CHC grads and Team Pink defend College Summer League title

by Tom Utescher
Posted 7/31/24

On the first of two nights of playoff games in the college summer league last week, the seedings largely predicted the results in the Tuesday evening quarterfinals. Top-seeded Cyber Pink, the alumni team with several Chestnut Hill College grads, advanced to the semifinals, as did number two Team Black (Jefferson University) and third-seeded Team Sky Blue (Holy Family University). In the fourth game, fifth-seeded Team Purple Haze defeated fourth-ranked Team Lime Citrus.

In Thursday's semifinals, defending league champion Pink did not have to play at all, advancing to this Thursday's …

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CHC grads and Team Pink defend College Summer League title

Posted

On the first of two nights of playoff games in the college summer league last week, the seedings largely predicted the results in the Tuesday evening quarterfinals. Top-seeded Cyber Pink, the alumni team with several Chestnut Hill College grads, advanced to the semifinals, as did number two Team Black (Jefferson University) and third-seeded Team Sky Blue (Holy Family University). In the fourth game, fifth-seeded Team Purple Haze defeated fourth-ranked Team Lime Citrus.

In Thursday's semifinals, defending league champion Pink did not have to play at all, advancing to this Thursday's championship game when Purple forfeited due to a lack of available players. On the other side of the bracket, Sky Blue avenged a close regular-season loss to Black by beating the Jefferson bunch, 73-70.

On Tuesday, two quarterfinal contests ended in double-digit victories for the higher seeds. Team Black rolled past Team Maroon (Arcadia University), 76-39. After a close opening quarter, Black took command with a 23-4 second period. Two incoming freshmen accounted for almost half of Black's total; forward Caleigh Sperling scored 26 points and guard Ana Pellecchia scored 10.

Third-seeded Sky Blue eliminated number six Team Orange Citrus, 63-42, ending the summer season for Orange's Abby Marino, a 2023 Germantown Academy grad.

Another GA alum was eliminated when Team Lime Citrus was beaten by Team Purple Haze. This was forward Alexa Naessens, who helped put the Lime team together and scored 19 points in its swansong.

At the end of the first quarter, Lime had already fallen behind, 19-8. Naessens scored 13 of her points after halftime, and Lime got the lead down to five points in the fourth quarter (63-58) before Purple widened the gap to win by nine. Former Plymouth Whitemarsh star Anna McTamney deposited 15 points for the winners.

Surprisingly, the last quarterfinal concluded with a narrow 69-66 victory by top-seeded Cyber Pink over number nine Royal Blue (mostly players from Division II Goldey Beacom College). Pink made do without any subs until Chestnut Hill College alum Cassie Spratt arrived from work late in the game.

Nevertheless, Pink was up by 10 points at halftime and then took a 49-38 advantage into the fourth quarter. A furious rally by Royal Blue closed up the score to 60-58 with two minutes left to play. Fouled twice, Spratt made two of her four free throws, then a three-point bucket by Royal made it a one-point affair, 62-61.

Pink added a free throw to pry the lead back to two points for the start of the final minute. From there, Royal hit two foul shots while Spratt shot four-for-four from the stripe to ice the Cyber Pink victory. Spratt finished with 15 points and fellow CHC alum Lauren Crim scored 13.

On Thursday, the Purple forfeit to Pink left Black-Sky as the only actual game on the docket.

Although both teams had adequate numbers of subs, Jefferson Black was missing some post players. Longtime starting center Cassie Murphy was off for the week, as was 6'1" incoming freshman Carolyn Sipprell.

Team Black had squeaked past Sky Blue, 63-62, in the regular season, and their semifinal rematch was close the whole way, with neither squad leading by more than six points at any stage of the contest.

Sky was up 16-13 at the end of the opening period, but Black eased ahead by halftime, 29-28. High scorer Sam Yencha (23 points) kept up an even scoring pace for Team Black, while Sky Blue's Jessica Riepe tossed in 17 of her team-high 19 points after halftime.

With its transition offense clicking, the Holy Family summer squad had forged ahead, 53-48, by the end of the third quarter. With under three minutes left in the game, Taylor Hinkle romped down the court for a lay-up to give her team a 69-63 advantage.

Black's Yencha connected on a baseline jumper and a lay-up for a 69-67 tally going into the final minute.  Black had to foul to put Sky Blue into the bonus and slow down the clock, and with under 30 seconds left, Riepe made the second of two free throws.

Black turned the ball over on the sideline and then fouled Sky's Cam Prevost, whose two free throws set the score at 72-67. It became a two-point game when Black's Emily Spratt canned a three-point shot from the right wing with just 4.6 seconds to go.

Black fouled Sky's Amy Ngo, and 2.6 seconds remained when the recent Upper Dublin grad deposisted the second of two shots to put the 73-70 final score on the board.

Riepe's effort for the winners was backed up by 13 points from Hinkle and 11 from Claire Dougherty. Complementing Yencha's game-high output for Black were 11 points from Spratt and eight from Pellecchia.