Neshaminy going to states

SPRINGFIELD ->>John Miller knew his team was facing a monumental task when it hosted Neshaminy Wednesday night in the second round of the PIAA Class AAAA girls basketball playoffs.
True, the ‘Skins were a No. 13 seed, but they had also won the Suburban One League’s National Conference, and the fact that a conference champ had been seeded so low was something Neshaminy head coach Joe Lally had no trouble fitting into his pre-game speeches.
They were also motivated by the fact that no one could remember the last time the Neshaminy girls qualifed for a state berth.
Add those pertinent facts together and you got Neshaminy “upsetting” the Magic, 48-40, and securing that all-important state spot.
“As far as I know, this is the first Neshaminy girls team to make states,” a smiling Lally said after the scoring of Brooke Mullin, Emily Alexis and Devon Storms dropped the Magic into the pool of eight teams that will jostle for two state spots after suffering round-of-16 setbacks. “We’ve been in playback games before to get into states, but this is a lot easier.”
“I thought they were a lot more athletic than us,” Miller said. “I felt they were the most athletic team we’ve seen all year.”
And that athleticism was demonstrated early, and left the Magic playing catch-up for the bulk of four quarters.
With Alexis and Mullin combining for 10 first-quarter points, the visitors built a 15-11 edge. And the Magic, which appeared to have difficulty solving Neshaminy’s zone defense, could never get untracked.
“I don’t think our offense was the problem,” Miller said. “We missed a lot of makeable shots, but I thought our defense was our problem tonight. That’s what let us down.”
Neshaminy increased its lead to 26-19 by halftime, and the Magic were huffing and puffing, but getting little in the way of results.
It didn’t get much better in the third period, as the ‘Skins blew their lead out to double digits, and only some scoring late in the quarter kept the Mount within range.
By the fourth quarter the ball kept finding its way into the hands of Storms, who had eight points in the final stanza to keep her team on top.
“We all want to win and we all want to compete, that’s the goal,” Storms said. “I didn’t plan on getting the ball a lot in the fourth quarter, but it just seemed the ball kept coming to me.
“But it could have been any one of us that did what I did.”
The Magic managed to knock their deficit down to six in the closing seconds, but the night – and the historic state berth – belonged to Neshaminy.
“I felt defense was the difference, no doubt about it.” Lally said. “I felt we were the better defensive team for three quarters.”