Souderton shuts down CB South, wins 6th straight

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WARRINGTON >> Twenty seconds into Friday night’s game with Central Bucks South, Alana Cardona tumbled backwards after trying to catch a pass and ended up hitting her head on the hardwood.

“I was terrified that I would not be able to play anymore,” the Souderton girls basketball senior said. “I don’t know if my head hurt or if I was just like, what was more frustrating, getting hit or not knowing if I was going to be OK or not. But yeah, I was just like ‘Come on Alana, get yourself together.’”

The Indiana University of Pennsylvania commit missed the rest of the first quarter, but was back on the court to begin the second with the Indians down just 7-5.

“When she came back into the game, it was like a sigh of relief I think from all of us,” Souderton coach Lynn Carroll said.

Cardona provided a spark to a sluggish Big Red offense, scoring six points in the quarter as Souderton took a 18-15 lead at the break and from there the Indians’ defense did the rest.

Held to a season-low 25 points in the teams’ first matchup, Souderton flipped the script on South. The Titans matched their mark for fewest points this year this time against the Indians, who took control of the Suburban One League Continental Conference with a 41-30 victory.

“We’re playing with so much intelligence on defense plus we have defenders. We have great defenders,” Carroll said. “And Tori (Dowd) tonight, I mean, think she always does a great job — Alexa Brodie is one of the toughest, she really is, she’s one of the toughest kids to defend and what she can do it’s a challenge for anybody to defend her through 32 minutes and Tori could not have done a better job.”

Kate Connolly collected 13 of her game-high 20 points in the second half – and was 11-for-12 from the foul line – while Cardona finished with 12 points as the Indians (12-2, 5-1) won their sixth straight and avenged a 40-25 loss to CB South Dec. 19.

“When we played South the first time, we played them when we were kind starting off and we didn’t have our defense where it is today,” Cardona said “And then the last couple games, I think it was starting with North Penn and then we played (Central Bucks) West and even Neumann (-Goretti), we started getting our defense then we ended with last year back.

“And I think the momentum just from those couple games is just carrying over into this game.”

The 30 points is the actually the most Souderton has allowed during the current win streak as Big Red has given up an average of 21.5 points in the last six games.

“I think we’re really communicating and now we’re just clicking,” Connolly said. “We know where each other are going to be, we kind of can communicate and just kind of deal with the offense in the best way we can.”

Haley Meinel had 15 points to pace Central Bucks South (13-2, 5-2), which has lost two straight after starting 13-0. Friday’s offensive output was the lowest for the Titans since they beat Upper Dublin 30-24 in the season opener.

“Literally the game is like the opposite from the first time,” Titans coach Beth Mattern said. “Like, flip the teams, probably similar stats from the first time. Pretty obviously they played great tonight, they hit shots and we didn’t. And it’s hard to win against a great team when you don’t make baskets.”

Souderton starts the second half of SOL Continental play in first as the lone side with a single loss. The Indians hosts Central Bucks East 7 p.m. Tuesday but Carroll with not be on the sidelines as she takes time off to finish her pregnancy – Carroll’s due date was Thursday. Assistant Ben Bowman will take over head coaching duties.

“Tuesday night I’m going to be out of my mind not being at that CB East game,” Carroll said. “Obviously, it’s the right thing for me and my family, but it’s very difficult. It makes it a lot easier cause I have someone like Ben who’s taking over who I really trust and the girls trust.”

CB South tries to end its skid 8:30 a.m. Sunday when it faces Saint Basil in the Hoops For Hope Classic at USciences.

“We lost these two games in a row last year and stilled played in the district semifinals,” Mattern said. “So hopefully we just continue to keep working and good things will happen.”

The Titans were within 21-19 in the third after a basket from Brodie – who finished with nine points – but Souderton capped the quarter with a 7-0 run. After Connolly scored inside, Megan Walbrandt converted a three-point play with a minute left to make it 26-19. Two Connolly free throws at 24 seconds had the Indians up nine.

“We executed so much better offensively this time compared to the last time we played them,” Carroll said. “And one of the things we talked about first time we played them, they had 26 of their points came in the paint and that is a lot of points. A lot of them came in transition – I can’t remember a transition bucket that they had tonight. Maybe they did, but I don’t remember it.

“So, we tried to force them to beat us from outside and not let people drive by us and for the most part I think we executed really well on both ends but particularly defensively.

Meinel’s jumper cut the margin to 28-21 only for Cardona to score the next six points, pushing the Souderton advantage to 13.

The Titans could only get within 10 at 37-27 after a Meinel 3-pointer. Four Connolly foul shots gave Souderton its largest lead at 41-27 before a Brodie three put the final at 41-30.

Megan Walbrandt’s jumper before the buzzer had the Indians within 7-5 after a quarter.

Brodie scored on a drive to make it 9-5 South but Connolly and Cardona each had four points during an 8-0 run that gave Souderton a 13-9 edge.

The Titans answered with the four straight points to pull level at 13. Cardona, however, put the Indians up for good with a jumper while a Megan Bealer 3-pointer pushed the lead to 18-13. Brodie drove for two in the final seconds to made it 18-15 at halftime.

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Mike Cabrey

Mike Cabrey
Mike Cabrey is the Assistant Sports Editor for The Reporter and Montgomery News. Email him at mcabrey@thereporteronline.com.

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