BENSALEM — Keara McCaffrey looked to the bench in dismay Saturday afternoon. There were 62 seconds remaining in the third quarter, and the Sacred Heart center had just picked up her fourth personal foul.
There was some question whether the hand check was even on her, enough to delay her immediate substation from the game. But McCaffrey wasn’t looking for a chance to sit and sulk, not in a District 1 Class 2A final in which her Lions only led by 10. Less so when Delco Christian cut the deficit to six at the end of the third.
Instead, McCaffrey’s toughness – in the low blocks and between the ears – helped Sacred Heart tip the game in its favor.
McCaffrey stitched together four straight exemplary defensive possessions to start the fourth quarter, time to allow Dani Jeffries to kickstart a 13-0 run that gave Sacred Heart a 53-36 win over Delco Christian at Bensalem High School.
The win is the Lions’ seventh District 1 crown in eight seasons. It also secures second-seeded Sacred Heart the district’s only states bid.
McCaffrey had been waging a personal battle with Ashanti Harris most of the game. Harris got the better of it early, with eight first-quarter points. McCaffrey had no points and two fouls to show from the game’s first eight minutes. But she toughed it out. Sacred Heart held Delco Christian to just 10 points in the second half. McCaffrey’s ability to impede Harris just long enough for her teammates to swarm and contribute to 27 Delco Christian turnovers was the biggest reason why.
It included four possessions early in the fourth when McCaffrey came up with a steal, a block and two disrupted shots.
“I forget about the fouls,” McCaffrey said. “Obviously it’s in the back of my mind that I have to be careful, but you have to keep playing the game. You’ve got to brush off the fouls. … You’ve just got to work your hardest to stand up straight, and that’s what I did.”
Delco Christian didn’t score for the first 4:52 of the fourth, room for Sacred Heart to take control. Jeffries was the instigator, the sparkplug guard canning a 3-pointer from the top of the key on the first trip, then driving to the bucket and hitting while being fouled.
After the 38-28 edge had been whittled to 38-32, Jeffries made it 44-32 in a snap.
“Dani really led us,” McCaffrey said of Jeffries. “By Dani scoring, it was that safety net for us. As soon as she came out with those six straight points, it was like, oh yeah, this is our game.”
The bigs were the nexus for offense on both sides. Harris finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, plus three assists as the Knights’ offense ran through the 1,000-point scorer. But she was just 6-for-15 from the field, including 1-for-7 after halftime.
McCaffrey tallied with 12 points and 13 rebounds, plus three blocks and four steals.
Delco Christian’s offense flowed in the first half. It trailed 8-2 but led 11-10 after one quarter, then scored on the first six possessions of the second to build a 24-20 edge. The ball movement in the half-court was great, with Melina Mxaku (nine points, four assists) orchestrating.
“Just hustle,” Harris said. “We kept on going, worked off the momentum that we had from one another.”
Sacred Heart adjusted by doubling Harris. Its press was effective in curtailing DC possessions, but it needed an answer once the Knights got across halfcourt. That came from the help defense.
“We’ve just got to be more aware, and that’s what we did,” Jeffries said. “We were aware when (Harris) had the ball and when Keara was going one-on-one with someone. That awareness we all had to double down and help Keara really helped us.”
With McCaffrey slowed, Sacred Heart was too reliant on jumpers earlier. That changed once Megan Donahoe started distributing. She notched six points and seven dimes.
“It’s so great having a great point guard and a great passer,” Jeffries said. “That level of trust that you have helps you be a better players and helps you understand that there’s a trusted player next to you. Megan did really well today.”
Jeffries led all with 16 points. She and Grace Brown had six steals each. Maya Walker scored nine points.
Maggie Jenkins was the only other Knight with multiple baskets, scoring eight points. DC held a 34-24 rebounding edge.
For Sacred Heart, the return to the top of District 1 rectifies what increasingly looked like an aberration in 2023. Last year’s group was stung not to continue a run of six straight district crowns. That was the animating goal all year, and Saturday’s decision put things right in their eyes.
“It’s definitely made us a lot more hungry,” McCaffrey said. “Last year, it was a tough loss for us. We definitely felt it. This year, it was getting back on top. We lost the six-peat and we have to roll with that, but I think this season was lot more hungry. We wanted to let it be known that we are the top team.”
