Girls Basketball Morrisville wraps up regular season with win
Morrisville's Cassandra Gainey gets fouled on a shot during the second half of Monday's game against Friends Select at Morrisville High School in Morrisville Monday.
Posted: Tuesday, February 14, 2012 3:00 am | Updated: 7:25 am, Tue Feb 14, 2012.
MORRISVILLE — Minutes after the Morrisville girls’ basketball team iced the most wins in school history, coach Dave Howell made an announcement through a smile.
“Keep your jerseys on, girls,” Howell told his players, who laughed in response. “We practice in 10 minutes.”
The coach wasn’t kidding, and his players were excited to start.
Sure, the 49-33 dispatching of Friends Select Monday secured a 21-1 overall record for the Bulldogs, but the postseason begins Tuesday evening against Lower Moreland in a Bicentennial Athletic League playoff game.
That’s what matters.
“This is just regular season,” Howell said. “One of our goals was to win the BAL. Our other goal is to get into the state playoffs.”
Most of the members of a now senior-laden squad have shared those goals since they were freshman learning to play together. The moderate success they experienced in 2008, 2009 and 2010 culminated in this season’s dominance.
The Bulldogs easily rolled to a 30-14 halftime lead, as Kievanna Lacey scored 11 of her 15 points, while Michelle Evans added 10 of her 12. Eight different players recorded points for Morrisville, which won its 20th straight game, also a school record.
Morrisville hasn’t lost since Dec. 10, to Conwell-Egan. The 21 overall wins already bested the 19 recorded by the 1998 team.
“It was very important to us,” Evans said. “Everyone thinks we’re a small school in the middle of nowhere, but we’ve been working together since we were freshman. We set goals every year and want this year to be our best.”
Lacey has averaged 15.9 per game, and has 1,085 points for her career, the fifth girl in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark. Her exceptional quickness, acceleration and anticipation often lead to steals and baskets.
She laughed when revealing her nickname, “The Brat”, which she said is “sometimes” accurate, but there’s no question that she’s the team’s leader.
“This season means a lot because we came into it with high expectations,” Lacey said. “For us to accomplish our goals is an amazing feeling. It’s great being BAL champs, setting a (wins) record for our school. We’re waiting for our banner to show how proud we are.”
For motivation entering the BAL and District One Class A tournaments, the Bulldogs can look to last season, when Girard College ended their season a game short of the state playoffs.
Part of Monday’s after-win practice was to work on half-court offensive sets. Morrisville can score off their defense, and likes to run on offense, utilizing Lacey’s ball control and quick decisions.
The deeper they go, the more memorable the season.
“They’ve been through all the beat downs, so it means a lot for them to have a (regular) season like this,” Howell said. “It’s a testimony to how hard they’ve worked. Last year didn’t go our way at the end, and we want to change that.”
“Keep your jerseys on, girls,” Howell told his players, who laughed in response. “We practice in 10 minutes.”
The coach wasn’t kidding, and his players were excited to start.
Sure, the 49-33 dispatching of Friends Select Monday secured a 21-1 overall record for the Bulldogs, but the postseason begins Tuesday evening against Lower Moreland in a Bicentennial Athletic League playoff game.
That’s what matters.
“This is just regular season,” Howell said. “One of our goals was to win the BAL. Our other goal is to get into the state playoffs.”
Most of the members of a now senior-laden squad have shared those goals since they were freshman learning to play together. The moderate success they experienced in 2008, 2009 and 2010 culminated in this season’s dominance.
The Bulldogs easily rolled to a 30-14 halftime lead, as Kievanna Lacey scored 11 of her 15 points, while Michelle Evans added 10 of her 12. Eight different players recorded points for Morrisville, which won its 20th straight game, also a school record.
Morrisville hasn’t lost since Dec. 10, to Conwell-Egan. The 21 overall wins already bested the 19 recorded by the 1998 team.
“It was very important to us,” Evans said. “Everyone thinks we’re a small school in the middle of nowhere, but we’ve been working together since we were freshman. We set goals every year and want this year to be our best.”
Lacey has averaged 15.9 per game, and has 1,085 points for her career, the fifth girl in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark. Her exceptional quickness, acceleration and anticipation often lead to steals and baskets.
She laughed when revealing her nickname, “The Brat”, which she said is “sometimes” accurate, but there’s no question that she’s the team’s leader.
“This season means a lot because we came into it with high expectations,” Lacey said. “For us to accomplish our goals is an amazing feeling. It’s great being BAL champs, setting a (wins) record for our school. We’re waiting for our banner to show how proud we are.”
For motivation entering the BAL and District One Class A tournaments, the Bulldogs can look to last season, when Girard College ended their season a game short of the state playoffs.
Part of Monday’s after-win practice was to work on half-court offensive sets. Morrisville can score off their defense, and likes to run on offense, utilizing Lacey’s ball control and quick decisions.
The deeper they go, the more memorable the season.
“They’ve been through all the beat downs, so it means a lot for them to have a (regular) season like this,” Howell said. “It’s a testimony to how hard they’ve worked. Last year didn’t go our way at the end, and we want to change that.”
5 comments:
Bring you Valentine out to cheer the Lady Bulldogs on tonight. You will enjoy it. They play an exciting game. Game starts at 6:00pm.
On to the playoffs!!! Kick ass and take names!!!
Scoreboard
High School Sports > 2011/2012 Girls Basketball > PA
2011/2012 Girls Basketball
Morrisville [37] vs. Lower Moreland [30]
Game site: Morrisville
Match time: Tuesday 14th of February 2012
Tournament: Bicentennial League Quarterfinals
1 2 3 4 5 OT1
Morrisville 4 6 9 10 8 37
Lower Moreland 3 14 6 6 1 30
Game summary
M: Lacey layup with 2:30 left in regulation to tie game. M: Lacey layup with 2:30 left in OT to take lead for remainder of game M: Lacey 11 pts in 2nd half. 2 pts in OT. Senior guard M: Play winner of Bristol vs. Delco Thursday at 6pm at Morrisville
Player Statistics
Lower Moreland
Jessica Dranzik : 5 points
Colleen Hagan : 2 points
Rachel Metz : 2 points
Allie Morganstein : 15 points
Demi Morganstein : 6 points
Morrisville
Casandra Martinez : 2 points
Kievanna Lacey : 17 points
Cassandra Gainey : 10 points
Michelle Evans : 6 points
Delila Mena : 2 points
Another AWESOME win by the Lady Bulldogs in overtime. They kept everyone on the edge of their seats. How about everyone coming out and watching their game at
6:00pm on Thursday 2/16. If you don't, you don't know what you are missing. GO LADY BULLDOGS!!!!
Great job, Lady Bulldogs!
GO GO GO!
Hop on the bandwagon -this doesn't happen every year!!!
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