McAteer, determined Garnet Valley fashion quarterfinal comeback
NORRISTOWN — Garnet Valley had one quarter to figure everything out.
Council Rock North’s run-and-gun offense had left the District 1 champion Jaguars catching their breath for three periods Friday night at Norristown Area High School. They were getting beaten down the floor. The fifth option in CR North’s offense was cutting to the basket uncontested and scoring.
On the other side of the court, GV had put up eight points in the third quarter. A 3-for-10 shooting effort from the floor wasn’t good enough. The District 1 champion Jags trailed the District 1 seventh-place finisher by seven points.
But it almost felt like an insurmountable deficit.
Garnet Valley, a team consisting of five senior starters, didn’t panic, even when the Jags were frustrated to the point of screaming. That’s what guard Morgan Falcone nearly did when she was clearly hacked in the process of shooting a buzzer-beating 3-pointer that fell short.
Garnet Valley’s Emily McAteer drives the basket and scores with about one minute remaining, putting Garnet Valley ahead to stay. The Jaguars completed a comeback in the fourth quarter en route to a 47-45 win over Council Rock North in a PIAA Class 6A quarterfinal game Friday night.
“I think, once we got into the fourth, it really hit us that this could be our last game,” senior forward Madi McKee said. “At that point we said, ‘OK, we need this.’ So we gave it our best.”
Garnet Valley tightened up its defense and forced five turnovers in the final period. Emily McAteer, the leading scorer in school history, scored on a layup to give the Jags a one-point lead and from there they held on to win, 47-45.
The Jaguars advance to the Class 6A state semifinal round to take on Neshaminy in a rematch of the District 1 championship game.
Blum's shot is off the mark and @GVWBB holds on to win 47-45!
Off to the PIAA 6A semifinals the Jags go… pic.twitter.com/Z8nKSRmJoV
— Matt Smith (@DTMattSmith) March 16, 2019
This win said so much about the heart and grit of coach Joe Woods’ club. Even when it appeared they were dead in the water, the Jags didn’t stop the fight. They needed to play eight spectacular minutes and did just that.
The Indians (21-7) scored 18 points in the third quarter, but the Jaguars (28-1) held them to just two points in the final eight, with no field goals.
“I think we all knew that we didn’t want to go home like this,” said McAteer, who got four big rebounds to go with her four huge points in the fourth period. “We pretty much wanted to do it all for the seniors and come out with a win. We wanted to make Garnet Valley history, pretty much.”
And they will have a chance to make more history Monday night at a site and time to be determined. The Jags are one win away from playing for a state title in Hershey next weekend.
With McAteer limited, the Jags leaned on senior guard Morgan Falcone to kick-start the offense. Falcone made tough baskets at the most opportune times. She tallied a team-high 13 points. Her layup with 5:20 left got the Jags within six points, then she made a shot to pull the Jags within a point at 45-44 with 2:20 to go.
Falcone knew she needed to be more assertive with her shooting. Only senior forward Brianne Borcky, who scored 10 points, was making baskets on a semi-consistent basis. Falcone was 5-for-11 from the floor.
“The other team definitely realized that Emily has been scoring like crazy the past couple of games,” Falcone said. “In the first half, they were face-guarding her and making it tough for her to shoot, so we realized we needed other people to step up and start scoring more because they were taking Emily away.
“We were saying how we didn’t want our season to end now and how we needed to act like we wanted the game more than them. We want to try and go all the way this year, and our teams have never made it to the semifinals of states in school history, so we wanted to make more history and keep going. This is one of those games where we couldn’t fall apart and we had to stay together as a team in order to come back and win.”
Falcone’s guardmate, senior Jill Nagy, had a bag of ice wrapped around one of her knees after the game. Her stellar defense was crucial to the Jags’ comeback.
McAteer, who has more than 1,700 career points, had to find a way to make a play late in regulation. This wasn’t one of her typical 20-point performances. CR North made life difficult for the All-Delco forward. But she never got too rattled.
“I was getting face-guarded pretty much the whole game, so I knew there wasn’t much I could do on the offensive end except for maybe post-up inside,” she said. “I thought I could do my part, rebound and play good defense, and I was able to score.”
After McAteer made the go-ahead basket, the Indians failed to tie or go ahead despite multiple tries. Dana Bandurick bricked two free throws, then Borcky made a free throw to put GV ahead 47-45. CR North held the ball for the final 30 seconds, but missed on three shots. Sydney Blum’s 3-point attempt as time expired fell off the mark. Falcone grabbed the rebound and the Jags celebrated the victory.
“It’s an amazing feeling,” McKee said. “Our biggest thing is to take it one game at a time and not look too far ahead. At the same time, we’re so excited. This is so big for Garnet Valley and our biggest thing right now is making history.”
