Haverford Looks Playoff Bound

This time last year, they may have crumpled being down early. This time last year, the girls’ basketball team wouldn’t have shown patience. They might have doubted whether or not they could come back.

Not so this season. The Fords look bound for the PIAA District 1 Class AAAA playoffs after going 3-19 last season. Monday night’s 60-41 victory over Marple Newtown should pretty much seal it for Haverford.

The Fords improved to 13-7 overall and 9-5 in the Central League, while Marple Newtown dropped to 8-12 overall and 2-11 in the league. Haverford’s Jaclyn Gantz led all scorers with 22 points. The Tigers were led by Melissa Levy’s 16 points.

It seems light years from the place where the Fords were last year.

“This is real exciting for us,” Gantz said. “We were a real young team last year and we kind of had a feeling we’d do well this year. We prepared for it knowing it would be a good year.”

Sparked by some sterling play.

Haverford played perhaps its best stretch this season when the Fords completely took control of a tight game that they never led by going on a 21-0 run that turned a 19-16 deficit to a 37-19 lead that was never challenged.

“There’s no doubt that’s the best stretch we’ve had this season defensively,” Fords’ coach John Berardoni said. “We were rushing shots early in the game, and once started making shots, defense got better. The success we’re having this year is all on the kids and their commitment. Their chemistry and commitment are what’s made the biggest difference between last year and this year.”

Marple Newtown got off to a nice start, leading 12-7 and 16-10 at one time. But Levy, a 6-foot junior, got into early foul trouble and was forced to the bench. That’s when Haverford chipped away. The Fords’ Gantz finally hit a three-point shot, followed by Caroline Price’s trey giving the Fords their first lead of the game, 22-19, with 1:14 left in the half.

That was only the beginning. The Fords went on to score the last 10 points of the first half, and took that momentum into the second half, building a 37-19 lead before Marple Newtown’s Denise McKeown hit a pair of free throws with 3:37 remaining in the third quarter to end the dry spell. The closest the Tigers would come from there was 39-26, trailing by as much as 53-30 and 55-32 midway into the fourth quarter.

“I transferred from (Archbishop) Carroll and things were a lot different there, I wasn’t used to losing,” Price said. “I knew we could be good this year. We have four seniors that came back after experiencing last year and our juniors are really good. We knew we had a chance of being good this year.”