Late spurt sends S-F past Methacton
Cassie Marte and Lucy Olsen were in even in lock-step during postgame.
“We came out slow but we picked it up with a lot of energy, but then we got comfortable,” freshman Olsen said. “At halftime we knew we had to ..
“Come out strong,” Olsen and junior Marte said in perfect unison.
That’s precisely what the Rams did with a 3-and-D approach that saw Marte and Olsen provide the offensive spark and Spring-Ford secured a 58-39 victory over Methacton in the Pioneer Athletic Conference semifinals Saturday night at Boyertown.
Olsen led the way with 19 points on 6-for-12 shooting (3-for-7 from 3-point range) and kicked the Rams into overdrive in a 21-point third quarter that saw the Rams go from up 25-21 at halftime to a 46-34 lead through three.
Marte warmed the nets with an eight-point first quarter and scored 10 with seven rebounds for the game. Junior guard Rachel Christman added 11.
The No. 1 seed Rams (20-3) meet the winner of the late semifinal between Perkiomen Valley and Pope John Paul II.
Balanced Methacton (13-11) got 10 points apiece from senior guard Nicole Cooper and senior forward Olivia Pennypacker while Abby Penjuke added eight.
“They have more weapons than us,” Methacton coach Craig Kaminski said. “We lost to a good basketball team. Our girls gave it everything they’ve got. We don’t go as deep as Spring-Ford.
At the end of the day they made the shots and just played a better game than us.”
Despite struggling with SpringFord’s press early, Methacton more comfortable in the second quarter and had a 7-0 run keyed by Penjuke to get within 17-16 with 5:27 in the second quarter.
Spring-Ford’s Emily Tiffan hit a crucial 3-pointer — one of eight Rams’ 3s - with 1:26 to half for
25-21 that would remain into the break.
The Rams swarmed in the third quarter with a 10-1 run to build a 37-22 lead than to back-to-back backcourt steals from Christman and Abby Goodrich.
Methacton would never get closer than 11 points the rest of the way.