TOWAMENCIN — Sometimes, Goliath wins.
In this case, Goliath was a 5-foot-6 junior guard from Kimberton Waldorf School named Ciara O’Hara.
O’Hara scored a game-high 31 points as the Kimberton Waldorf Bulls charged past the Dock Pioneers 54-23 in an early season, non-league matchup on Monday at Dock Mennonite Academy.
“All the girls on my team really helped, the way they moved the ball and got the ball to me,” said O’Hara, who helped cause 34 Dock turnovers and was active on the boards. “I think we just have a good balance of girls, and we try to get in there and be aggressive no matter what. Whether you miss or make the shot, just go for it.”
KWS, a small-school power from Phoenixville, which went undefeated in the Red Division of the 26-school Penn-Jersey Athletic Association last year, opened the game with repeated traps and heavy pressure to create takeaways and transition baskets.
The Bulls (3-0) jumped out to a 16-3 lead in the first quarter and were up 30-12 at halftime.
“We like to make our defense turn into offense,” Kimberton Waldorf coach Anwar Abernathy said. “We have a lot of young players on team our this year, so to try to help them along, we try to create pressure and turnovers and get some easy baskets early.”
Cira Canard added 10 points for KWS, which shot 48 percent (25-for-52) from 2-point range, and Camron Nixon finished with nine.
Donald and Canard are eighth-graders — yes, eighth-graders — starting on the varsity squad, which carries five eighth-grade players.
“We like to start them early,” Abernathy said. “We bring our middle schoolers in early with our varsity program to get them acclimated to the things that we do, just to get them comfortable. Hopefully it turns into something positive, and so far, it has.”
The fast-paced Bulls did turn the ball over 23 times and were 0-for-5 from beyond the arc.
Ceara Barnes led Dock with eight points. Dana Delamater had six and Sophia Mercure had five.
The Pioneers (1-2) were less concerned with the final score than learning the basics of the game.
“We’re in a rebuilding year here,” first-year Dock coach Don Sobetsky said. “We have three returning players, and the rest of the team has really not even played basketball before, maybe back in junior high or something like that. I do have some multi-sport athletes here, but not basketball players. And I have a couple girls who have never played any sports before. So, we have our work cut out for us.
“I will say that from our first practice to what you saw out there tonight, it’s a huge, huge jump,” Sobetsky said. “Some of these girls couldn’t even dribble. They couldn’t do layups. They couldn’t do basic things, and now they’re doing it.”
Kimberton Waldorf pulled down 34 rebounds, but Dock had 29 of its own. KWS was 4-for-10 from the line and Dock was 0-for-2. The Pioneers were 3-of-16 from downtown.
Nixon, the Bulls’ sophomore center, led the PJAA in rebounds and double doubles last season. Her outlet passes often led to quick buckets on Monday. KWS also worked the ball on the offensive end, often passing four or five times.
“Our ball movement is key for us,” Abernathy said. “We try the ball inside, and when the defense collapses, we work the ball outside to our guards, and they’re able to find good space for shot opportunities.”
Kimberton Waldorf doesn’t have any seniors on its roster and only has two juniors. Though not as young, the Pioneers are mostly underclassmen as well.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Sobetsky said. “We’re just building brick-by-brick, mortar-by-mortar, trying to build something here.
“We’re looking for team progress and individual progress, and trying to see where everybody fits in,” Sobetsky said. “We’ve come a long way.”
Sobetsky stressed the importance of staying positive.
“It’s easy for them to get frustrated,” he said. “You have to keep supporting. … You just keep coaching them throughout the game. It’s not a team where everybody’s already good, and you can scream when they make a mistake. I have to try to build their confidence and tell them the good things they’re doing. That’s where we’re at right now.”
Author’s note: The final score read 56-23 on the scoreboard. But the home scorebook — which is the official book — added up to 54 points for KWS, as did an independent book. In the second quarter, the clock operator mistakenly added an extra two points to the score, but corrected it at halftime. Late in the third quarter, a referee, perhaps unaware of what had happened, told the scoreboard operator to add two points to KWS’s total, so the phantom two points were added back. But they were incorrect.
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KIMBERTON WALDORF SCHOOL 54, DOCK MENNONITE 23
KWS 16 14 14 10 — 54
Dock 3 9 7 4 — 23
KWS scoring: Ciara O’Hara 31, Cira Canard 10, Camron Nixon 9, Estelle Donald 2, Kira Sorzano 2.
Dock scoring: Ceara Barnes 8, Dana Delamater 6, Sophia Mercure 5, Mary-Ellen Picariello 2, Addison Landis 2.
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Email Christiaan DeFranco at cdefranco@thereporteronline.com. Follow him on X at @the_defranc, or visit ChrisDeFranco.com.
