Boyertown goes cold in loss to Council Rock North

BOYERTOWN >> From Newtown, Bucks County, Council Rock North’s Indians took a one-hour, 15-minute bus ride to Boyertown Saturday toting a significant amount of underdog baggage.

They’d lost nine games. They had only one senior. They were the No. 28 seed in the District 1, Class AAAA tournament. And that gave this relatively inexperienced bunch, who had shown their youth by losing several close games, the added burden of playing No. 5 seed Boyertown in the first round — a six-senior team with one of the area’s best juniors, Abby Kapp, and a squad with every right to believe it could make a deep postseason run.

Instead, Boyertown played as if it had all the weight on its shoulders.

Council Rock North scored a major first-round upset with a 40-27 victory, ending Boyertown’s mostly excellent season abruptly.

“Our mental focus was not there, for whatever reason,” Boyertown coach Jason Bieber said. “We couldn’t get our offense going.”

The cold front that enveloped the area in the past week also snagged the Bears. The 18-7 Bears’ shooting dipped like the thermometer in their final two games. This was a virtual offensive replay of their PAC-10 championship game loss to Perkiomen Valley Wednesday night, when the Bears managed only 25 points. They averaged 50 during the regular season.

CR North (13-9), which finished fourth in the Suburban One National with a 10-4 league mark, didn’t exactly light it up offensively in the first half, trailing 12-9 at halftime. The Bears crested double-digits when Kylie Webb hit a three-pointer just before the halftime horn.

“You didn’t think either team would get out of the 20s,” CR North coach Lou Palkovics said. “It was a such a tough defensive game. Boyertown is very well-coached and they know how to play the passing lanes.

“This is great for our young group, to be a 28 seed and go on a run. I don’t want to hear ‘we’re young’ anymore.”

The Indians turned it over 20-plus times but turned out the lights on the Bears by scoring 31 second-half points, hitting some outside shots that opened up the inside. Boyertown had allowed an average of just 35 points during the season, so the performance dip occurred on that end of the floor, too.

Offensively, the Bears could never get untracked. CR North’s game plan was to focus on Kapp, making even catches difficult, and it worked as she was held to nine points — half her season average — and the other Bears couldn’t make nearly enough shots. Boyertown shot 11-for-53 and further helped the Indians’ cause by missing several layups. In the last two games, Kapp totaled 20 points and the Bears collectively shot about 20 percent from the field.

CR North’s lone senior, Samantha Saifer, didn’t score but alternated with Dana Bandurick in closely guarding Kapp and denying space. To Bieber it seemed four people were guarding Kapp every time she turned toward the basket — CR North’s help defense was exceptional.

“A lot of credit to Sam and Dana,” Palkovics said. “We figured if we could hold Kapp to 10 we would win.”

“They did a nice job on defense,” Bieber said. “They took Abby out of the game a little bit, we didn’t execute some things, and they did a great job.”

CR North produced some key offensive spurts in the second half punctuated by 3-pointers. Sophomore guard Becca Margolis led the Indians with 18 points, including two treys, plus eight straight free throws late in the fourth when the Bears frantically fouled.

Boyertown’s last lead came at 18-15, midway through the third quarter, after Kapp hit from the corner off a rebound. But the Bears scored only six in the quarter, and three CR North 3’s — two from junior reserve guard Megan Haggerty, one from Margolis — put the Indians in front by six by the end of the period.

“Megan’s threes really opened things up,” Palkovics said.

Another trey from Haggerty and one by sophomore sub Kaelin Mealey were fourth-quarter daggers, giving the Indians a 10-point lead, 30-20, with six minutes left in the game. Given the funk the Bears were in, it might as well have been a 20-point deficit. From there, the Indians ran a delay and paraded to the foul line. On two straight missed foul shots, CR North got the offensive rebound, leading to made free throws and to Bieber talking about missed box-outs afterward, lost focus, and a missed opportunity.

CR North seized theirs.

“There are many teams seeded above them who are not as good, but that’s just how the seeding process works out,” Bieber said of CR North.

Notes >> Boyertown senior forward Ali Bauman sat out with an illness. … Boyertown went 1-6 this season when not scoring at least 40 points.