Saucon Valley’s Cort leading by example
Saucon Valley senior guard Allison Cort is very comfortable on a basketball court. She has led the Panthers to a pair of wins in the team’s last three games.
“Allison is very hard working and physical,” first-year Saucon Valley coach Mike Petruny said. “She’s not a vocal player but instead leads by example.”
Cort scored 21 points in a 46-31 win over Kutztown and 14 in a 41-27 loss to Bangor. She followed up that with a career-high 26 points in a 42-34 win over Palisades.
“Allison’s body has gotten stronger every year since ninth grade,” Petruny said. “She’s a four-year starter who has really improved her foul shooting. And she’s very active on the court. She is our leading scorer, rebounder and she leads us in steals as well. She uses her length to her advantage and is very good at getting possession 50/50 balls.”
Cort is second in the area in scoring, averaging 19.2 points per game while averaging 10 rebounds a game and five steals.
Career-high scoring games
Nazareth sophomore Renee Wells scored 17 points in a 49-23 victory over Freedom. … Southern Lehigh freshman guard Gabriela Netwall scored 15 points in a 49-38 win over Salisbury. … Junior Hannah Barry tallied 24 points to lead Palmerton past Northern Lehigh, 58-45. … Sophomore guard Avery Nelson scored 22 points when Bangor beat Saucon Valley, 41-27. … Easton junior Evalyse Cole tallied 21 points in a 54-15 win over Whitehall. … Paige Inman scored 20 points to pace Emmaus past Dieruff, 61-49, and followed that up with a 23-point effort in a win over Freedom. … Liberty junior Ruby Miller scored 23 points with five 3-pointers in a 41-40 victory over Nazareth . … Whitehall junior Morgan Dunbar scored 16 points in a 52-35 loss to Central Catholic. … Catasauqua freshman Hailey Jenkins scored a season-high 18 points in a 47-22 win over Salisbury . … Notre Dame junior Carly Campbell scored 20 points in a 47-18 over Wilson. … Bethlehem Catholic junior Akasha Santos tallied 23 points in a 70-47 victory over Northampton. … Pocono Mountain East’s Jayla South scored 22 points in a 38-31 victory over East Stroudsburg South. … Jim Thorpe senior Gabrielle Cinicola scored 27 points in a 68-27 win over Tamaqua. … Dieruff ’s Marisa Price scored 20 points in a 44-25 win over Allen while the Canaries’ Persea Rogers tallied 18.
Hot starts
Big starts are not foreign to most of the teams on this list.
Easton (7-0 this season) set a school record for consecutive wins and best start ever by going 23-0 to begin last season and finished 27-3 and won a pair of PIAA games for the first time in school history. … Palmerton (7-0) was 18-0 last season and won a district title as well as a PIAA game in the same season for the first time in 25 seasons while finishing 24-3.
Parkland (5-0) won its first seven games two seasons ago and reached a district final that season while finishing 15-3 in the COVID interrupted season. … Bangor (7-1) started 7-1 last season as well and won a PIAA game for the first time in 13 seasons to finish 19-9. … Central Catholic (7-1) started 8-0 in 2014-15 and reached a conference and district final that season.
Northwestern Lehigh (7-1) started 17-1 two seasons ago and won the first of back-to-back Colonial League titles while finishing 17-2. … Notre Dame (6-1) won its first 20 games of the season in 2019-20 and went 24-3 while winning the Colonial League title. ... EEACS (7-1) is off to its best start in its short history.
Player of the week
Carolyn Sipprell, Quakertown: The 6-foot-1 senior forward scored a career-high 27 points and added 13 rebounds to lead the Panthers past Wissahickon, 54-44, and followed that up with a 26-point, 19-rebound effort in a 46-24 victory over Hatboro-Horsham.
Sipprell, who moved up to No. 3 in area scoring at 18.9 ppg., has an outside shot at becoming the first Panthers girl in over 10 seasons to reach 1,000 career points since Daniella Chicarone reached the milestone. She is mainly a post player but is also versatile enough to play as a guard, which makes her a very difficult matchup.
“Carolyn brings to the team the lead by example approach. She focuses in practice, puts in effort outside of practice, is our leading rebounder and also is one of our leaders in steals and deflections,” Quakertown coach Brittany Remmey said. “Without her in the game our level of play is nowhere near as successful as it is.”
Top 20 scorers
Grace Lesko, Northampton 19.3 Allison Cort, Saucon Valley 19.2 Carolyn Sipprell, Quakertown 18.9 Cici Hernandez, Bethlehem Catholic 18.3
Mackenzie Yuhas, Jim Thorpe 17.6 Talia Zurinskas, Parkland 17.5
Madi Siggins, Parkland 17.3
Bethie Morgan, Palmerton 16.2 Aubrey Pollard, Northern Lehigh 15.5 Jill Morro, Pen Argyl 14.9
Ellie Wallbilich, Pen Argyl 14.9
Evalyse Cole, Easton 14.7
Carly Campbell, Notre Dame GP 14.5 Avery Nelson, Bangor 13.5
Layla Hernandez, East Stroudsburg South 13.4
Molly Driscoll, Central Catholic 12.3 Hailey Jenkins, Catasauqua 12.1 Paige Sevrain, Northwestern Lehigh 12.0
Anye’ Staton, Easton 11.6
Gabby Devita, Emmaus 11.0
Tom Mugavero is a freelancer for The Morning Call