TOWAMENCIN — The North Penn girls basketball team’s last loss came in December against Central Bucks East.
Facing the Patriots again Tuesday night, the Knights made sure it stayed that way, taking control of their SOL Colonial Division contest in the third quarter and pulling away to extend their winning streak to 16 games with a 50-34 victory over visiting East.
“All season I’ve been telling them one game at a time, we’ll get to East when we get to East,” North Penn coach Brianna Cullen said. “We knew that this was going to be a big competition just because they were the last team to beat us. But we’ve taken lessons from our loss to East and just capitalized and improved on it all season.
The Knights (20-2, 15-1 division), who clinched the outright Colonial title last week, never trailed after a 7-0 run to start the second quarter gave them a 19-13 lead.
“All year we’ve been talking about one game at a time and I think that throughout the season we’ve been improving as a team,” said Mikulski, a junior forward. “And I think that working as a team really just led us to a win today.”
An eight-point burst in the third capped by a Lily Brown basket pushed North Penn’s advantage to 14 at 36-22.
East – which defeated North Penn 65-56 in their first meeting Dec. 19 – cut the deficit to nine at 38-29 in the fourth after Jess Lockwood scored inside but Leah Mikulski hit the last of her four 3-pointers and the Knights’ lead stayed in double digits the rest of the way.
“I think the biggest thing was the willingness to adjust,” Cullen said. “I know no matter what our game plan was, we were going to have to adjust at some point. Normally, that’s kind of a challenge, we have a hard time adjusting on the fly like that. But tonight, they just listened. They were coachable and willing to adjust to what was happening.”
Caleigh Sperling scored eight of her game-high 19 points in the third while Mikulski finished with 12 points as North Penn reached 20 wins in a season for the first time since the 2016-17 when that Knights squad went 25-5 and advanced to the PIAA-4A quarterfinals.
“It’s a huge accomplishment,” said Cullen, in her third season coaching her alma mater. “I asked the girls two years ago did you think that in two quick years you’d have a 20-win season and I don’t think anybody was so confident in saying yes.”
Lockwood’s 17 points paced CB East (17-5, 11-5), which has lost two straight and three of its last four.
Both teams are set to play in the eight-team Suburban One League tournament that begins with quarterfinals Friday. Semifinals are Saturday with the final Tuesday at Holy Family University.
Games in the SOL playoffs do not count towards District 1 rankings. North Penn currently sits fifth in Class 6A while East is eighth. The top eight seeds in the 24-team tournament earn first-round byes.
A Sperling 3-point play 14 seconds into Tuesday night’s first quarter then a Mikulski trey had the Knights out a quick 6-0 lead. The Patriots collected the next six to pull even before another Mikulski trey and a Sperling basket put North Penn up 11-6. East, however, finished the opening period with a 7-1 run – Haley Moran’s shot off a drive dropping in for a 13-12 Patriots lead.
Sperling’s fast-break basket off an East turnover had North Penn up 13-12 in the second quarter. Mikulski knocked down her third triple while two Olivia Stone free throws had NP leading 19-13 with 3:26 left in the half.
East cut its deficit down to three twice, the last time after a Lockwood basket inside made it 21-18. Sperling found Brown down low for a layup while Mikulski blocked a three attempt at the buzzer to keep the Knights up 23-18 at the break.
“Anything I can do to help my team, whether it’s get the assist or get the points,” Mikulski said. “I just want to help my team win the game.”
After Sperling drained a three for a 28-20 North Penn edge, East’s Anna Barry scored on a baseline drive and was fouled at 4:23 to get the Patriots to within six. But Brown buried a triple then Sperling was fouled on a 3-pointer and hit all three from the line to put the Knights up 12 at 1:36 in the third.
“We haven’t gone man (defense) practically all year and going man I kind of think threw the off,” Mikulski said. “They’ve been preparing, they’re a really good team so we were ready for them to be ready and know what we were going to do. So, I think that just throwing them off with the man.”
A Brown basket pushed North Penn’s lead to 36-22 before the Patriots stopped the 8-0 run with two Sydney Ralph free throws with 26.7 seconds left in the quarter. Cameron Crowley’s putback had the Knights back up 14 but Natalie Berndt’s three at the buzzer had East down 38-27.
Lockwood’s basket put the Patriots within 38-29, however Mikulski connected on her fourth 3-pointer off a Stone kick-out pass.
“I try to tell them any given game, any given player can be our leading scorer, it doesn’t have to be Caleigh,” Cullen said. “Of course Caleigh’s looking to score but it can be anybody to step up at any time. And I think Leah and Lily, they did a great job of that.
Sperling scored inside then converted two foul shots at 4:40 for a 45-29 advantage. North Penn’s largest lead came after a Stone 3-pointer made it 50-32.
North Penn 50, Central Bucks East 34
Central Bucks East 13 5 9 7 – 34
North Penn 12 11 15 12 – 50
Central Bucks East: Jess Lockwood 5 1 4-4 17; Natalie Berndt 1 2 0-0 8; Anna Barry 2 0 1-2 5; Haley Moran 1 0 0-0 2; Sydney Ralph 0 0 2-2 2; Total 9 3 7-8 34.
North Penn: Caleigh Sperling 5 1 6-6 19; Leah Mikulski 0 4 0-0 12; Olivia Stone 1 1 4-4 9; Lily Brown 2 1 1-2 8; Cameron Crowley 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 9 7 11-12 50.
