Souderton eases past Harriton

For Montgomery Media

Thursday was two days after Christmas, but Lynn Carroll and the Souderton girls basketball team got something that they really wanted and needed.

That something was a victory as the Indians held off Harriton 60-50 in the opening round of the Wissahickon Holiday Basketball Classic at Wissahickon High School. The win put Souderton into the championship game against Gwynedd Mercy Academy, a 40-36 winner over host Wissahickon.

The Indians had only one win this season. And according to the coach, the lone victory was an easy one.

“We needed this win badly,” Carroll said. “We’ve had a couple of bad losses to start off the season, so we really needed this win.

“And I think we needed a close one, too. Our only win so far was not close. To win one that wasn’t easy, I think, at this point, was something our team really needed.”

And this one wasn’t anywhere near easy. Harriton showed itself to be a very tough team.

The Rams played the Indians close throughout the first half. In fact, the biggest lead of the opening two quarters was the five-point bulge Souderton had with 2:10 left in the second period when the Indians led 29-25.

That lead didn’t last long. Harriton scored the final four points of the half to draw within 29-28. That had to give Carroll things to think about.

“I was really happy with how the girls responded coming out of the locker room at halftime,” she said. “We played much better defensively in the second half.”

Bianca Picard, the Indians’ junior guard who led all scorers with 19 points, knows the reason for that.

“Coach came in at halftime and said that was the worst first-half defense she had ever seen us play,” Picard said. “We’re all perfectionists so we hear that, we’re not too happy.”

And, whatever else Carroll said at halftime lit a fire

under the Indians at both ends of the court. While the defense was stepping up, the offense kicked into another gear.

Souderton put up 16 points in the third period and added 15 in the fourth. The Indians’ defense held the Rams to 13 in the third and only nine in the fourth.

“Bianca, Sarah (Derstein) and Allison (Gallagher) really stepped up offensively,” Carroll said. “Katie (O’Connor) and Libby (Wetzler) played really well. Libby had 14 rebounds and four assists. This was really a team effort.

“We were getting the ball inside and good things were happening — we were driving to the basket and good things were happening. Our outside shots were falling and we were getting to the foul line in the second half which made a little bit of difference. It was a good team effort and a win that we needed.”

In the final analysis, it was a combination of both offense and defense that got the Indians the win.

Leading by only one at halftime, Souderton came out and ran off the first six points of the second half for a 35-28 lead. And the Indians never trailed after that.

Harriton cut the lead to two points with six straight of its own. But the Indians scored seven of the final 12 points of the period, including a big three-pointer by O’Connor, to hold a 45-41 margin entering the final pe- riod.

The run continued in the fourth as Souderton opened the quarter with seven straight for its first double-digit lead at 52-41. The Rams tried to rally but couldn’t trim the lead any more.

In addition to Picard’s 19, Gallagher tossed in 17 and Derstein 13. Katie Melvin had 17, Meredith Maguire 12 and Sabrina Tabasso 11 for Harriton.