Gurysh, Zemitis lead Neshaminy past Lansdale Catholic

LANSDALE >> Eleven straight points by Lansdale Catholic to finish the first quarter erased the early 10-2 advantage the Neshaminy girls basketball team got out to in Thursday night’s nonleague contest.

But Taylor Gurysh helped the visitors regain their momentum at the start of next quarter, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to put Neshaminy back in the lead.

“It kind of just made me feel like we’re fine,” Gurysh said. “Just settle down, hit our shots, run our offense and we’ll be fine.”

The Crusaders defense made it work for points, but Neshaminy kept finding a way to collect them. Gurysh stretched her personal run to 8-0 while Reese Zemitis added the next four to put the SOL Patriot Division side up nine.

“We really felt like defensively we forced them into some really long possession there for a while,” LC coach Eric Gidney said. “And whether it was a missed box out or maybe a call we didn’t agree with, right, we kind of let them get a second chance. And they’re going to cash out on their second chances Neshaminy is.”

Neshaminy stretched its lead to as large as 14 before a late Olivia Boccella 3-pointer had LC down 29-18 at the break. The Crusaders charged back in the second half, pulling to within three in the fourth but Gurysh and Zemitis made sure Neshaminy held on to beat Lansdale Catholic 52-39.

“This is a good win for us,” said Gurysh, a senior Kutztown commit. “And it’s only going to make us better. This is a really good game for us to play and I think it’s just going to help us have a mindset that we can beat any team right now.”

Gurysh finished with 17 points, 10 coming in the second quarter as Neshaminy (3-2, 1-1 division) outscored LC 19-5 in the period. Zemitis had nine of her game-high 18 points in the fourth as Neshaminy pulled away with a 16-6 run after a Jaida Helm 3-pointer had LC’s deficit down to 36-33.

“I told the girls that I got out-coached not necessarily today but this week,” Gidney said. “I let the girls kind of not take it easy but they went through the motions this week and I could sense that that was going to be dangerous especially with Neshaminy and then Pennsbury.

“That’s where I got out-coached this week, is that we just didn’t work hard this week and that’s got to fall on me and that’s got to fall on our team leadership too.”

Gabby Casey and Sanyiah Littlejohn both scored 12 points to pace the Crusaders (3-1), who started the third with a 6-0 burst – Nadia Yemola’s basket off a Littlejohn pass getting LCto  within 29-24.

Two from Gurysh then Anna Soska’s trey pushed Neshaminy’s lead to 34-24 but Lansdale Catholic collected the quarter’s last four points, Littlejohn scoring after an offensive rebound and drawing the foul with 53 seconds to cut the margin to 34-28.

“Just getting stops and rebounding,” Gidney said. “We threw some different looks. Went with a little bit of junk defense but then mostly went to man and just tried to over-deny on Reese and Taylor.”

Another Littlejohn basket off an offensive rebound had LC down 34-30 before Zemitis put Neshaminy back up six. Helm’s trey had the hosts down just 36-33 but a Gurysh basket then a Zemitis triple had Neshaminy’s lead at 41-33. Gurysh’s free throw with 3:16 remaining made it 42-33.

“I think we were just being more poised on offense,” Gurysh said. “We were running our offense more I think, getting either a shot or we were driving and getting really good cuts. We were reading the defense a lot better I think.”

The Crusaders got within seven three times, the last at 46-39 after two Littlejohn free throws with 1:04 but Neshaminy put the game away at the line.

Lola Ibarrondo missed the second of a 1-and-1 only to dive onto the court to grab the loose ball near the sideline and Neshaminy called a timeout with a minute left. After two seconds went off the clock, Gurysh hit both ends of her 1-and-1 to make it 49-39.

Lansdale Catholic faces another SOL Patriot squad Saturday when it takes on Pennsbury in the Keystone Classic 2:30 p.m. at Girard College. The Crusaders are back at home Dec. 23 when they play North Penn.

“I’ve told the girls, there’s been a lot of noise surrounding us, maybe now that noise is going to drop a few decibels,” Gidney said. “But we’re going to get everyone’s best efforts, we’re going to get opposing coaches’ best effort, we’re going to get every opposing team and every individual’s best effort and we have to match that. We just can’t bring it when we feel like it.”

Neshaminy looks for a third straight win when it hosts Truman 7 p.m. Friday.

“I think we just have to keep playing how we are,” Gurysh said. “We’re fine. I mean, we’ve been playing really good teams, we’ve been playing really well. I think now we’re just running our offense, being really patient and that’s really helping us right now.”

Gurysh connected with a cutting Zemitis for a layup and a 10-2 lead but those were the last points for Neshaminy in the opening eight minutes. After a Yemola 3-pointer, Casey scored the next six to give LC an 11-10 edge. A Littlejohn basket made it 13-10 going to the second quarter.

Back-to-back threes by Gurysh gave Neshaminy a 16-13 lead. Gurysh then grabbed an offensive rebound off a missed three, got to the hoop for two and drew the foul at 4:12.

“We switched our defense which kind of made us I wouldn’t say worse but it didn’t help us,” Gurysh said. We went back into man and it just like everything went back to how everything was. We’re doing a really good job of keeping ourselves under control, running our offense and then we’re drawing a lot of fouls, getting the shots we want and we’re just playing really well as a team.”

Alena Cofield rebounded a Neshaminy miss and found Zemitis for a jumper and a 20-13 lead. Zemitis was fouled on a three at 2:42 and made the first two at the line, putting Neshaminy up 22-13.

Casey’s basket on a drive to end the 12-0 run but Neshaminy proceeded to score the next seven – a long Ibarrondo two giving the visitors their largest lead at 29-15 before a Boccella trey made it an 11-point game at halftime.

Neshaminy 52, Lansdale Catholic 39
Neshaminy 10 19 5 18 – 52
Lansdale Catholic 13 5 10 11 – 39
Neshaminy: Reese Zemitis 6 4-5 18; Taylor Gurysh 6 3-5 17; Lola Ibarrondo 2 4-6 8; Ava Irrizarry 1 0-0 3; Jess Purdy 1 0-0 3; Anna Soska 1 0-0 3; Totals 17 11-16 52.
Lansdale Catholic: Gabby Casey 5 2-4 12; Sanyiah Littlejohn 5 2-4 12; Jaida Helm 3 0-0 7; Nadia Yemola 2 0-0 5; Olivia Boccella 1 0-0 3; Totals 16 4-8 39.
3-pointers: N-Gurysh 2, Zemitis 2, Irrizarry, Purdy, Soska; LC-Boccella, Helm, Yemola.