Locked-in North Penn routs Garnet Valley

LIMERICK >> It was the performance North Penn had been waiting for all season.

The Maidens hit the floor at Spring-Ford Sunday evening, let Jess Huber get them started then caught fire. The Maidens hit nine 3-point shots as they buried Garnet Valley under a mountain of points and ran away with a 75-41 win in a Blue Chip Basketball Showcase game.

For the Maidens, who have played stretches of good basketball, Sunday was the complete game effort on both ends they had been chasing.

“We had to come out and take care of business,” guard Sam Carangi said.

“We just played solid, good, fundamental defense and I think that’s really what got us there,” Mikaela Giuliani said.

Huber got North Penn in gear with 10 points in the first quarter, scoring seven of nine to close the quarter as the Maidens went on a 13-0 run that bridged into the second quarter. In the second frame, six other North Penn players scored as they Maidens dropped 22 points, led by seven from Bri Hewlett off the bench.

It was all an offensive clinic, although it was tough not to notice that. Defensively, North Penn stayed in its swarming man-to-man and held the Jaguars to 16 points in the first half. North Penn paid due attention to Sam Tomasetti and essentially limited Garnet Valley to Madison Ireland and Emily McAteer on offense.

North Penn was everywhere Garnet Valley was and with just under four minutes left, Hewlett jumped a pass, went the length of the floor and finished the layup.

“We were just playing in man and trying to take away their strong side,” Hewlett said. “We came out strong in our man defense and just stepped up our intensity.”

The Jaguars came into the game 17-2 and even when her team was up 20-11, Maidens coach Maggie deMarteleire was far from comfortable. For an instant, she flashed back to North Penn’s District 1-AAAA playback loss at Garnet Valley last year when the Maidens had a similar large lead evaporate.

Sunday, her players just kept going and never let up.

“We haven’t played one solid 32 minutes so we want to start playing better longer during the games so we’re peaking at the right time of the season,” deMarteleire said. “It’s probably the best we’ve played all year, (Garnet Valley) was 17-2, so I thought that the kids did everything we asked them to do and everybody contributed, I was very pleased.”

Still, North Penn closed the second quarter with a 22-point effort and went into the break wanting to keep it going. They did just that, and then some. While Huber had hit two 3-pointers in the first half and Hewlett and Irisa Ye had connected in the second, the trey wasn’t going down consistently.

Then the third quarter started and the rain came with it. North Penn blitzed the Jaguars with a 33-point explosion in the third, as the Maidens hit five 3s and Mikaela Giuliani took full advantage down low. Giuliani enjoyed a strong day overall, taking advantage of the officials letting some bumps and bangs go in the post.

The senior had 15 points and 12 rebounds, feasting inside once the outside shots started going down.
“It was a physical game but if the refs aren’t going to call anything, you just have to play off the way they’re calling it,” Giuliani said. “We just had to all stay strong and be strong with the ball.”

North Penn’s 3-point barrage started with 5:27 to go in the frame when Carangi drained one from a few a feet behind the line. The whole team fell into a zone, and about a minute later, Carangi dished to Mia Melchior in the corner.

Melchior fired a shot as she got bowled into, hit the trey and sank the foul shot for a four-point play. The forward, who also got a starting nod, drained a second 3 on the next possession. Carangi and Hewlett would also connect by the end of the frame.

“We talk about making the extra pass, hitting the open person and getting the best shot we can get and I feel like that we’ve done that the past couple games,” deMarteleire said.

Hitting 3s is one thing, but getting them is another. North Penn’s passing was just as crisp as its offensive execution with players willing and often making an extra pass to find a better shot. North Penn had 15 assists after having 16 in a win on Friday.

“We’re really moving around without the ball and looking for the extra pass and playing as a team,” Carangi said.

“Our team chemistry has been really good,” Giuliani said. “Like Sam said, we’ve been hitting the extra pass every time. We have pretty even scoring, we have a lot of assists and we’re always looking for that extra pass.”

It wasn’t just the 3s, North Penn got shots inside, got to the line and used its defense to get the offense going. The Maidens geared it back in the final quarter, but the bench got a good cheer when reserve Madison Stotler stole the ball, went all the way for a layup and made it a three-point play with a foul shot.

While it’s a stretch to expect a shooting display like Sunday’s to happen again, the Maidens know they have to bottle as much of that output as possible for the coming week with games with Souderton and Hatboro-Horsham on deck, plus the SOL tournament next weekend.

But when a team’s that locked in, part of it wishes the game never ends.

“A little bit,” Carangi said. “I kind of wish we could shoot like this every game.”