Austen, Radnor complete a comeback over Marple
NEWTOWN SQUARE » Sally Austen ensured Radnor’s survival in the District 1 Class 5A tournament.
The senior guard/forward’s play was aggressive in crunch time Saturday at Marple Newtown. She delivered all five of her squad’s points and came up with a big defensive rebound in overtime.
Austen had a basket and went 3-for-4 at the freethrow line to lead No. 10 Radnor to a dramatic, 43-42 victory over seventh-seeded Marple Newtown.
Austen was cool in crunch time for Radnor, which travels to another fellow Central League opponent, sixthseeded Harriton Wednesday for a second-round contest.
“I think everybody just brought the energy today and that helped us,” said Austen, who totaled 11 points, including six in the first period. “We were excited to play and get the win.”
Down the stretch, Austen ran the point. It’s not her natural spot on the floor, but coach Mark Jordan entrusted her to engineer the offense with Radnor’s season on the line.
“It’s all about the team effort,” she said. “Everybody knows that I might turn it over a couple times, but we keep trying. We all get back on defense and help each other out.”
Jordan’s teams usually begin to shine this time of year year. “RGB” typically flies under the radar. Back in 2014, the program came out of nowhere to win a District 1 title. In a normal year, perhaps Radnor would be feeling pretty good about its chances of qualifying for the PIAA tournament, but this year only the district champion advances to states. Thus the road becomes much harder in 2021, but if there’s an underdog that can pull it off, it’s
Jordan’s gang.
“I’m just extremely proud of the girls,” he said. “This is our 14th straight year we’ve been in the district playoffs, which is a pretty good stat for us. Make sure you mention that . ... We’re playing in March for the sixth time in eight years, that’s a winkwink because it’s not states, but still pretty good for us. And, you know, it’s a credit to the girls. We have a bunch of girls who play hard, they’re not AAU, most of them are lacrosse kids and not basketball kids. They’re gamers.
“Our mindset today was, let’s keep getting up and down the court and wear them down a little. We had fouls early, too. Cierra (Hopson) and Ellie (Rinehart) played with four fouls in the second half and they’re two of our key starters. So, we had to battle and the kids really stepped up.”
Radnor trailed by eight points early in the fourth quarter after MN junior Haley Levy made a 3-pointer. The Tigers tried to take the air out of the ball around the midway point of the quarter, but once Jordan called for his team to press, the tide started to turn in Radnor’s favor. Rinehart made a basket to cut the Marple lead to 38-36 and seconds later Margaret Mooney tied the game at the foul line.
“I think we all knew we had to give it our all. Every single person played a big part in this win today,” said Mooney, who added 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocks. “Even when we were down in the fourth quarter, we felt the pressure but we still wanted to win. I don’t think we ever lost motivation during the game.”
The Tigers had a shot to win the game with 12 seconds left in regulation, but Radnor’s defense stood tall. The Tigers were unable to get a shot off before the period came to a close.
Ellie DiBona swished a game-tying 3-pointer in the extra session. Austen made a free throw with 31 seconds left to put Radnor ahead to stay. The Tigers had the last look, but Mooney and Hopson disrupted Mackenzie Hilden’s final shot as time expired in overtime.
Radnor avenged its regular season loss to Marple Newtown. On Wednesday it will try to do the same against Harriton.
“We’re excited to keep playing,” Austen said. “We didn’t want our season to end today.”
DiBona scored a gamehigh 14 points and Levy added 11 for the Tigers.
No. 10 Villanova is limping into the postseason with a third-string point guard and a bit of a road slump.
David Duke and Nate Watson scored 20 points apiece, and Duke outjumped his taller teammate and four Wildcats to tip in the gamewinner with 2.8 seconds left on Saturday as Providence held on after blowing a 20-point lead to beat the Big East champions 54-52.
Although the TV broadcast credited the 6-foot-10 Watson with the tiebreaking putback, the box score said it was Duke, a guard who is five inches shorter. Watson said he wasn’t sure — and he didn’t much care.
“I was flying to the glass. We probably both hit it,” Watson said. “I’m just happy it went in.”
Jeremiah Robinson-Earl had an open look at a 3-pointer after a long inbounds pass. But the shot hit the front of the rim, and the buzzer sounded before Jermaine Samuels tipped it in.
It was the fourth straight road loss for the Wildcats, who lost point guard Collin Gillespie to a torn MCL on Wednesday and backup Justin Moore to an ankle injury in the first half against the Friars. Coach Jay Wright said Moore’s injury was “pretty severe.”
