Jenkintown shuts down Faith Christian for District 1-A title
NORTHAMPTON >> Meet the new and improved District 1-1A Champions.
“I definitely think we’re a lot better,” Jenkintown’s Jennifer Kremp said after the Drakes squeezed the offense out of Faith Christian, earning a 39-26 victory that produced a second consecutive district crown. “And I think we’ve all improved in a lot of areas — shooting, defense, offense…And I think we’ll be able to go pretty far in states this season, further than we did last year.”
The third-seeded Drakes completely stymied the Lions in the third and fourth quarters Saturday night at Council Rock South High, allowing just 13 points in that span and neutralizing Faith’s most trusted weapons.
“We knew Ashley Forker was a very quick guard and loves to share the ball,” said Jennifer Kremp, a junior guard for the Drakes. “We needed to stop her, stop her from going in the lane because that was her ‘A’ game.
“We had to play tough defense on her in order to win this game.”
#Jenkintown girls win 2nd straight #DistrictOne 1A title, 39-26 over #Faith pic.twitter.com/LPZjYhY2FK
— Kev Hunter (@khunter10) March 5, 2017
Forker was held to just one field goal and six points in all as the fourth-seeded Lions could not get untracked.
“We struggled offensively and you gotta give credit to Jenkintown — they played really well, especially on the defensive end,” said Faith coach David Forker, whose team can still look to states. “Offensively, we never found the right solution there. (Jenkintown) did a great job stopping Ashley as our first option and even when we found some cracks and crevices in there,” coach Forker said, “we weren’t hitting the shots.”
Jenkintown trailed 14-13 at the half but pulled ahead for good in the third and led by double digits for the majority of the fourth.
“We knew we could get some open shots on the outside and we needed to make them,” said Jennifer Kremp, who scored a game-high 11 points, with sister Ashley Kremp, Caroline Arena and Amelia Mulvaney each adding a three.
Mulvaney finished with 10 points and Mia Kolb added nine.
“We had to penetrate, kick the ball out when it was necessary,” Jennifer Kremp said, “and it worked really well.”
Add to that the clutch foul shooting by Jennifer Kremp, who calmly hit seven of eight in the fourth to put the game on ice.
“It’s a great feeling, especially to win it for a second time,” she said of the title. “We’ve come back after one year better and stronger. And I’m so glad to have won it with them.”
