Area players perform in NCAA Summer League

Posted 6/20/11

by Tom Utescher [caption id="attachment_6601" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="In the NCAA Summer League opener, 2011 Mount St. Joe graduate Mary Jo Horgan (left) encounters an old high school …

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Area players perform in NCAA Summer League

Posted

by Tom Utescher

[caption id="attachment_6601" align="alignleft" width="240" caption="In the NCAA Summer League opener, 2011 Mount St. Joe graduate Mary Jo Horgan (left) encounters an old high school rival, former Villa Maria star Erin Mann. (Photo by Tom Utescher)"][/caption]

A number of players from the local women’s hoops scene were on display as the Philadelphia NCAA Summer Basketball League launched its 2011 season last Thursday evening. The league showcases a wide chronological range of post-scholastic athletes, from incoming college freshmen to those who earned their degrees some time ago, such as 1998 Philadelphia University graduate Kisha Thompson.

First up on opening night were the Guynn sisters, Kris, a Germantown Academy alumna, and Nikki, a member of the Class of 2010 at Penn Charter. Kris, the elder, graduated from George Washington University in 2008, and now works for the Philadelphia Eagles in the area of community relations. Nikki is attending Temple University, but is not on the basketball team there.

The younger Guynn netted a pair of free throws in a losing cause as her “Purple” squad fell to the “Columbia Blue” franchise, 67-44. The Purple included Cheltenham High alum Ashley Gale (who just finished up at La Salle University) and three other NCAA Division I players, but while their opponents were Division II athletes, they all play together at West Chester University. League rules prohibit more than a handful of players from any one Division I program from joining the same team.

Kris Guynn also finished with two points, with a field goal. Her Teal team had the final shot of the game fall back off the rim and lost to the “Black” ballclub, 61-59. The Teal line-up featured another former Cheltenham High and La Salle player, Stacey Smalls, along with some former Temple University standouts. The Black roster included Upper Dublin High and 2011 Swarthmore College grad Kathryn Stockbower, whose mother, Anne Marie, ran The Stencil Shop in Chestnut Hill for many years.

The second round of games last Thursday featured the 2010 champions, who are masterminded by Mount St. Joseph Academy parent Ted Hagedorn and have changed colors to Kelly Green this season. The roster includes his daughter Elle (who will return shortly from a Harvard University foreign study program in Italy), and Sarah McGorry, a member of the Mount’s 2008 PIAA state championship team and now a rising senior at Lafayette College.

Their teammates include two players well known in Girls Inter-Ac League circles, former Academy of Notre Dame stars Devon Kane (Villanova) and Katie Kuester (St. Joseph’s). Kuester was out of action celebrating her 21st birthday, but Kane scored 17 points and McGorry deposited 14 as Kelly Green won its opener, 70-54, over Lime Green, an outfit made up entirely of Philadelphia University players.

Two other area athletes didn’t fare as well; most of the women on their Cardinal Red team weren’t used to playing together and that became evident in an 83-56 setback against Royal Blue. Chant’al Hardy, a 2010 graduate of Chestnut Hill College, put up 11 points in the losing cause, and four points were provided by Mary Jo Horgan, who just graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy and will play for Lehigh University.

Horgan encountered an old adversary in Thursday’s contest; former Villa Maria Academy center Erin Mann is one of half-a-dozen current Holy Family University players on the Royal Blue roster. Hardy, a former 1000-point scorer at Cardinal Dougherty High School, is the cousin of Springside School’s Elana Roadcloud (a rising senior), who attended Dougherty until it closed in 2010 and then came to play for the Lions.

Several current Chestnut Hill College players are listed on the Gold team’s roster, but they didn’t play in the league opener last week.

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