Vitucci’s poise helps Pennsbury past Abington in District 1-6A quarterfinals

FALLS >> It all hinged on Sofia Vitucci.

Pennsbury knew Abington would face-guard its standout senior captain, Ava Sciolla while also throwing a wave of pressure at whoever had to bring the ball up the floor. If Sciolla wasn’t going to be allowed to shoot, someone else would have to if the No. 4 Falcons wanted to get past the No. 5 Ghosts and into the District 1 6A girls’ semifinals next week.

It all hinged on Sofia Vitucci and the Falcons’ sophomore was more than up to it, scoring 20 points and navigating Abington’s press as Pennsbury outlasted a fourth quarter barrage for a 50-48 win Saturday afternoon.

“Everyone steps up in some way,” Vitucci said. “It means I’m going to handle the ball a lot. We knew it was coming, we worked on it Thursday and Friday, so we came into it prepared, knew our roles and knew what we had to do.”

Abington’s offense came predominantly from the three, with the Ghosts canning 11 triples in the game and just one of their first seven field goals coming from inside the arc. It was enough in the first half, with freshman Dani Brusha hitting two and assisting two more while playing her typical hounding defense.

Against most teams, having Brusha pressure the ball up the length of the floor with teammates flying in from every direction would start to compile turnovers. Pennsbury wasn’t flawless in the area, but Vitucci was more than able to get past that first line of defense and either went in for a score, found the teammate left open by the attempted double-team or got the offense into a halfcourt set.

“Abington is really good and they come at you with pressure, but we’re pretty good at handling pressure,” Falcons coach Frank Sciolla said. “That’s something we’re ok with. We’re used to teams face-guarding or doubling Ava at times, it’s a little different for us with the size of our team because we are playing smaller people so it’s not like we can go inside.”

Brusha assisted two threes then hit one of her own as part of a 14-2 Abington run that spanned the end of the first and start of the second to put the Ghosts up 20-13 on Cire Worley’s trey with 3:20 left in the half. An Ava Sciolla-assisted hoop by Vitucci cut the lead to 24-16 at the break and the Falcons’ sophomore PG picked right back up in the second half.

Vitucci had two baskets in an 8-0 Pennsbury run to open the third quarter that tied the game, with the teams trading scores the rest of the quarter until Abington carried a 32-31 run into the final period. Again, Vitucci got things started with a traditional three-point play kicking off another 8-0 run that gave the Falcons the lead for good.

“I’ve always been a point guard growing up, but as you get older, it also gets harder,” Vitucci said. “You don’t look to dribble through them, you look for the open girl based on who’s coming to help on you. I’ve been focusing on that and just protecting the ball.”

Vitucci said her entire team was fired up to get back in the game after halftime and give the packed gym a reason to get behind them as they tried to fight back and continue their postseason run.

Abington made 11 threes but it also took 27 and at times seemed reliant on the long ball against Pennsbury’s zone. The Ghosts did hurt themselves with a couple offensive fouls taking made threes off the board and a couple that usually go down didn’t but at those key junctures where the offense went cold, Abington didn’t make the right adjustments.

“When we go through a streak like that, Cire’s got to get the ball and there were too many stretches where she wasn’t getting the ball,” Abington coach Dan Marsh said. “The reason we were successful in the first half, yes they were keying on Cire, but she was finding her teammates. With our youth, we started going away from her too much and a good team takes advantage of that.”

Neveah Dash, who was also solid for Pennsbury with 13 points, hit two free throws at the end of the fourth quarter run to put the Falcons up 41-32. From there, it was all about trying to find a way to survive Abington’s final salvo of 3-pointers that kept slicing into the lead over the final three minutes.

Abril Bowser and Worley hit back-to-back treys that cut the lead to 41-38 before Pennsbury went 4-of-6 at the foul line and shortly after, built a 48-41 lead on a Nicole Pompili hoop and Vitucci foul shot. Abington again closed within three and fouled Pennsbury’s Layla Matthias with 17 seconds left.

Matthias missed both her free throws but managed to not only get the offensive rebound against four Abington defenders, she was able to find Sciolla, who was immediately wrapped up and sank both her attempts for a 50-45 lead. Worley buried a long three with seven seconds on the clock, but the Falcons were able to let time expire before inbounding to preserve the victory.

“We didn’t take care of the ball enough, to be frank,” Marsh said. “You can’t have the mistake, we’re down three and they have one kid there. Cire hits a 30-footer, we should be going to overtime. She gets the rebound, then they didn’t foul her again, they let her kick it out. We had to go through a number of situations to lose this.”

Pennsbury will now face No. 1 Plymouth Whitemarsh, a 36-28 winner over No. 9 Haverford, in Wednesday’s semifinal round. The Colonials are an impressive defensive team in their own right and can throw a lot of pressure at an opponent, so the Falcons will likely need another big game from Vitucci if they aim to keep climbing toward a district title.

“I’m definitely someone who builds off momentum, so whether its a good pass or a basket, I’m going to keep building off it,” Vitucci said. “I’ve never been to this point, so I’m excited.”

Pennsbury 50, Abington 48
Pennsbury 10 6 15 19 – 50
Abington 9 15 8 16 – 48
Pennsbury: Ava Sciolla 1 3-4 5, Sofia Vitucci 8 3-6 20, Nicole Pompili 3 2-2 9, Nevaeh Dash 5 3-4 13, Daniella MacDonald 1 0-0 3. Layla Matthias 0 0-2 0. Totals: 18 11-18 50.
Abington: Cire Worley 6 2-2 16, Abril Bowser 3 0-0 9, Jaida Helm 2 0-0 5, Maya Johnson 0 2-2 2, Dani Brusha 3 0-2 8, Jordyn Reynolds 2 0-0 6, Krysten Brown 1 0-0 2. Totals: 16 4-7 48.
3-pointers: P – Pompili, MacDonald; A – Worley 3, Bowser 3, Brusha 2, Reynolds 2, Helm 1.