Arriving at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy on Jan. 6, the girls of Germantown Academy were looking to snap a five–game losing streak. Over the holiday break, the Patriots had suffered setbacks against strong out–of–state opponents and other non–league teams.

GA built up a 17–5 lead in the first quarter, and despite a stronger showing from the SCH Blue Devils the rest of the way, the visitors came away with a 64–51 victory.

Receiving a game–high 18 points from junior transfer Emma Seckinger and 13 from senior Sylvie Harrington, Germantown improved to 8–7 overall and 2–0 within the Inter–Ac League. The Patriots had rolled over Baldwin School in their league opener in December.

The Jan. 6 contest was the league opener for SCH, which came into the bout with a 7–2 record. The Blue Devils had put together three wins in a row, the last two coming as they won the Best Holiday Tournament at Northeast High School. Against GA last week, the Devils had three players score in double figures; senior Flo Ajunwa (17 points), junior Kendall Schnee (15) and senior Pia Swamy (12).

Ajunwa and GA’s Harrington will both be playing college ball in central Pennsylvania, Ajunwa at Susquehanna University, and Harrington at Gettysburg College.

Despite the resilience they showed later in the game, the Blue Devils were unable to make up for their slow start. GA’s Seckinger got the visitors’ side of the scoreboard rolling with a layup in transition, and later she scored another off a feed from fellow junior Jo Owens. With a short bank shot and a free throw by Harrington added in, the Patriots led 7–0 after two minutes.

Ajunwa broke the ice for SCH a few seconds later with a layup, but the Blue Devils would only add three more points in the remainder of the opening quarter. Seckinger and Harrington kept scoring for the visitors and junior Claire McKee and sophomore Taylor Williams joined in to put GA up 17–5 after the initial eight minutes.

Bagging a three–pointer from the right wing, Harrington extended the Patriots’ lead to 15 points at the start of the second round, but then the host team began to rally. A trey and a shorter field goal by Schnee started it off, and Ajunwa scored on a drive to move the hosts back within eight points of the leaders.

Although Schnee hit another “three” later on and Swamy netted a trey and two free throws, Springside didn’t get closer than eight points for the rest of the half, as GA sophomore Julianna Rush came off the bench to make two shots of her own from three–point land.

With four players measuring 5’11” or taller, the Pats had a height advantage, but they missed a number of put–back attempts from the paint throughout the game. SCH emerged from the second quarter with a 17–14 edge in scoring, and trailed 31–22 at halftime.

At the dawn of the second half, the Blue Devils put GA’s Williams on the foul line for two made free throws; the Devils responded with layups by Swamy and Ajunwa. The visitors called time–out 77 seconds into the third quarter, with their lead now down to seven points (33–26).

Germantown got six points back in a hurry when Williams scored inside with a traditional three–point play and Harrington plunked down a trey from the right wing.

The teams traded points for the rest of the period, and there was still a 13–point gap at the three–quarter mark (51–38). Swamy and Ajunwa had seven and six points, respectively, during the third quarter, while Williams and Seckinger had seven and six for Germantown Academy.

The fourth quarter ended as a 13–13 standoff. At one point GA had a lot of subs on the floor; the Patriots put some starters back in later on.

Complementing the scoring of Seckinger and Harrington, GA had Williams record nine points, while McKee and Rush had eight points apiece. Five points from freshman Liv Smith and three from junior Owens rounded out the winners’ total. Following the three double–digit scorers for SCH was sophomore Mimi Gallagher, with seven points.