Players in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's Basketball League endured withering heat last Wednesday evening and slightly less brutal conditions on Thursday at the league's un-airconditioned venue.

After two nights of play, three of the eight league teams remained undefeated with 2-0 records, Team Cyber Pink, Team Black (Jefferson University), and Team Purple. Players with area ties contributed to the success of all three squads.

Team Cyber Pink, the defending league champion consisting mostly of college alumni, started out on Wednesday with a 64-44 win over Team Kelly Green, a squad combining current NCAA Division II and III players. The youngest Pink player, recent Germantown Academy grad and Millersville University recruit Gabby Bowes, scored nine points in that contest.

She really came into her own the following evening, when Pink, with only five players on hand, took down Team Sky Blue (Division II Holy Family University), which had four subs. Bowes bagged four of her five three-pointers in the first quarter, and later another trey and a two-for-two effort at the foul line helped her finish with a team high 17 points.

Sky Blue actually had a 14-12 lead late in the opening period, but in the final minute Pink ran off 10 straight points to make it 22-14 at the quarter. Blue would close within two points of Pink later on, but could never retake the lead as the defending champs won 57-52.

Blue (1-1) won its opener on Wednesday, 97-49, over Team Royal Blue (a Division II and III mix), and the high scorer for the evening overall was incoming Holy Family freshman Dani Brusha (Lower Moreland H.S.), who funneled in 25 points.

Jefferson University's Team Black also climbed to a 2-0 mark on Thursday. One day earlier, Black opened with an 88-55 victory over Team Maroon (mostly Division III Arcadia University) as rising junior guard Emily Spratt led with 21 points. Another junior, post player Jordyn Thomas (from Lafayette Hill and Plymouth Whitemarsh H.S.), was unable to attend on Wednesday, but the following night she made her presence felt. Her 19 points led Black to a 67-33 win over Team Lemon Gold (0-2), a squad combining NCAA Division II and III athletes.

While many rival schools had players busy on the transfer portal right after the 2024-25 season wrapped up, Jefferson kept its roster intact, a testament to veteran head coach Tom Shirley.

The third 2-0 team heading into the July 4 hiatus was Team Purple (Division II West Chester University with a few additions). They started out with a relatively close win (57-49) over Lemon Gold on Wednesday. Two of the non-West Chester Purple players, incoming Chestnut Hill College freshmen Sabria Mann and Alli Kamulda, contributed four and three points, respectively. Mann, from Philadelphia Public League power Imhotep Charter, hit her stride the following night, scoring 10 of her team-high 22 points in the fourth quarter as her team rolled past Royal Blue (0-2), 100-59.

Team Kelly Green, a largely Division III squad supplemented by three former Chestnut Hill College players, worked back to a 1-1 mark on Thursday by beating Arcadia's Maroon, 81-66. With four field goals and four-for-four foul shooting, post player Emily Chmiel paced Kelly to a 43-29 halftime lead. Chmiel, a recent East Stroudsburg University graduate who played for CHC for her first two collegiate campaigns, finished with a team-high 18 points.

Kelly also collected 15 points from shooting guard Bridie McCann, who played for Chestnut Hill for the last two seasons but is now transferring to Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

The high-scorer in this contest was actually one of the few non-Arcadia University athletes on the Maroon (0-2). Lizzie Halligan, from the Academy of Notre Dame and the University of Scranton ('28), steadily piled up points throughout the evening to end up with the game high of 25.