Senior Jess Huber hits milestone for N. Penn
Becomes 12th female in school history to reach 1,000-point plateau
North Penn senior Jess Huber is known for her remarkable hot streaks shooting the basketball.
She got in one of those zones last week when she poured in 24 points against Garnet Valley on Wednesday, pushing her over the 1,000-point mark for her career. In typical Huber fashion, the USciences recruit buried a 3-pointer a few steps behind the line on the left side of the court.
Huber is the second Knights player to hit the milestone this season, joining classmate Sam Carangi. Unlike Carangi, a fouryear varsity starter, Huber did most of her scoring damage over the past two seasons. The lefty is also a four-year varsity player, but didn’t score a ton her first two years, putting in 298 total points.
Last season, taking on a bigger role and spurred by a huge postseason tear, Huber started to fill up regularly and found herself needing 375 points at the start of this season.
With the milestone out of the way, North Penn won its next game on Friday to secure fifth place in the District 1 tournament and now Huber and her teammates are gearing up for a tough first-round state game against Cedar Crest on Friday night.
Huber is the 12th female player in North Penn history to reach the milestone, with four of them coming in the last three seasons. Vicky Tumasz hit the
mark in 2014, Mikaela Giuliani reached it last year and Huber and Carangi got there this season.
REDISCOVER THE MAGIC
Mount Saint Joseph had been playing really well going into Saturday’s District I final against Springfield Delco.
While the top-seeded Cougars earned that spot and their eventual district 5A title, the Magic didn’t look like the side that had gutted out a couple of overtime games to make its way to Villanova. Mount had its share of ups and downs during the season, but the Magic need to find that spark again before their state opener against Archbishop Carroll.
“We, not that we started believing, but we knew we could get here,” Mount coach Claire Perry said. “Those tough wins and actually pulling through had us believing we could get this even though we weren’t suppsoed to. We’re a seven seed, (Springfield) is a number one seed, so there’s a reason they did what they did.”
Perry, in her first year coaching at her alma mater, took over a roster that was hit hard by graduation. Mount has five seniors on the roster this year, Kieran Glowacki, Sarah Rothenberg, Grace Gelone, Julie Hoover and Ashley Smith, and they’ve been the ones helping set the tone all season.
Mount isn’t an offensive juggernaut, but they kept working at it and along with its usually stout defense, found some things that worked.
Perry said the run the Magic made to Villanova should be what gets them reorganized for states. The players can do it, they just have to believe it.
“It took time and that’s why it was cool to see us go as far as we did in districts,” Perry said. “It took us a while to adjust and transition but they got in, they believed it and it started working. There’s a reason why we’re here and that’s what we kept telling them. We didn’t get here by luck.”
STUDENT SECTIONS SHOWING OUT
Abington isn’t the only team that’s had a raucous following through the postseason.
Upper Dublin’s girls’ team has had tremendous support during its run through the playback bracket and even going back to its first and second round games, the latter on the road at CB West. The Cardinals are going into states on a three-game winning streak and coach Morgan Funsten said the support of the students was an important part of that.
“The ride and the fans, there’s a picture of our fan section and we had almost 300 students in our fan section for a ninth-place district game,” Funsten said. “For our girls to be able to finish a game in such a special atmosphere for their last home game, although it was a game that in the big picture wasn’t the most important because we had already qualified, it meant the world to us because of the environment,”
Upper Merion had a very impressive showing for the 5A boys’ final on Saturday at Villanova. While the Vikings took a heartbreaking loss to Penncrest in the final, they drew a great crowd in the final and their semifinal Wednesday at Temple.
With their first-round state game at Cheltenham on Friday night, expect a lot of UM faithful to be out again.