In the girls' bracket in last week's annual Norwood Fontbonne Academy Snowball Tournament, St. Philip Neri was able to return to the championship game, but ultimately could not retain the title it won at the 50th Snowball extravaganza in 2024.
A team that's new to the tournament field, Wayne's St. Katherine of Siena School, enjoyed a convincing 58-40 victory in the finals on Sunday morning. St. Katherine's is coached by Penn Charter alumna Katie (Miller) McCoy.
In a closer contest, the SPN Saints defeated the host Bears of Norwood in an opening-round game on Friday. Because there was …
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In the girls' bracket in last week's annual Norwood Fontbonne Academy Snowball Tournament, St. Philip Neri was able to return to the championship game, but ultimately could not retain the title it won at the 50th Snowball extravaganza in 2024.
A team that's new to the tournament field, Wayne's St. Katherine of Siena School, enjoyed a convincing 58-40 victory in the finals on Sunday morning. St. Katherine's is coached by Penn Charter alumna Katie (Miller) McCoy.
In a closer contest, the SPN Saints defeated the host Bears of Norwood in an opening-round game on Friday. Because there was only a five-team varsity bracket for this year's tournament, St. Philip received a semifinal bye and proceeded directly to the championship game.
St. Katherine won its opening game over Flourtown's St. Genevieve School, 37-22. The Wildcats went on to achieve a 41-29 victory against St. Helena of Blue Bell, which had enjoyed a first-round bye.
In the first girls' game, which was played on Thursday evening, tall and athletic St. Katherine's powered out to a 15-2 lead over St. Genevieve in the opening quarter. The gap between the teams remained roughly the same for the rest of the contest, as St. Gen's got over its initial shellshock and played much better.
In its 37-22 victory, St. Katherine's was led by Charlotte Whitcombe, with 11 points, Luna MacCrory, with nine, and Sophie Longstreth, with eight. Longstreth traces her lineage back to the venerable Longstreth family of Chestnut Hill.
St. Gen's got 10 points in the game from Adia Ciasullo and six from Sienna Madden.
The St. Philip Neri boys' team, 2024 Snowball champions, got knocked out of the main draw on the first night of the 2025 tourney. The SPN girls, also defending champs, almost suffered the same fate on Friday evening in a scrappy encounter with host Norwood.
The teams were tied 25-25 at halftime, and St. Philip led 36-32 going into the fourth quarter. It was feisty, physical game, and players fouled out on both sides.
In the final period the NFA Bears cut into the SPN lead, and with two-and-a-half minutes elapsed, Shelby Stefan (an eighth-grade guard bound for Germantown Academy) hit a 15-foot jumper to push Norwood ahead, 39-38.
SPN tied it up in the middle of the period with a free throw by Mia DeSantis, but the Bears went back ahead, 41-39, when Alexa Riethmiller put in a runner with a little over three minutes left. Norwood still led as the game entered the final minute.
DeSantis hit a three-pointer from the left wing to give the Saints a 42-41 advantage, then Stella McCarthy scored a breakaway basket to make it 44-41. Each of these two players made one of two free throws in the last seven seconds to certify a 46-41 St. Philip victory.
Norwood and St. Gen's met in a consolation game on Saturday afternoon. From a 6-6 tie at the end of the opening period, St. Gen's moved out to a 14-11 lead at the half. The Bears then staged a mighty rally in the third quarter, outscoring their nearby rivals 13-2 in the third quarter.
NFA continued to pull away, winning 38-20 behind 20 points from Stefan and 10 from Riethmiller. Ciasullo registered eight points in the losing cause.
On Sunday morning in the girls’ final, St. Katherine had a 13-11 edge after the first quarter, and two minutes into the second the teams were still neck-and-neck, with St. Philip trailing by a single point, 16-15.
After that, though, a putback and a 15-foot jumper by Longstreth helped fuel an 8-0 run by the Wildcats. A little later, St. Katherine opened up a double-digit lead at 26-16.
Clara Cavallaro stole the ball and scored for the Saints, but then St. Katherine generated a 7-1 burst of offense consisting of a three-pointer by Longstreth and back-to-back lay-ups by MacCrory. The score was 35-22 at the intermission, with MacCrory romping down the court for 14 of those St. Katherine points.
A lay-up and a jumper from the right baseline by Isabella Brennan contributed to a 6-2 surge for the Maine Line squad to start the second half. Early in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats’ lead peaked at 28 points (56-28) before both teams largely handed the game over to reserve payers.
The Saints made up some ground late in the contest, but still succumbed, 58-40. MacCrory finished with a game-high 16 points, followed by Whitcombe with 13, Longstreth, with nine, and Brennan, with eight. Leading SPN were Juliette Shafer, with 10 points, and Cavallaro and DeSantis, with seven apiece.
