Potent passing helps North Penn carve up Pennridge

TOWAMENCIN >> For a basketball purist, there’s no greater offensive possession than one where all five players on one team touch the ball and it ends with an open shot going down.

Those kind of people would have been ecstatic at North Penn’s second basket of the game Friday night, when all five Maidens touched the rock at least once as it whirled around the halfcourt and finally found Sam Carangi for an open 3-pointer, It was a great basketball play and just the kind of thing North Penn was looking for.

Behind terrific ball movement and a strong third quarter defensive effort, North Penn put away visiting Pennridge 59-43 on Friday, clinching a share of the Suburban One League Continental Conference title.

“We all wanted to come together and have one main goal,” Carangi said. “In the first half of the (Central Bucks) West game, we were all disoriented and playing by ourselves and in the second half we came together. Every game now, we’re just trying to set that one main goal.”

Great ball movement by @NPKnightsGBB leads to a @samiicar 3 early Q1 @PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/U76D5fsEYE

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) January 30, 2016

In the teams’ first meeting, the Rams hung around and lost by just 10 points. North Penn had an abysmal night from downtown in that one, hitting just two perimeter shots. Friday, the Maidens had doubled that by the end of the first quarter with four makes from deep as they opened up a 16-10 lead.

The hot shooting paid off in a couple of ways. It got Pennridge’s defense flummoxed and out of sorts and in turn, opened up a lot of opportunities for senior Mikaela Giuliani. She would take full advantage.

The forward tied for the game high with 19 points, scoring 10 in the second quarter, including the first six, as North Penn started to pull away. North Penn’s transition game was in full force, with Carangi, Irisa Ye and Jess Huber pushing the issue anytime they got a board, leading to plenty of mismatches.

“One thing we did really well tonight was push the ball,” Giuliani said. “Every time down in transition, I ended up with a little guard on my back and Jess and Sam and our other guards found me every time.”

Ye did a solid job defensively on Rams senior Devan Rimmer, making it hard for Pennridge to get into any flow offensively. Senior forward Lydia Konstanzer was still able to post a 19-point, 12-rebound effort but even she was forced to take some tough shots by North Penn’s defense.

With their defense falling apart on the other end, it wasn’t a pleasant night for the Rams.

Ye with an impressive spin and score@PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/gVKWfEWKyC

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) January 30, 2016

“Our defense tonight was not where we needed it to be,” Pennridge coach Lindsey Tennent said. “In the third and fourth quarter, the were just cutting wherever they wanted, nobody was stopping them. It’s something we try to stress, defense is our biggest thing. Aside from that, we weren’t getting shots where we wanted them.”

In the third quarter, the Maidens cranked up their defense and held Pennridge to just five points. North Penn opened up on an 8-0 run, the capper coming when Carangi found Huber for a reverse layup with a dart of a pass.

Carangi finished with eight points, six rebounds and six assists in a across-the-board game whil Ye had eight points, five boards, four steals and four assists and Huber chipped in nine points, four rebounds and four helpers.

“We did some nice passing,” NP coach Maggie DeMarteleire said. “We hit Mikaela a few time and it seemed like she was always open. We made the extra pass when we needed to and overall I thought our passing was really good.”

Knowing that the Rams could stick around, the Maidens made sure it didn’t happen in the third quarter. While their coach would like to see a little more consistency on defense, the effort was enough on Friday.

“We wanted to come out and focus on our defense and honestly, our defense in the first half wasn’t that great,” Giuliani said. “In the third quarter we really stepped it up and our offense was flowing really well.”

Anderson connects after NP makes the Rams work for it@PaPrepLive @SOLsports pic.twitter.com/2ZuBJXupDj

— Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3) January 30, 2016

Tennent said that once North Penn got going inside and outside, and with her players saddled with three or four fouls, they started to get tentative. A switch to a 2-3 zone didn’t help, especially with North Penn making an extra pass or two to keep the defense misaligned.

North Penn plays against Garnet Valley on Sunday at a showcase at Spring-Ford. Pennridge is off until Monday when it hosts Souderton, part of a three-game week that will be pivotal for the bubble-residing Rams to reach their district playoff goal.

“We’re big on team, we’re like a family,” Carangi said. “Everybody gets along, it’s really good and that helps in a game.

“It helps you confidence when you start hitting the early ones, It builds your confidence, like I can make this and shooting is a lot of confidence. If you think you’re going to make it, odds are that you’ll make it.”