“Our problem was not missing Collin at the point guard spot,” Wright said. “We definitely had our chances. We had free throws; we had shots at the rim. It just wasn’t meant to be. It’s hard to accept that.”
Noah Horchler had 10 points and
13 rebounds for Providence (13-12,
9-10 Big East), which has won five of their last seven games against ranked teams. Friars coach Ed Cooley said he was ecstatic “to finish off against a quality opponent like Villanova.
“Despite what they didn’t have, they had some great players on the floor,” he said.
Samuels scored 16 of his 21 points in the second half, making back-to-back layups to start a 14-2 run and adding the last five points of the rally that gave the Wildcats
(16-5, 11-4) a 50-49 lead with less than three minutes left.
Duke made one of two free throws to tie it, and then sank a floater with just over a minute left to make it 52-50. After Samuels made a pair of free throws, Jared Bynum fired up a jumper that bounced off the rim, and Duke’s fingertips were the highest of the six players going for the rebound.
Wright called timeout, then changed his play after Providence called timeout. Watson went for the steal on the inbounds, allowing Robinson-Earl to get free for a
3-pointer, but the ball bounced high off the rim and by the time Samuels got his hand on it, it was too late.
“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Watson said with a laugh. “I was praying to God he did not make it.”
Robinson-Earl had 11 points and
13 rebounds for the Wildcats, who clinched the Big East regular-season title by beating Creighton on Wednesday night. They will be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament that begins on Wednesday.
PC led 38-18 in the first before Villanova scored the first 11 points of the second. The Friars held a 4736 advantage with nine minutes
left before Samuels scored nine points during the rally that gave the Wildcats their first lead since the opening basket of the game.
SECOND HALF WOES
Providence took an 11-point lead into halftime in its last game, against St. John’s on Wednesday. The Red Storm outscored PC 5126 in the second, when the Friars missed all nine of their 3-point attempts.
UP NEXT
Both teams move on to the Big East tournament. Villanova will have the No. 1 seed.
Villanova’s Maddy Siegrist was given a second chance against DePaul in the quarterfinal round of the Big East women’s basketball tournament Saturday and the sophomore made the most of the opportunity.
Siegrist scored 10 of her
30 points in overtime to lead the fifth-seeded Wildcats to a 78-72 triumph over fourth-seeded and 25thranked DePaul at Mohegan Sun.
Villanova’s reward for the win is a date with topranked and top-seeded Connecticut (21-1) Sunday afternoon in the semifinals. Tipoff is 3 p.m.
The Wildcats (15-5) nearly didn’t get the chance to take on the Huskies.
Deja Church scored 10 of her team-high 19 points as the three-time defending Big East champion Blue Demons outscored the Wildcats in the fourth quarter,
19-9, to erase a 10-point deficit. Church tied the game on a pair of free throws but couldn’t finish a layup as time ran out that would have won the game.
After Jorie Allen hit two free throws to put DePaul up, 66-64, in the extra session, Siegrist went on a tear. She scored seven of Villanova’s next nine points to put the Wildcats in front, 7369. Siegrist then made three free throws in the final 10 seconds to seal the victory.
Siegrist shot 11-for-19 from the field to help the Wildcats avenge a 94-82 loss to the Blue Demons in the regular season. She also had 11 rebounds for her 12th double-double of the season. Brianna Herlihy added 19 points and Sarah Mortensen chipped in with
13 points for the Wildcats. Sonya Morri added 16 points, Allen had 11 and Lexie Held 10 for DePaul. CABRINI 58, NEUMANN 50 » The Cavaliers forced 20 turnovers and outscored the Knights, 13-6 in the final period to make senior day a success.
It was a one-point game
until Cabrini opened the fourth quarter on a 9-2 run. Miranda Leibtag’s layup with 23 seconds left, her only basket of the game, sealed the victory.
Lexi Edwards paced Cabrini with 17 points. Ashley Tutzauer chipped in with 16 points.
Lauren Leicht topped Neumann with 11 points.
Men’s Basketball
Kyson Rawls and Matt
Porreca combined for 33 points to pace Neumann to its second straight win with a 70-59 victory over Clarks Summitt in its season finale.
Rawls scored and Porecca 16.
A layup by Porecca and a three-point play from Rawls gave the Knights a
60-53 lead Porecca went
4-for-4 at the line down the stretch to put the game out of reach.
17 points