Best Game of the Year
Bulldogs Hold Off Colonials to Prevail 63 - 57
Brandywine's Ravyn Hill blocks the jumper from Penn's Shirelle Kerns. Nyjae Dickerson (#1, Bradywine) may also have a piece of the ball.
by Jim Charles
(posted 01-08-2010)
I recently wrote a story about a not so positive experience I had at a public middle school game. Well, for my first sortie to a public high school game this year, the experience couldn't have been any better. The gym is one of the best in the state, the lighting good, the floor beautiful. The crowd - and it was a good sized crowd - was fantastic. Everyone was into the game. Sportsmanship was also to be found as quite a few folks politely applauded great plays by the "other" team. William Penn even has the coolest person in charge of the concession stand! This lady - I do not know her name - periodically regaled the assemblage with announcements, often sang as much as shouted, about the bill of fare available for purchase. And I haven't even gotten to the game yet! So let's do that.
The game begins with a 22 - 5 first quarter in favor of Brandywine. Now, at that point, most fans would be looking at their watches thinking about when they'd get back home after this blowout. BUT THAT'S NOT HOW IT WAS. With God as my witness, the host team Lady Colonials were playing well. Shots weren't falling for them, but they looked good. It didn't make sense that the score was so lopsided after 8 minutes. As for Brandywine, oh my goodness! Outside of maybe Ursuline, I haven't seen better passing this year from an in-state team. When passes get the same "Oooo!" and "Ahhh!" responses as baskets, you know you're seeing something special. This aerial assault involved the whole team, but was most often led by sophomore point guard Nyjae Dickerson, senior guard Kathryn McCormick, freshman forward Memuna Turay, and junior swing player, Aja Brooks.
From the start of the second quarter onward, William Penn won the game. They won the second quarter 13 - 11, the third, 21 - 17 and the final frame, 18 - 13. It just wasn't enough to get them out of the hole from the damage done in the first. The Lady Colonials, too, were not to be outdone in fine guard play and wonderful passing. Junior swing player Nicole Thomas came out of the gate slowly, but asserted herself in a huge way by game's end. She contributed 24 points in the comeback attempt, and was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free-throw line. Senior guard, the 5' 3" Briana Cannon, has about as nice an outside shot as you'll find. She nailed 3 three-pointers en route to an 11-point night. Senior Shirelle Kerns was always in the thick of things, helping create for teammates. She also kicked in 6 points of her own (7, by my count).
The closest Penn got to achieving the impossible and winning the game was when they some how, some way knotted things up at 56 - 56 with 2:17 left on the clock. But then Penn had a couple of bad breaks, Brooks hit three late free-throws, and when the buzzer sounded, Penn was down by six. Hat's off to Brandywine for doing what they had to to preserve a victory that started out as a laugher and ended up as a nailbiter. Big props to Penn for never giving up and for coming oh so close.
A closing word. This game was so great in every way imaginable. I wrote about the shooting and the passing and all that good stuff. But perhaps best of all was how cleanly the game was played. Yes, there were fouls. But many of those were inadvertent, "excuse me" contacts. The game was uptempo on both sides, but with the heavy physicality that we now see so often kept to a minimum. When a game is played like this, then the athleticism comes to the fore and we can really see the great basketball these ladies are capable of.
Briana Gibbs had 5 on the night, including a 3-pointer.
Shirelle Kerns is a good veteran guard. She brought a lot of leadership to the floor in this wild and wooly game.
In the middle photo, Brandywine's Kathryn McCormick defends the shot.
In the photo on the right, Kerns gets the ball on a transition. Kelsey Watkins pursues.
Aja Brooks chipped in 25 points to the Bulldog attack and was game leading scorer.
Right behind Brooks was Penn's Nicole Thomas with 24 points.
Kathryn McCormick (foreground) and Nyjae Dickerson (background). Dickerson had a great night contributing 13 to the Bulldog cause.