Pennsbury girls basketball opens league season with win over Bensalem

FALLS TWP. – While Pennsbury got off to a nice start in its Suburban One League (SOL) National Conference opener Tuesday night, Dec. 19 at home against visiting Bensalem, the Lady Falcons’ solid play certainly did not continue into the second period.

One, the Owls started to press on defense and that caused turnovers and two, Pennsbury’s point guard Bella Arcuri was taking a break after absorbing a charge on defense.

The Falcons also took too many deep shots in the second quarter and almost none of them paid off. Pennsbury shot 1-for-15 in a second quarter that saw it score just six points after notching 18 in the first period.

“Our shot chart, after the first half, was almost all layups,” stated Falcons head coach Frank Sciolla. “The second quarter, we took eight threes and were one out of eight.

“We were settling against the zone (defense), rather than attacking and we have to get better as a group in doing that.”

Coming back from the intermission, Pennsbury shot 4-for-8 from the floor including a pair of three pointers – one each by freshman reserve point guard Abbi Nassivera and senior Sydney Buell.

After registering just a single layup in the first half, Buell came back after the break and sparked the Falcons with six points in the third period including a 3-pointer and a quick layup off the inbound pass from classmate Kate Mix (10 pts.).

Buell led all scorers with 12 points in the game, including a pair of field goals in the final frame.

“I got off to a slow start in the beginning and I know as a senior, I have to be a big part of the offense and the defense,” said Buell. “I kind of got a little frustrated so after the first half, I knew I had to pick it up so that’s what I did.”

While the visiting team gave the ball away even more, turnovers – 22 of them – hurt Pennsbury’s cause in this one, especially in the second quarter.

“We just have to take care of the ball,” added Buell. “That’s our main issue right now.”

At times, Bensalem’s press defense disrupted the Falcons’ shooting, which moved closer to the rim as the game went along.

“Their pressure did throw us off,” said Buell. “Usually, we’re a better shooting team.

“Once we took a timeout, we got it together and we figured it out.

“We got layups off of it towards the end of the game.”

Trailing 38-24 after three periods, the Owls cut their deficit to 10 after a 3-point play by sophomore Emily Weinburg and a jumper by classmate Chloe Munyon.

Pennsbury closed with a layup by Mix off a feed from Buell and a pair of free throws by sophomore Mary Miller (9 pts.).

Playing her first significant varsity minutes, Nassivera came through with a pair of 3-pointers for the Falcons, one in each of the second and third periods.

Bensalem sophomore Sydney Bawuah canned a pair of treys for the Owls, who fell to 2-3 on the season.

“You have two teams who are going to have some wild swings this year, in terms of ups and downs, just based on where they are,” said Sciolla. “And that kind of showed itself within the game, because we both each had some moments.”

Once again, Mix reached double digits as she has done in every game for Pennsbury, thus far. Kate is averaging 13 points-per-game for the Falcons. Buell is next on the scoring list with 9.7 PPG. Miller is averaging 6.7 PPG, Wiegand is at 5.5 and Arcuri has netted 4.3 PPG.

After that, Pennsbury hasn’t really gotten any significant scoring contributions from the bench.

“We haven’t really figured out who our varsity (team) is yet,” explained Sciolla. “We have 20 girls in the program, nine are 9th-graders and we have to figure out who’s who.”

That said, the coach liked what he saw from Nassivera, who relieved Arcuri when she went down in the second quarter. Along with Bella, she is also a 9th-grader, so the two point guards are still feeling their way.

“She played about eight seconds coming into tonight,” explained Sciolla. “Pressed into action, she took a charge, got a bunch of deflections, rebounded the ball really well and knocked down a couple threes.”

“Abbi gave us an option as someone we can play as a seventh. But we’re looking for eight and nine as we go forward.

A year ago, the Falcons finished its first campaign under Sciolla at 9-13 overall. While its 3-9 league finish pushed Pennsbury near the bottom of the pack in the SOL, nine wins was more than twice as many as the team notched the year before.

“Our goal last year was to take a step up and we did,” the coach explained. “Our goal this year is to take the next step.”

“We’re taking it one piece at a time.”

Next, the Falcons face defending District 1 6A champion Abington Dec. 21 on the Ghosts’ home court. Abington is 2-2 overall, 1-0 in the SOL after Tuesday night’s 68-47 triumph over Council Rock South.

Bensalem travels to Neshaminy in their next game Dec. 21 on the Skins’ home court.

Pennsbury 48, Bensalem 34

(Dec. 19 at Pennsbury)

Pennsbury          18  6  14  10 – 48

Bensalem            7  8  9  10 – 34

PENNSBURY (4-2, 1-0: SOL) — Mary Miller 9, Cami Wiegand 5, Bella Arcuri 6, Sydney Buell 12, Kate Mix 10, Abbi Nassivera 6; TOTALS — 15 14-21–48.

BENSALEM (2-3, 0-1: SOL) — Alayna McSeed 7, Sydney Bawuah 6, Haley Keenan 8, Emily Weinburg 7, Michaela Sit 2, Chloe Munyon 7; TOTALS — 10 12-20–34.

3-POINT GOALS: P — Wiegand, Buell, Nassivera 2; B — Bawuah 2.