District 1 Class 5A girls basketball: Defense, free throws help Springfield scrape into semifinals

SPRINGFIELD — Once again Springfield found a way to win. That’s what the Cougars do. It night be often pretty, but it’s effective.

On a night when their shots weren’t falling, the top-seeded Cougars relied on their relentless defense and solid free-throw shooting to pull out a 29-25 victory over ninth-seeded Merion Mercy in the District 1 Class 6A quarterfinals Tuesday night.

“It’s not as much skill as hard work,” said junior forward Anabel Kreydt, who scored eight points, pulled down nine rebounds and handed out an assist. “That’s what we do.”

The two-time defending district champion Cougars (16-7) followed that script to the letter to extend their district playoff winning streak to eight games and advance to the district semifinals for the fourth year in a row. Springfield will host fourth-seeded Bishop Shanahan, a 42-39 winner over No. 5 Harriton Friday night. The Cougars beat the Eagles, 46-38, a little more than a month ago.

On this night, the Cougars had no players in double figures, but then, neither team did. Springfield shot just 23.5 percent from the field overall (8-for-34) and 12.5 percent from 3-point range (2-for-16). Kaitlyn Kearney and Mia Valerio led a balanced attack with eight points each.

Kearney hit two big three pointers, one in the second quarter and another in the third, to give the Cougars a little breathing room. Kreydt contributed seven points and nine rebounds. Sophomore Cora Fattori provided six big points off the bench.

Their defense and foul shooting, though, more than made up for the struggles on the offensive end. Springfield forced 15 turnovers and held the Golden Bears (13-11) to 37.9 percent shooting overall and (11-for-29) 20 percent from deep (1-for-5).

“They’re just so good defensively,” Merion Mercy coach John Richardson said. “They’re one of the best teams in the area. They make it hard to do what you want to do.”

And what the Golden Bears wanted to do was go inside and capitalize on its size advantage with Lucy Curry and Mary Kate Gray. That strategy worked early as Curry had four of her team-high nine points and Gray had two of her eight in the first 4:28 … but then Kreydt and Taylor Hunyet locked things down in the paint,

Gray didn’t score in the second period and Curry was shut out in the third as the Cougars erased an 8-4, first-quarter deficit to take a 22-15 lead into the final quarter.

“I just denied her the ball and boxed out,” Kreydt said of her defense on Curry. “They mainly got second-chance points in the first half and I felt that boxing out was a big part (of stopping her).”

Curry had just two shots in the second quarter, three in the third and her only attempt was a made 3-pointer with 14 seconds left that got the Golden Eagles within 29-25.

“Their defense got the best of us and we lost our composure a little bit and started to go crazy,” Curry said. “We just had to relax and we didn’t do that.”

Springfield, meanwhile, was cool, especially Fattori. She came off the bench and gave the Cougars a big lift in the second quarter, knocking down four free throws to give Springfield a 15-12 lead at the break. She finished with six points in her first playoff game.

“I feel like what I’ve learned most is just take my time and not let anything get in my head,” Fattori said. “That’s what I did.”

Fattori wasn’t the only one who came up big at the free throw line. Kreydt was 5-for-6 and Mia Valerio made both of her attempts as the Cougars went 11-for-13 from the stripe, 7-for-9 in the fourth quarter.

“We work on it at practice,” Kreydt said. “Earlier in the season it wasn’t so great but we’ve gotten more confident from the foul line, especially at the end of the game.”

Grind it out, find a way, that’s what Springfield does.

“They all make small plays that turn into big plays,” Springfield coach Ky McNichol said. “We don’t win if we don’t play hard and they understand that. They also understand they have to do all the little things, go for every offensive rebound, dive on the floor for loose balls, play good defense, play help defense, all the little things that help us win.”