Girls Basketball District 1-6A Playbacks: Conestoga headed to states after win over Methacton
BERWYN >> After three and a half quarters that couldn’t have been much tighter, it became increasingly likely that the District 1 Class 6A girls basketball playback contest between Conestoga and Methacton on Saturday afternoon would be decided by a defensive stop or two here or a key rebound there.
And it was Conestoga that came up with those big plays down the stretch for a 47-40 win and a berth to the PIAA Tournament while Methacton’s season came to an end.
Ryann Jennings scored 13 for the No. 10 seed Pioneers (21-6), including 10 in the fourth quarter, and Marisa Francione scored 12. Cassidy Kropp scored 13 for the No. 15 Warriors (17-10), Reana Torres followed with 11 points and Mariri Smith added seven points and 11 rebounds.
“We got some big stops. We got some big rebounds,” Conestoga coach A.J. Thompson said. “Rebounding has been our achilles heel this season. I thought we did a great job on the boards. We knew Methacton was going to be physical.”
The Pioneers led by one point after a quarter, trailed by two at the half and were up by a single point again after three.
Along the way, the Warriors led 10-6 midway through the first quarter after Abby Arnold (7 points) and Torres hit back-to-back 3-point shots. But Conestoga came back with 10 in a row, including a 3-pointer and a baseline jumper by Maggie Neary (8 points, 6 rebounds) to start the second quarter for a 16-10 advantage.
Smith drove the middle for a score and Kropp made two at the line late in the second quarter for a 24-20 Methacton lead and Francione hit two free throws to produce the two-point halftime difference. Ashley Fisher knocked down a shot at the buzzer to pull the Warriors to within 30-29 after three.
Then what proved to be the decisive part of the contest came midway through the fourth quarter after a free throw by Smith made it 35-32 in favor of the Pioneers. Jennings was fouled and made both ends of a one-and-one. Then the Warriors turned the ball over and missed a shot on their next two possessions and Jennings drove for a basket and was fouled and hit the free throw for a 40-32 lead with 2:46 remaining.
Methacton never got closer than five the rest of the way.
The Pioneers pulled in six rebounds in the fourth to one by Methacton and wound up with a 27-19 advantage for the afternoon. Conestoga also helped its cause by making 11-of-15 free throws in the final quarter.
Methacton was possibly hurt by a controversial traveling call late in the game, with the Warriors claiming that the player called for the infraction had been fouled prior to the call.
“A questionable call down the stretch,” Methacton coach Craig Kaminski said. “You don’t know what might have happened in the final minute. Unfortunaely, at times we have lapses when we don’t score and don’t get a key rebound. Those are key moments in the game. We struggled rebounding defensively in a lot of games.”
“We definitely struggled rebounding this year, getting the box-out,” Kropp said. “I thought we had a pretty good game. We worked as hard as we could.”
Conestoga had lost to Springfield (Delco) 32-31 in a second-round game on Tuesday while Methacton dropped a 47-29 contest to Haverford, setting up a must-win game for one of the district’s 12 state berths.
“We anticipated a close game, for sure,” Thompson said. “When we thought about who Methacton might remind us of in our Central League, they reminded us probably of us. They’ve got some good shooters on the outside, a really good post player in Smith and some good players on the bench. We’ve had a bunch of close games. That’s the only way you get experience, being in close games. That really paid off for us today.”
“They’re a nice basketball team,” Kaminski said. “They have a good skill set. They play well as a team.”
The Pioneers will have two games this coming week that will help to decide places nine through 12 in the district before opening play in the 32-team PIAA 6A Tournament on March 10.
The Warriors finished the season at 17-10.
“Getting here was an accomplishment,” Smith said. “We had a good season. I think we were a lot more grounded than last year. Everyone had something to contribute. Everyone played as a team.”
“We did achieve a lot this year, even though we lost a lot of seniors last year,” added Kropp, who finished sixth on the program’s all-time scoring list with 1,101 points.
Methacton will graduate five players this year – Kropp, Smith, Torres, Ashley Fisher and Morgan Coupe.
“I have five really good kids who did everything they could in practice and games,” Kaminski said. “I’m very proud of them. We won 17 games. We qualified for league playoffs, always a goal. We qualified for districts, always a goal. We didn’t qualify for states.”
Conestoga 47, Methacton 40
Methacton: A Fisher 1 0-0 2, Kropp 3 6-6 13, Coupe 0 0-0 0, Arnold 3 0-0 7, Torres 4 0-0 11, Freese 0 0-0 0, Smith 2 3-6 7, Totals 13 9-12 40
Conestoga: Lanouette 0 2-2 2, Francione 4 2-2 12, K Valencia 0 0-0 0, Jennings 3 6-7 13, Neary 2 3-4 8, I Valencia 2 1-2 5, Preston 3 1-2 7, Totals 14 15-19 47
Methacton 10 14 5 11 – 40
Conestoga 11 11 8 17 – 47
3-point goals: Kropp, Arnold, Torres 3, Francione 2, Jennings, Neary
