Plymouth Whitemarsh handles Souderton after two-week shutdown

WHITEMARSH >> The Plymouth Whitemarsh girls basketball team returned to the court Thursday night for the first time since Jan. 12 and handled Souderton, 45-31, at Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

The Colonials shut things down for two weeks after a player tested positive for COVID-19. They practiced Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before improving to 2-0 with a convincing win over the Indians.

“It was awesome (to be back),” Plymouth Whitemarsh guard Kaitlyn Flanagan said. “Everyone was so excited to have the chance to even get in the game. It’s good that we won, but we were all super happy to be out there.

“Everyone was talking, staying in shape, getting shots up even if we couldn’t be together. That’s what it was that let us have that turnaround and come out here and play.”

PW took control in the first quarter and never looked back. The veteran squad ended the first quarter with 13 straight points to take a 15-3 lead and scored the first five points of the second quarter for an 18-0 run and 20-3 advantage.

Flanagan and Anna McTamney each hit three-pointers – the only two triples of the game for either team – in the first quarter and combined for 16 points in the first half. The PW defense forced 15 turnovers before halftime to send the Colonials to the locker room with a 29-11 lead.

“The way that we play is easy to snowball,” PW coach Dan Dougherty said. “Souderton is a young team – they do have a couple seniors out there but they are a young team. You try to get a snowball going against a team like that and I thought that’s what happened in the first and second quarter. We were able to get a snowball effect of score, steal, score, steal, score, transition, score. Next thing you know an eight-point game is now an 18-point game.”

Souderton (3-3) battled throughout the second half. The Indians cut their turnovers in half – committing seven after the break – and scored more points (12) in the third quarter alone than the entire first half (11).

Casey Harter scored 10 of her team-high 11 points in the second half and Mikayla McGillan four of her six in the fourth quarter.

The Indians trimmed their deficit to 12, 41-29, midway through the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they’d get. Scoring slowed for both teams and PW extended its lead to 45-31 until the final buzzer.

“We just had to settle down,” Flanagan said. “I think that we came out, we were a little rusty and weren’t shooting that well. They were hitting their shots (in the second half) so we definitely had to lock it down on defense and take a breath and get back to our game.”

Thursday’s game kicked off a busy stretch for the Colonials, who will be playing eight games in 10 days to make up for the two-week shutdown.

“We had planned to go to some out-of-state tournaments and some showcases,” Dougherty said of this year’s schedule being built last year. “You’re not allowed to do that. You’re scrambling to try and get games this year and it was tough for us to find games, tough for us to find people to play. Now we’re just at the mercy of whoever wants to play. We want games and a couple weeks ago we only had 13 games then sit down for two weeks. You’re at the mercy of everybody else of when can you play.”

“Go home and rest immediately,” Flanagan said of the upcoming schedule. “Part of it is taking care of your body, but we’re just excited to get as many as we can.”

Plymouth Whitemarsh 45, Souderton 31

Souderton 3 8 12 8 – 31

Plymouth Whitemarsh 15 14 8 8 – 45

S: Zimmerman 0 0-0 0, Bohmueller 0 2-2 2, Schneider 3 0-1 6, Harter 5 1-4 11, McConnaha 2 1-2 5, McGillan 3 0-0 6, Fenchel 0 1-2 1, Stefanowicz 0 0-0 0, Hamilton 0 0-0 0, Schewe 0 0-0 0. Total 13 5-11 31.

PW: Zolty 0 0-0 0, Flanagan 6 1-3 14, Gooneratne 0 0-0 0, Daley 3 1-2 7, Sharpe 0 1-2 1, Cooper 2 0-2 4, McTamney 4 1-2 10, Allen 1 1-4 3, Thomas 3 0-0 6, McGrorty 0 0-0 0. Total 19 5-15 45.

Three-point goals: S: None. PW: Flanagan, McTamney.