The last week of regular-season Inter-Ac League competition (there are no playoffs) began in a challenging manor for Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Last Tuesday the Blue Devils hosted the Academy of Notre Dame, which was standing second in the league and had been tied for first before a loss to Penn Charter a week earlier.

SCH got itself in a deep hole in the first quarter, trailing 19-1, and despite a better performance later in the game, the home team succumbed, 58-24. After the contest, the Blue Devils owned a record of 2-8 in the league and 4-12 overall.

As the season winds down, veteran head coach Flo Hagains has seen improvement, and also room for further improvement.

"We're starting to understand our defense better, and our defense generates our offense," she said. "We have to get better on transition offense. Once we get a steal, we need to get down the floor and find the open player. We need to have not only the person with the ball running the floor, but other people going with her, not just watching her.

"It's also mental," Hagains continued. "We need to have the mentality of wanting our work on defense pay off by capitalizing on the offensive end."

Last Tuesday, Springside Chestnut Hill played without junior shooting guard Ava Chavez, but Notre Dame was not at full strength, either. Having won 54-21 in the teams' first meeting back on January 14, Notre Dame decided last week to rest some of its regular starting players who were not 100-percent physically. 

The Blue Devils were healthy for the most part, and senior guard Caroline Chiliberti had returned to duty after a stretch of medical leave.

Springside Chestnut Hill's problem was that the Notre Dame reserves, excited to get more playing time than usual, helped fire up the Irish. Junior forward Katie Halligan, a season-long starter, led off with a 15-footer, then two guards combined for three straight three-point baskets and a shorter jumper. The visitors were up 13-0 before the Blue Devils got on the board with a free throw by eighth-grade guard Mikaiya Durham. 

Coming into the game for SCH, junior guard Tatyana Hall sparked the home team's offense early in the second period, bagging two consecutive treys. The visitors still added four more points to their lead before halftime, but the scoring in the second quarter was much more even, at 16-12.

That 12-point effort accounted for half of the Devils' points for the afternoon, though. They trailed 44-17 at the three-quarter mark before Notre Dame finished up with a 34-point margin of victory.

Compared to teams lie Notre Dame, Penn Charter, and Germantown Academy, SCH has few players for whom basketball is the primary sport. The program has depended heavily on all-round athletes who often excel in other things.

Coach Hagains noted, "You'll get a rotation down, and then come into a game and have somebody away playing another sport. That sort of breaks up your rhythm as a team."

She noted that Durham, the eighth-grade starter, puts a lot of time into honing her basketball skills. The Blue Devils' mentor has also gotten wind of several other primary basketball players who will be entering the school next year.

Hagains said, "If we get a few more people with a basketball mentality, and also have everyone put in some more work in the off-season, that's how we'll build this program."