Zemitis helps Neshaminy rally, top Souderton in OT to reach District 1-6A 5th place game

FRANCONIA >> After three quarters without registering a point, Reese Zemitis found her scoring touch at just the right time for the Neshaminy girls basketball team Wednesday night

Zemitis provided seven points in the fourth, collecting her last two on a baseline runner to knot the District 1-6A fifth-place semifinal at 42 in the final minute.

“We were just kind of doing a dribble handoff and I was going to hand it off but then I realized that they were starting to switch so I just took it,” Zemitis said. “And I saw the free lane so I was like ‘I got to take this.’”

The junior then came up clutch on the defense end in regulation’s last seconds to help force overtime, where No. 8 Neshaminy scored the first five points and went on to complete a 51-45 comeback victory over the host No. 4 Indians.

“It was a great feeling cause I wasn’t hitting shots all game, I didn’t really get going until the fourth quarter,” Zemitis said. “So I’m just happy that I was able to have that moment cause my teammates were helping me out in the first half so it was huge I was able to get that.”

For Souderton, a bigger concern than dropping into the seventh-place game was the injuries to seniors Casey Harter and Erin Bohmueller.

Harter went down under the basket after scoring on a drive at 3:30 in the third, the Northwestern commit returning with 26.8 seconds left in the quarter but ended up not playing in overtime.

Bohmueller’s injury occurred late in the fourth with Souderton up 42-40 as she fell to the court tangled with Neshaminy’s Taylor Gurysh following Gurysh’s steal and Bohmueller getting whistled for a foul at 46.9 seconds.

“It’s tough,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said. “On the one hand, it’s nice to not have off for two weeks, it’s nice to have games and to work on stuff and to form good habits and it’s just incredibly unfortunate. Hopefully, two weeks from now we’re healthy.”

Zemitis added five free throws in the extra session to finish with 12 points while Gurysh knocked down four 3-pointers in posting a game-high 16 points. Lola Ibarrondo went off in the third – scoring 13 in the quarter as she added 15 points as Neshaminy (20-7) claimed the rubber match between the Suburban One League division champions.

Neshaminy won 37-32 Jan. 13 while Souderton (22-6) took their meeting in the SOL semifinals 34-32 Feb. 11. Depending on seeding, a fourth matchup in the PIAA Tournament would come at the earliest in the quarterfinals.

“The three-headed monster for them, all at different times and in different ways, stepped up and hit big shots,” Carroll said. “And those are the kind of teams that are left at this point in the season, so there’s a reason that they’re still playing.”

Harter paced the SOL Colonial champ Indians with nine points while Bohmueller and Mikayla McGillian each had eight points. Souderton hosts No. 7 Springfield-Delco – which lost 37-23 to No. 19 Upper Dublin – in the seventh-place game 6 p.m. Friday at Indian Valley Middle School.

“Besides the injuries, we go into overtime and they go up pretty quickly and Brooke (Fenchel) who’s played close to zero possessions at the point position in her career with us handles the ball, hits a huge three,” Carroll said. “And the five girls we had on the court, they weren’t playing like Casey and Erin were on the bench with injuries they were playing to win the game.

“And I’m just really happy and really proud of their effort in overtime under the circumstances, I think it could’ve very easily been, OK well, an attitude of how can we possibly do this without Casey and Erin and they didn’t play that way.”

SOL Patriot champ Neshaminy faces Upper Dublin in the district fifth place game 3:30 p.m. Friday at Bucks County Community College.

“Our mindset coming in is what we want to get on the winning streak so that we go into states feeling good and on the right mindset to continue that winning pattern,” Zemitis said.

With neither side cracking 40 in their two prior games, it was not a surprise both offenses had slow starts – the sides tied 5-5 after the first eight minutes with Souderton leading 14-11 at the break.

“Both teams took a lot of threes,” Carroll said. “For us at halftime, we had 16 two-point field goal attempts to 10 3-point attempts which is not typically the balance that we like but I told ‘em at halftime they’re going to continue to have freedom to take those shots if they feel good.

Scoring eventually picked up in the third, Ibarrando igniting Neshaminy while both teams totaled 18 in the quarter to have Souderton go to the fourth up 32-29.

Zemitis’ first basket of the night pulled Neshaminy to within 36-34 but a Harter 3-pointer then Grace McDonough making the second of two free throws had Souderton up 40-34 with 4:22 left in the fourth.

A three by Zemitis had the visitors down 40-37 before McDonough pushed Souderton’s advantage to five by scoring after grabbing an offensive rebound. Neshaminy, however, cut the margin to 42-40 on Jess Purdy’s corner trey.

Zemitis then tied it 42-42 as she drove to the baseline before dropping in a runner with 26.8 seconds remaining.

With less than 10 seconds, Souderton got the ball to McDonough in the lane but her shot was short as Zemitis was ruled to have gotten a touch as she contested it, giving the Indians possession with 3.3 seconds left.

The inbounds pass went inside to Teya McConnaha, however Zemitis was there to block the shot with a loose ball bouncing out of bounds as the buzzer sounded.

“In my mind I was like ‘I hope I didn’t just foul.’” Zemitis said. “I thought I was straight up but we play really good defense, we made sure where Casey Harter was on the floor because we thought that she’d get the last shot but the feeling of blocking it was a good feeling, for sure.”

In OT, Alena Cofield gave Neshaminy the lead for good on a drive while Zemitis found Gurysh for a basket and a foul extended the advantage to four at 1:39. Zemitis then hit the front end of a 1-and-1 to have Neshaminy up 47-42 at 1:12.

Fenchel connected on a corner 3-pointer but Zemitis converted both ends of a 1-and-1 with 39.0 seconds left.

After Souderton missed two free throws at 26.5 seconds, Ibarrondo corralled the rebound in the corner. Another two at the line from Zemitis on a 1-and-1 at 20.6 seconds made it 51-45.

Souderton ended the first half with four straight points – Harter’s basket off an offensive rebound giving Big Red a 14-11 edge at intermission.

Neshaminy pulled even three times in the third, the last at 27-27 after Ibarrondo scored on a drive before a McConnaha basket then a three by Bohmueller put Souderton up 32-27. Ibarrondo’s runner just before the buzzer had Neshaminy down 32-29.

District 1-6A Fifth Place Semifinals

(8) Neshaminy 51, (4) Souderton 45 (OT)
Neshaminy 5 6 18 13 9 – 51
Souderton 5 9 18 10 3 – 45
Neshaminy: Taylor Gurysh 6 0-1 16; Lola Ibarrondo 7 0-0 15; Reese Zemitis 3 5-6 12; Ava Irrizarry 1 0-0 3; Jess Purdy 1 0-0 3; Alena Cofield 1 0-0 2; Totals 19 5-7 51.
Souderton: Casey Harter 4 0-0 9; Erin Bohmueller 3 0-0 8; Mikayla McGillian 4 0-4 8; Teya McConnaha 3 0-0 7; Brooke Fenchel 2 0-0 6; Grace McDonough 2 1-2 5; Alexis Stefanowicz 1 0-0 2; Totals 19 1-6 45
3-pointers: N-Gurysh 4, Ibarrondo, Irrizarry, Purdy, Zemitis; S-Bohmueller 2, Fenchel 2, Harter, McConnaha.