They’re going to get theirs, they’re obviously a good player, so I can’t get caught up in that and instead do what I can to not let them get another score.”
Souderton’s (15-2, 11-1 SOL Colonial) had many great defensive players in Lynn Carroll’s tenure but there’s something about the way Harter does it that separates her from the rest. At 5-foot-10, Harter usually either has a size advantage or is at least on even standing with whoever she’s matched up with and her wingspan, which extends past six feet, fills up a lot of space on either side as a sort of parking gate that doesn’t want to go up and allow a way out.
Size is good, having that kind of size with speed is even better and as a perimeter stopper, Harter needs both to stay in front of the numerous top players across the SOL and beyond she’s had to match up with over the past three seasons. Monday, she had a good matchup with CB South’s (10-6, 6-6 SOL Colonial) Taylor Hinkle, the Titans’ Holy Family-bound senior.
Hinkle finished with 11 points but her first basket, a difficult turn-around shot over the outstretched arms of Harter in the lane, embodied the kind of effort she needed to get them.
“It helps that I’m long, my arms are long and I’m quick, or at least almost as quick as the person I’m guarding so it’s easier to stay with them and deny the ball,” Harter said. “I think it’s hard for whoever I’m playing to almost get a shot over me, unless they’re taller.”
If defense is Souderton and Harter’s calling card, then offense is her expanding project. A sometimes-reluctant shooter as a freshman and sophomore, Harter isn’t bombing away from the perimeter but she has added an outside shot and is much more determined to give her team a scoring punch.
For a roster devoid of any seniors, it’s a very senior mindset from Harter, who is going to the rim with more frequency and more force this winter. The junior didn’t take any free throws until late in the fourth quarter Monday when CB South started to foul on purpose, but there’s a stronger emphasis on not thinking twice about going into traffic.
“She just wills her way to the basket and finds a way to get it in,” Carroll said. “I called a timeout toward the end of the game simply to give her a break. She does not get a second off most nights and somehow, she handles it. It’s a testament to her level of fitness and the work she does in the offseason that she comes in ready and already in incredible shape.
“She takes care of her body and it’s what allows her to play at such high level every night and it’s the difference maker, clearly.”
Harter sheepishly denied any secret offseason workout regimen, just chalking it up to AAU and running in the off months between. While she rarely sits and usually plays all 32 minutes, having the ball in her hands on every possession does afford Harter a certain measure of control on how much energy she’s exerting.
The point guard, who plays AAU for the Comets’ 2023 GUAA national squad, can simply slow the game down offensively if she’s trying to catch her breath after a chaotic or taxing defensive sequence or even if the offense is moving a little too fast.
“I don’t know what it is, usually I don’t get worn out in games,” Harter said. “Obviously, there are times in certain games when I do get tired but I just try to keep pushing through. Sometimes I find myself trying to push in transition a lot and that does tire you out, so slowing down really helps me to get an extra breath and avoid getting worn out.”
A basketball is made of rubber, synthetic leather and air. A human hand is made of bone, muscle, skin and lot of other stuff in a list that goes on and on. The point is, neither has a magnet in them, much less magnets with opposite polarities that would draw them toward each other.
Except, there seems to be some kind of magnetic pull in Harter’s hands that draws toward a basketball when she’s playing defense. Kind of like a wide receiver in football who routinely makes acrobatic aerial catches, Harter seems to find a way to get the rock back in her control when her team doesn’t have it.
Take Monday for example, when the junior had six steals including that pick-layup in the second quarter. Harter chalked it up to a reflexive ability to see a flash of the ball out of the corner of her eye and find a way to get where it’s going first, which Carroll feels is just a byproduct of the whole package that makes up her point guard.
“Casey has it all, she’s smart, she’s extremely quick, she’s long and her instincts are just really, really good,” Carroll said. “We’re not double-teaming, we’re not doing anything full-court, she’s getting those steals by working hard and playing with intelligence and it’s just so unbelievably consistent and that’s what makes it special, how consistent it is.”
Harter, who currently holds offers from Manhattan and Army West Point, has carried her defensive toughness to the offensive end in a mental sense. Much like she has to recover quickly when she gives up a score, Harter has to do the same if she takes a tough shot that’s off the mark or can’t convert despite battling her way to the rim.
One of her biggest goals for the season was to become more of an offensive threat and it started by shedding a habit to fade away from the basket on a drive and start looking for chances to push the ball in transition.
“She knows when to turn it on and when we need a basket,” Carroll said. “The way she dribbles through traffic and elevates over defenders and finds a way to finish, you just don’t see it very often at this level. She has high expectations for herself and my guess is it doesn’t stop on the basketball court.
“I think in the past couple years, that was part of her reluctance to score, she wants to be perfect and when you decide to show up and compete, you’re going to lose, you’re going to miss shots, turn the ball over or not do things right but I think she’s to the point now where she gets it. If she takes a couple bad shots a night for us, that’s not a bad thing.”
Going through the SOL Colonial again and then into the postseason, each game only gets harder from here including Tuesday’s rematch with CB East — the only team to have beaten the Indians in SOL play — so Souderton will need even more from Harter on both ends of the floor.
She’s ready for it.
“I’m definitely mentally stronger and maybe physically stronger than I was last year,” Harter said. “I’m looking for that foul and trying to finish with it instead of backing away and going up weak where I wouldn’t finish at all. I have so much motivation from myself, my parents, my coaches.
“I know what I’m capable of and I’m doing it more than I ever have in the past.”
SOUDERTON 38, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 37
SOUDERTON 12 8 12 6 – 38
CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH 7 5 6 9 – 27
Souderton: Brooke Fenchel 2 0-0 4, Erin Bohmueller 2 2-2 8, Mikayla McGillian 1 0-0 2, Casey Harter 6 2-3 14, Teya McConnaha 5 0-0 10. Totals: 16 4-5 38.
Central Bucks South: Taylor Hinkle 5 1-2 11, Alyssa D’Orazio 2 0-0 5, Madelyn Tantum 0 1-4 1, Allison Sauers 1 0-0 3, Yoyo Samayoa 0 2-2 2, Kriten Conway 1 1-2 3. Totals: 9 5-10 27.
3-pointers; S- Bohmueller 2; CBS – D’Orazio, Sauers.
