Last Thursday night was a yardstick game.
The Souderton Indians (6-1, 5-0 SOL) used an impressive first half to defeat the host Central Bucks West Bucks 51-28 in Doylestown. It was a chance for Zach Sibel’s charges to see how they measured against arguably the top team in the SOL.
Souderton went 20-2 last season, winning the SOL Colonial and advancing to states. The Indians had just one blemish – a one-point loss to Abington, the top-rated team in District One – coming into Thursday.
The Indians led 32-12 at halftime; Northwestern-signee Casey Harter scored eight straight points to make the game 15-4 and start the snowball. Harter led all scorers with 29.
“The result isn’t always an indication of the effort you put in,” Sibel pointed out. “Sometimes, good teams are going to beat you. When you play a girl like Casey Harter – and there is a reason she is going to Northwestern – the beauty of her game is that she gets other players involved. You learn from that.”
“Souderton is a great team,” credited Ava Longo, who scored seven points. “They have a lot of length and we needed to adjust to that. They took a punch at us early and that may have affected us. But I think we battled the whole game.”
West (3-4, 2-3) played a cleaner second half, got better opportunities in the paint and were outscored just 19-16 after break. “They’re big and they’re good. We did come back in the second half,” noted Gabi Senior, whose 11 points paced West. “We had a lot more energy and I think that helped us. The second half was only a 3-point difference.”
The Bucks start five upperclassmen. Yet the group is relearning their fit after the graduation of 1,000-point scorer and first-team Colonial honoree Gabi Senior. “There are familiar faces but they are all in different roles. With that, comes some growing pains,” Sibel admitted. “You see the ebbs and flows of that. We’re letting girls step into a new role and play a little differently.
“The cool thing is watching the kids grow. It’s easy to get caught up in scores and tonight wasn’t our night but we still got Gabby Reichner her first start tonight,” Sibel continued. “We handled some adversity with Katie Finnan being out with an illness. You saw Ava Longo get her feet back under her, and Gabi Senior get to the basket. I thought Tai Henkels had a great summer and came in ready to go. She saw some face guards and still had some great games.”
After dropping their first two SOL games, the Bucks offense came alive in their Dec. 16 win against CB South. Between the second half of CB South and their Dec. 20 50-44 win at Pennridge, the Bucks scored 80 points.
“We’ve been trying to look more into the post, move the ball more and get everyone to touch the ball to get better ball movement,” said point guard Senior.
Henkels, who picked up three early fouls last Thursday, scored 19 points against South. Alexis Castro’s double-double highlighted the Pennridge win. “Alexis Castro and Gabby Reichner have been playing really well. We’ve focused more on getting to bodies and putting more shots up through contact,” Longo explained. “Even if we don’t have good looks in the post, we always have good spacing so Gabi Senior can just drive by everyone.”
West is off until Jan. 3, when the Bucks host Council Rock North. “In terms of going into 2023, we wanted to find the positives,” Sibel noted. “This group will let this settle in and find out where we need to improve. They are incredibly responsive to coaching, to film and they are humble. I know we’ll come out of this game and into 2023 as a better team.”
Alumni notes: Graduate student Abbey Spratt leads Chestnut Hill College, and ranks eighth in the CACC, in assists. Junior Maddie Burke, a transfer from Penn State, leads Villanova in 3 pointers, averaging over two per game.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
