HAVERFORD – As Caleigh Sperling was on her way to scoring 30 points, her North Penn teammate Olivia Stone would’ve been happy to make one shot Saturday afternoon at Haverford.
It wouldn’t be any old shot, either. How about the most important one of the season for the Knights?
Stone unloaded her fifth 3-point field goal attempt in the fourth quarter as North Penn trailed Haverford by one point in the final minute. The ball rattled around the rim for a second before falling through the net with 59 seconds to play.
No. 5 North Penn completed a comeback in its District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal matchup against fourth-seeded Haverford, which had led by five points in the fourth quarter. Stone’s clutch trey lifted North Penn to a 46-41 victory. The Knights (23-3) play No. 1 Perkiomen Valley (25-1) in the district semifinals Wednesday evening.
“Before I shot it I was thinking I haven’t made a 3 all game. I feel like I usually make some,” Stone said. “I thought if I make it right now, that would be crazy. And then it bounced around and went in and I was like, OK, thank you. I don’t know if it was just me because I was in the moment, but it felt like everything went silent. And the whole time I am like please go in, please go in.”
Saturday marked the second time this season North Penn bested Haverford. The Knights nipped the Fords, 46-45, at the Hoops for Hope Classic Jan. 14.
That was the last time Haverford (22-4) had lost. With their victory over Abington last Wednesday, the Fords locked up one of the district’s 12 PIAA Class 6A tournament berths. They will host a playback game Wednesday.
“Obviously we knew coming in it that they were better than every other team we’ve played,” said Haverford’s Ashley Wright, who hit a pair of free throws early in the fourth to tie the game. The senior forward ended with 13 points, five rebounds and two steals. “The last time we played them we almost had (the win), too. I thought we came out in the beginning not as strong as we could have.”
North Penn and Haverford were as evenly matched as any two teams in District 1. That was apparent after one quarter when the score was knotted at 13. Sperling, a remarkable combo guard, scored 12 of her team’s points. By halftime, the Jefferson University commit had scored 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the floor as the Knights held a 23-19 advantage.
Haverford recovered from a 26-21 deficit in the third quarter as top scorers Rian Dotsey and Aniya Eberhart finally got into a rhythm. Eberhart hit her first bucket to pull Haverford within a point. Wright scored inside the paint in the waning seconds of the third to tie the score at 30.
Dotsey went to work in the fourth, hitting on back-to-back shots to make it a 36-32 Fords lead. Wright’s foul shot with 3:40 left have Haverford its largest advantage at five.
That’s when North Penn found another gear. Lily Brown and Sperling made baskets to cut the Knights’ deficit to 37-36 with 2:15 to go. On the ensuing possession Haverford turned the ball over for seventh time in the second half. Seconds later Stone came through from beyond arc to give NP the lead.
“It could have been really easy to just give up when we saw that we were down late in the fourth quarter,” said Sperling, who converted all six of her free-throw attempts in the final minute of the game.”But our team… I really admire how we keep working hard no matter what the score is. We just kept working and we came out on top.”
Sperling scored 30 points on 8-of-10 shooting. She went 11 of 12 at the charity stripe.
One game after scoring a career-high 27 points, Dotsey paced Haverford with 18 points. Eberhart added six points and six assists, while Natalie Wright provided four points and nine rebounds. Tess Durfee (five rebounds) thrived off the bench for the Fords.
