Spring-Ford girls basketball earns third place in District 1-6A with win over Pennsbury

ROYERSFORD >> When the Spring-Ford girls had their lead over Pennsbury cut to eight points on a third-quarter buzzer beater on Saturday afternoon, they knew what they had to do.

The Rams came out for the fourth quarter in high gear on offense and quickly doubled their lead. And they led comfortably the rest of the way in a 50-33 win that earned them third place in the District 1-6A playoffs.

Siena Miller scored 12 points on perfect shooting and three players scored eight each for No. 5 seed Spring-Ford (24-5), which will host Dallastown in the opening round of the PIAA Tournament on Friday. Sofia Vitucci led the visiting No. 11 Falcons (20-8) with 17 points. They will play Nazareth in the opening round of states.

“I think the girls were very confident coming into the game,” said Spring-Ford coach Mickey McDaniel. “When it got close, they turned on the motor.”

Vitucci knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing at the end of the third quarter to bring the Falcons, who had trailed by 15 points earlier in the period, to within 32-24.

But Kareena Preuss scored on a layup to start the fourth as the Rams broke a press. Then Mac Pettinelli fired a pass into the left corner to Miller, who swished a 3-pointer. The next time down the court, Anna Azzara (8 points) penetrated the lane and kicked a pass out to Miller, who connected on another 3-point shot from the top of the circle for a 40-24 advantage.

“It’s a very smart team,” McDaniel added. “When it got close, they knew they had it.”

The game started off at a slow pace, with the first points coming on a fast break basket by Pettinelli two minutes in. A 3-point play off an offensive rebound by Megan Robbins (8 points) and a 3-point basket by Katie Tiffan (8 points) off a pass from Azzara made it 8-1 after a quarter.

“Instead of playing to their level, we play to our level,” said Miller, who shot 4-for-4 from 3-point range on the afternoon.

“I think it’s good practice for talking on defense,” Tiffan said concerning the slow tempo. “I think our team played really good defense. We had a lot of energy coming out.”

Azzara hit a 3-pointer, one of nine for the Rams, to start the second quarter and the hosts ran their lead up to 20-7 at the half. Then Vitucci got hot in the third quarter with 12 points to pull the Falcons into contention before Spring-Ford broke the game open for good.

The Rams made half of their shots from the field (17 of 34) while Pennsbury shot 10-for-34. Spring-Ford pulled in 25 rebounds (6 by Pettinelli) and the Falcons had 20 (5 by Layla Matthias). The Rams were perfect from the free throw line in seven tries.

Spring-Ford had lost a 53-42 semifinal to Perkiomen Valley on Wednesday after allowing 17 straight points at the end of the game and Saturday’s game started out quite a bit differently compared to that intense contest.

“It just had a different vibe to it,” said McDaniel. “Because of everything we put out on Wednesday night.”

“We have been working in practice about keeping our composure, sticking together as a team,” said Miller.

Now the Rams will prepare for Dallastown, which lost 40-25 to Central Dauphin in the District 3 third-place game on Wednesday.

“We just have to keep working on the defensive pressure and eventually we’re going to get an easy fast break,” said Tiffan.

“We’re going to have to work hard every single day,” Miller added. “I think we need to prove ourselves. Sharing the ball, passing it around. And intensity on defense, it tracks into our offense too.”

McDaniel plans to take advantage of the days leading up to the opening round of states.

“We have four days to prepare,” he said. “We always feel good about that.”

Spring-Ford 50, Pennsbury 33

Pennsbury: Panaro 1 0-1 2, Matthias 0 0-4 0, Sherman 0 0-1 0, Burns 0 0-0 0, Vitucci 5 5-8 17, Gilchrist 0 0-0 0, MacDonald 1 0-0 3, Dash 0 0-0 0, Jordan 1 0-0 2, Davis 1 3-4 6, Ruta 1 0-0 3, Totals 10 8-18 33
Spring-Ford: Brescia 0 0-0 0, Preuss 2 0-0 5, Allocca 0 0-0 0, Miller 4 0-0 12, A Azzara 3 0-0 8, K Tiffan 2 3-3 8, C Tiffan 1 2-2 4, Vanderzee 0 0-0 0, Pettinelli 1 0-0 2, Quinn 0 0-0 0, Prophet 1 0-0 3, Robbins 3 2-2 8, Totals 17 7-7 50
Pennsbury 1 6 17 9 – 33
Spring-Ford 8 12 12 18 – 50
3-point goals: Vitucci 2, MacDonald, Davis, Ruta, Preuss, Miller 4, Azzara 2, K Tiffan, Prophet