Patriots snap 9-game losing streak against Trojans

It’s been awhile since Freedom beat Parkland in girls basketball. And even longer since the Patriots did it on their own home court.

That changed Friday night even though Freedom’s leading scorer played but was limited due to illness.

Freshman Kailey Turpening led the way with a game-high 13 points and senior guard Rachel Sanchez provided a spark off the bench when the Patriots fell behind early as Freedom defeated the Trojans 39-25 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference cross-division game at Joseph J. McIntyre Gymnasium.

Freedom broke a nine-game losing streak to Parkland and it was the first home win over the Trojans in 17 seasons and just its second in the last 28 seasons.

‘It was a big win for us for several reasons,” said Sanchez, who hit a 3-pointer after Freedom fell behind 8-2 to start the game. “One was that we haven’t beaten them in a while.”

Another was because Freedom, the defending District 11 Class 6A champions, was looking for a quality win. Freedom (9-3 overall, 5-3 EPC) came into the game ranked sixth in the area while Parkland (8-4, 5-3) is ranked seventh. Both are fighting for EPC playoff berths.

“It wasn’t pretty, we were not focused all the time and they drove me a little crazy at times but you can’t question our toughness,” Freedom coach Dean Reiman said. “When Brenna Ortwein is flying around making plays, stealing the ball and getting big rebounds we’re pretty tough.”

Freedom won in a rather unconventional way. It went 0-for-8 from the floor to start the game without a basket for 5:30. Then it started the second half without a basket for 4:53 and still won.

That’s because Parkland’s offense was having almost as much trouble scoring and finished the game with a season-low.

“We started off slow but we knew we had to pick it up,” said Sanchez, a four-year varsity player who finished with seven points. “I think our defense played well tonight. We really picked it up on defense. We knew they had the size on us but we didn’t let that bother us.”

It was scoring by committee for Freedom, which figured that would be the case this year after losing its top two scorers to graduation. But with junior forward and leading scorer Jen Kokolus held to a season low four points, it was even more so.

“Jen wasn’t feeling well,” Reiman said. “But that was good to see everybody contributing. We thought that was who we would be anyway. The ball isn’t going to be dominated by one or two players.”

Ortwein, a 5-7 sophomore guard, followed Sanchez’ first quarter 3-pointer with one of her own and Turpening made it three straight 3s with one from the left corner and Freedom took the lead for good, 11-8, with 13 seconds left in the first quarter.

Turpening hit another 3pointer, point guard Corrine Gill drove the lane for a basket and Ortwein’s layup from Yasmine Herrera gave Freedom a ninepoint second quarter lead.

Parkland closed to within 2017 in the third before Ortwein scored off a pretty spin drive down the left side and Turpening hit her third 3-pointer of the game, this one well behind the line on the right side, and Freedom’s nine-point lead was restored.

Freedom, which runs a patient motion offense, scored on a Kokolus layup off a nice pass from Ortwein after a long possession to open the fourth quarter. Gill followed with a drive, before Ortwein’s steal and layup and a Turpening layup following a Sanchez steal put the Patriots in front 36-21 with three minutes left.

“Since we’re small we like to drive and kick it out,” Sanchez said. “We have some good 3point shooters and we share the ball a lot.”

Ortwein finished with nine points for Freedom, Kokolus pulled down a team-high seven rebounds and Herrera dealt out five assists.

Senior forward Cassidy Stout led Parkland with 11 points and leading scorer Claire Courter, who collected all eight of her game-high eight rebounds in the first half, was held to seven points.

“The problems on offense is on me,” Parkland first year coach Ed Ohlson said. “I have to fix that. We’ll get better. I’m discouraged right this minute but we’ll be fine. We’re still trying to figure it out. Defensively we play pretty well but offensively its been a little bit of a struggle.”

Tom Mugavero is a freelance writer.