In Inter-Ac League girls’ basketball, two significant upsets occurred in the first half of January, and last Friday evening the Germantown Academy Patriots were hoping for a third.

The Patriots were actually the victim of one of these unanticipated outcomes, losing to Agnes Irwin School for the first time that any current coaches or administrators could remember. Hosting the Jan. 10 contest, the Irwin Owls knocked off GA, 52-41, sealing the deal by outscoring their guests, 15-8, in the fourth quarter.

Last Thursday, Springside Chestnut Hill Academy recorded a rare victory over visiting Penn Charter, 65-48. As recently as 2024, GA and PC shared the league championship in a three-way tie with the Academy of Notre Dame.

Notre Dame was the undefeated Inter-Ac champion last winter, and it was the Irish that the GA girls were hoping to beat last Friday night in Fort Washington. That goal seemed farfetched after Notre Dame charged out of the gate and led 28-5 with three minutes left in the first half.

Getting back within 16 points by the end of the third period (42-26), the Patriots made the visitors sweat during the stretch run. Outscoring their guests 14-4 in the fourth quarter, the Pats cut their deficit to four points before finally falling, 46-40.

It wasn’t the first time a slow start had hurt the GA squad in a confrontation with a challenging opponent. In their own Make-A-Wish Showcase in December, the Patriots scored just five points per quarter over the first three periods against undefeated Central Bucks East. Down 37-15, Germantown exploded for a 14-0 run over the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Ultimately, late free throws helped East come away with a 47-32 victory.

Coming back closer to the present, GA responded to its Jan. 10 loss at Irwin by roaring back to decimate Conwell-Egan Catholic High School the following day, 60-38.

Last Friday evening, the GA offense took much longer to start producing results. At the beginning of the game, visiting Notre Dame wasn’t exactly piling up the points, either. After the first four minutes, the Irish held a modest 4-0 advantage.

From there, though, the visitors’ side of the scoreboard began to click over rapidly. Senior guard Emma Anthony knocked down a “three” from the right side, then flung up a successful layup after her classmate Alex Gillin saved the ball from going out over the baseline.

Junior Maddie DeFronzo, who’d initiated the scoring by making two free throws in the second minute, added a layup on a drive and Germantown called time out, down 11-0 with 1:56 remaining in the opening quarter. Patriots sophomore Taylor Williams awakened the home side of the scoreboard with a trey from the right, but those would be the only points the Pats posted in a stretch of 11-and-a-half minutes. Notre Dame finished the quarter with eight consecutive points to go up 19-3.

During this stretch, junior star guard Riley Davis flipped the ball toward the basket while being knocked down, and of course it went in. The ball seemed engaged in a fervent romance with the hoop at the Irish end of the floor, while spurning the cylinder the Patriots were aiming for.

Two more field goals from the paint by Notre Dame stretched the lead to 20 points, but in one of the few notable defensive stops for the Patriots, senior Sylvie Harrington hustled downcourt to foil two Notre Dame players looking to score again in transition. The GA defenders also had success in containing Notre Dame’s 6’3” junior center, Grace Nasr, holding her to two points for the night.

Just after that, GA junior Claire McKee converted off of an inbounds play, as gradually more players for the home team became involved in the scoring. Immediately after McKee’s basket, however, a trey by Davis and a shorter jumper by Anthony gave the Irish their biggest lead of the night, 28-5.

In the last three minutes of the half, the Pats closed the gap by 10 points. Junior post player Jo Owens contributed a field goal and two free throws, and another inside bucket came from her classmate Emma Seckinger. Guard Molly Beggs came off the bench to nail a three-pointer, and when her sophomore classmate Julianna Rush was fouled on an attempt from the three-point arc, she made all three free throws.

The tally was 31-17 at halftime, but Germantown lost a little ground during the third round, which ended at 42-26.

There was no scoring for three minutes as the fourth quarter unfolded. Notre Dame’s Davis then hit a field goal, but increased vigilance on the part of GA defenders allowed the Irish only two points the rest of the way. Freshman reserve Liv Smith scored in transition for GA, and after Owens made good off of a steal, Harrington found the hoop on a layup and also on a “three” from the right wing.

Another GA steal led to a bucket by Owens as the final minute approached. With 19 seconds left, Smith fired from the left for a triple that made it a four-point affair, 44-40. The Irish would hang on to win by six, as Davis made two foul shots with 16.8 seconds remaining.

The Irish had appeared to tire a bit in the final minutes. Led by Owens, with 10 points, GA had a total of nine players score in the game, while Notre Dame relied on five. Anthony scored 14 for the winners, and Davis and DeFronzo added 13 each.

After getting beaten up for most of the game, other teams might have quietly accepted their fate. Instead, the Patriots mounted a spirited late rally, playing with alertness, intensity and passion. Now they just need to summon that kind of effort a lot earlier in games against their tougher opponents.