West Chester East starts fast, rolls past crosstown rival Henderson
WEST GOSHEN >> The first time West Chester rivals Henderson and East met at Bryne Gymnasium this season, it was before the Christmas break and the visiting Warriors cruised to a 17-point girls’ victory.
But that was two months ago, which is often an eternity during a basketball season. The rematch on Tuesday happened to be round one of the District 1 Class 5A Tournament, and the outcome was vastly different as the host Vikings turned a quick start into a grinding 40-29 win.
“That was our third or fourth game of the season and we were still figuring things out,” said East head coach Erin Listrani. “We knew that that just wasn’t us. These kids have worked hard ever since so we knew good things were ahead for us.”
Without a senior on its roster, East improves to 18-7 overall and advances to Friday’s quarterfinal round where it will face familiar foe Great Valley, the No. 3 seed, which beat Pope John Paul Tuesday night. The Vikings entered the clash with three losses in their last four, but did top Henderson (12-11 overall) on the road in mid-January.
Junior forward Lauren Klieber scored 10 of her 14 points in the opening period as East took the lead immediately and never trailed.
“Lauren’s confidence is really high right now,” Listrani said. “I trust her to make good decisions and take the shots when she’s open and find her teammates when she’s not.”
It didn’t take long for W.C. East to open a double digit lead. With Klieber outscoring Henderson all by herself, the Vikings scored 15 of the first 18 points and led 19-8 heading into the second period. The home team cooled off a bit but still led by a dozen at the half.
“The start was everything for us,” said East freshman Mikayla Kushner.
“Against a good team like Henderson, we knew that having a good start was going to be very important,” Listrani added. “I was really proud of how our kids came out.”
It was more of the same in the second half as the Vikings struggled to score but ran off just enough time to prevent the Warriors from making it interesting. Henderson’s Molly Manion hit a free throw with 3:17 to go to slice the lead to six, but that was as close as the Warriors would get.
“After the first quarter, the kids just decided they wanted to play,” said Warriors’ head coach Greta Neff. “We looked like a deer in the headlights out there – just standing and watching.
“But I give credit to East. They came out hard.”
Scoreless in the middle two periods, Klieber knocked down four of five from the free throw line to help close it out. Kushner finished with 10 points.
“Mikayla is just a freshman and I am on her all of the time about being more aggressive,” Listrani explained. “She is going to score a lot of points for us in the next four years. She is starting to get that message.”
Junior Molly Manion led all scorers with 18 for Henderson, but nobody else on the roster managed to score more than four points.
“Molly is a fantastic basketball player,” Neff said.
After scoring 19 in the opening eight minutes, the Vikings only managed 21 the rest of the way. But that didn’t bother Listrani.
“We wanted to stay aggressive but also stay smart with our possessions,” she said. “We’ve been working on controlling tempo and not forcing things.”
Kushner added: “(Henderson) did a good job of pressuring us and taking us out of what we wanted to do. But in the end we did a good job and got it done.”
West Chester East 40, West Chester Henderson 29
West Chester Henderson 8 7 6 8 – 29
West Chester East 19 8 4 9 – 40
W.C. HENDERSON: DePrisco 1 0-0 3, Skinner 2 0-0 4, Forcine 1 0-0 2, Manion 6 6-8 18, Kleckner 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 6-8 29.
W.C. EAST: A. Douglass 2 0-0 4, Kerns 2 2-4 6, Kushner 4 2-4 10, Klieber 3 6-7 14, Merten 3 0-3 6. Totals 14 10-18 40.
Three-point goals: DePrisco, Klieber 2.
