Girls Basketball: For Anabel Kreydt and Springfield, ‘it just wasn’t our day’

TREDYFFRIN — When each team chooses a quarter in which to go scoreless, a player who manages to sink two baskets in succession becomes the hero.

In stepped Conestoga sharpshooter Marisa Francione, who didn’t put the onus on herself, but happily obliged when given the opportunities.

Somebody needed to be the offensive player of the game Saturday, and it was Francione, who led every player by a decent margin with 11 points.

“Yeah, after not scoring in the second quarter, I definitely felt like we needed a little bit of energy to get back into it and regain the lead,” Francione said. “And it worked. There was good team passing and everything and I just got the open shots and they fell.”

Francione drilled two 3-point baskets to open the third quarter, turning a one-point deficit against No. 3 Springfield into a cozy five-point advantage for No. 1 Conestoga. The Pioneers out-defended the Cougars the rest of the way and earned a 22-14 victory in Saturday’s Central League playoff semifinal.

‘Stoga will take on Haverford in the championship game Monday at Harriton High. It will mark the first Central League final appearance for the Pioneers since 2017, when they lost to Garnet Valley, 41-36.

“It feels really good. It’s been a very long time since we’ve been to the championship and also we are new to this whole atmosphere of having a really big crowd and everything,” Francione said. “So yeah, it feels really good to win and we’ve had a great season so far. So we’re hoping we can take home the Central League championship and continue our season.”

The Pioneers (20-4) didn’t light up the scoreboard, but they were smart and economical with their shot selection. They shot 7 for 19 from the floor. They went without a point in the second period – mimicking what Springfield did in the first – and were held without a basket in the fourth. But solid defense, rebounding and foul shooting in the final period helped them finish the Cougars (19-5).

“We picked a bad day to play a bad game,” Springfield coach Ky McNichol said. “Our defense played really well except for a couple of possessions in the third quarter when we didn’t get out on their shooter. But we should’ve been able to recover from that. Nobody made any big plays today. I don’t know if it was nerves or what, but nobody stepped up to make a big play in transition. We were just very out of sync and not ourselves today.”

While Springfield’s tough-as-nails defense forced Conestoga into 16 turnovers, the offense struggled mightily to generate anything positive. The Cougars  began the game shooting 0-for-8 from the floor in the first quarter before senior guard Kaitlyn Kearney swished a 3-pointer to get them on the board 30 seconds into the second period. The Cougars scored all eight points in the stanza and went in front when senior forward Anabel Kreydt hit a shot from close to the basket in the final minute.

In the third, Springfield was 0-for-7 from the floor, scoring two points at the foul line. Maggie Neary’s putback as time expired gave Conestoga a commanding 17-10 lead. It happened because the Cougars failed to box out.

Springfield pulled within four points when Kearney hit a layup, but would then fail to take advantage of multiple second chances. For the game, Springfield shot 4 of 32 from the floor and 1 of 20 from 3-point range.

“At the beginning of the game, we felt that our defense was going to get us through and at halftime it was 8-7, so we felt confident going into the second half,” said Kreydt, who had four points and nine rebounds. “But when your shots don’t fall like that, you’re not going to win a game against a good team. We got every shot we wanted … but we were 5-for-15 from the foul line, stuff like that, and it’s (hard to) win like that.

“I’ll take the hit, too. I missed layups and I missed a foul shot. We got second chances and we got offensive rebounds, all that stuff. … It just wasn’t our day and when you play like that, you can’t beat them.”

Kearney led the Cougars with eight points. Lexi Aaron added two assists and a pair of steals.

Springfield will turn the page and get ready for the District 1 Class 6A tournament, which begins Friday. The Cougars could earn the No. 7 seed and receive a first-round bye. The district seedings will be officially determined by Monday afternoon.

In the other semifinal:

Haverford 59, Radnor 40 >> A 22-2 run in the second quarter spurred the No. 1 Fords (23-0) to a blowout of the No. 6 Raptors.

After freshman Anna Reger’s baseline layup tied the game at 13, sisters Caroline and Rian Dotsey combined to score the next 19 points for the Fords, who took a 35-15 lead into halftime.

“I thought everyone was capable of scoring tonight,” Rian Dotsey said. “It was a team effort.”

Caroline Dotsey netted a team-high 16 points and Rian added 12 points and 10 rebounds. Mollie Carpenter paired 10 points with 10 rebounds, while guards Aniya Eberhart (three assists) and Sky Newman chipped in with seven points each.

Radnor’s Mary Sareen tallied 15 of her game-high 17 points in the second half. The Raptors go on to play in the District 1 Class 5A tournament.