Sports

SCH basketball slips below .500 with consecutive losses

by Tom Utescher
Posted 1/15/25

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had a pair of rough outings in Inter-Ac League basketball last week, falling behind from the outset each time in a home loss to Agnes Irwin School on Tuesday and a setback on the road at Germantown Academy two days later.

The SCH Blue Devils, who had begun league play with a victory over Baldwin School, slipped to 1-2 in the league and 3-5 overall. The GA Patriots had faced the unbeaten Academy of Notre Dame in their Inter-Ac debut on January 3. The Pats led 34-30 after three quarters but then succumbed to a furious rally by the Irish, who won …

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Sports

SCH basketball slips below .500 with consecutive losses

Posted

Springside Chestnut Hill Academy had a pair of rough outings in Inter-Ac League basketball last week, falling behind from the outset each time in a home loss to Agnes Irwin School on Tuesday and a setback on the road at Germantown Academy two days later.

The SCH Blue Devils, who had begun league play with a victory over Baldwin School, slipped to 1-2 in the league and 3-5 overall. The GA Patriots had faced the unbeaten Academy of Notre Dame in their Inter-Ac debut on January 3. The Pats led 34-30 after three quarters but then succumbed to a furious rally by the Irish, who won 51-43.

After the SCH win, Germantown had a record of 1-1 in the league and 9-4 overall. Agnes Irwin was 3-0 in the league at week's end after topping Penn Charter on Thursday, 47-40.

On Tuesday at SCH, Irwin's sophomore post player, Audrey Comly, sandwiched a transition lay-up and a three-pointer from the right corner around a lay-up by senior Gabrielle Siebert, getting the Owls off to a 7-0 start. Blue Devils junior Flo Ajunwa got the home team on the board by scoring in transition, but Agnes Irwin would never lose its early lead.

Later, the Owls led 12-5, and then Springside Chestnut Hill made a little run that extended into the second quarter. Two lay-ups by Ajunwa and field goals from sophomore Ella Thomson and freshman Finley Paul fueled an 8-3 burst that had the Blue Devils back within two points of the visitors, at 15-13.

In the remainder of the period, though, the Owls outpointed SCH 10-5, and despite a trey from junior Pia Swamy and a lay-up by sophomore Kendall Schnee, Irwin was up 25-18 at the break. The visitors took control during the third frame, adding 10 points to their lead to take a 41-24 advantage into the fourth quarter.

Ajunwa accounted for all of the hosts' points during an 8-9 fourth quarter and wound up with a game-high 17. Then came Schnee with eight points, Swamy with three, and Thomson and Paul with two points apiece.

Comly had 14 points for the winners, and guard Simone Harvey, another 10th-grader, scored 13.

SCH's opponent on Thursday, GA, had gone through a rough patch around New Year's Day, dropping three games in a row. At the annual Wildwood Boardwalk Classic in New Jersey, the Patriots fell to Conestoga High School and Lansdale Catholic, then they launched their Inter-Ac campaign with the setback against Notre Dame. The Pats began to recover with a win over Shipley School at the Blue Star Showcase on January 5, then the day before they met SCH they took down the Hill School.

The Blue Devils were overwhelmed early on by Germantown, registering a lone field goal by Ajunwa in the first five minutes while GA went up 16-2 with senior Gabby Bowes bagging two three-pointers and two regular field goals. Bowes hit a third trey from the left side right before the buzzer, and four points apiece from junior Sylvie Harrington and sophomore Jo Owens also figured into the hosts' 21-6 lead.

Bowes had already reached her game-high total of 13 points, but although the scoring was not as one-sided in the next three quarters, the Patriots still increased their lead in each period. Harrington would register all of her six points for the afternoon before halftime, and nine different GA players found the basket before the intermission when the scoreboard paused at 36-12.

All of Ajunwa's team-high seven points were in the book before halftime, while Schnee put in a lay-up in the first half and a three-point field goal in the second for five total points.

For Germantown, Owens kept up her production after the break to wind up as the second-leading scorer of the day, with 10 points. Fellow sophomore forward Claire McKee hustled for rebounds and putbacks to collect eight points, while freshman guard Molly Beggs came on in the second half to finish out with seven.

Next for the Patriots came eighth-grade point guard Azzure O'Connor, with five points, and freshman forward Taylor Williams (who had transferred from SCH to GA over the summer), with three points. The visitors marked down two points apiece for senior Jessica Kolcecki, junior Anna Weber, and freshman Camryn Godfrey.

In the SCH scoring stats, Ajunwa and Schnee were followed by Swamy and freshman Kit Thompson with two points each, and freshmen Kit Thomson and Penny Boyle with one point apiece.