Girls' Basketball: Phantoms Battle Bears in Final Four

PERKIOMEN-There are some coaches that kids just love playing for. Phoenixville Phantoms girls' basketball head coach Michelle Dunleavy is one such coach.

On Saturday her young Phantoms ventured to Perkiomen Valley to take on the big bad Bears from Boyertown in the PAC-10 Final Four. Dunleavy and her crew were not frightened in the least.

The Bears rolled out to a 10-0 start as it took the upstarts a few moments to get their legs under them. Then, sparked by a field goal by Aubrey Flagg (five points, 10 rebounds) and a 10-foot jumper by Chandler DiFebbo (11 points, three rebounds and two steals) the Phantoms cut the lead to six.

Phoenixville put on their own defensive show as they prevented Boyertown’s high-powered offense from scoring for almost six minutes spanning the first and second quarter.

“Defensively we did what we needed to early,” said Gianna Bliss, who had nine points and three rebounds. “We just couldn’t get the shots to fall. They left us wide open at times and we just didn’t take advantage of it.”

Just as quickly as the Phantoms had clawed their way to within striking distance, Boyertown unleashed their bug guns as Kaitlyn Eisenhard and Kelly Furman drained back-to-back 3-pointers to boost the Bears lead back up to 10.

“We held them to 18 points in the first half,” said Dunleavy. “No one would have thought that we could do that coming in. I am proud of the way my girls responded to the big stage, but we are still learning how to win.”

Following the break at which the Bears were clinging to an 18-11 advantage, Boyertown went on a 7-0 run, which prompted Dunleavy to quickly call a timeout. 

“We want people to know that we belong here, “ said Chandler DiFebbo. “No one thought we had a chance to win this game coming in here except for us. Our coaches are teaching us to believe in ourselves and each other, which has really helped us come together as a team. We want to be the team that no one thinks they can beat and that’s what we are working towards.”

Boyertown outscored the Phantoms 41-20 in the second half leaving the Phantoms playing a waiting game now to see if they have been selected to battle in the District One AAA playoffs.

“We don’t want this to be our last game of the year,” added Bliss. “We just got everybody back who was hurt and are a much different team than we were earlier in the year. It’s tough. Now we have to wait and see.”

The box plus one defense that Phoenixville employed in the first half was extremely effective in shutting down two of the PAC-10 premiere players in Eisenhard and Furman.

“We gave it a shot,” said Dunleavy . “You could see that Eisenhard was frustrated, which was the idea. They are very good players. The problem with Boyertown is that once you shut them down they have other people that can hurt you.”

“This was big for us to be here today,” added Dunleavy. “We are building a program and still are figuring out how we need to compete at this level. As coaches we can’t be anything but excited about the team we will have in place to start next season. I hope we get into districts because I think we are ready to make some noise there.”

Phoenixville  4     7    12     8 – 31

Boyertown    10    8    21    20- 59

Phoenixville (31)

Stokes  0 2-3 2, DiFebbo 4 2-2 11, Bliss 4 1-1 9, Keys 1 1-2 3, Hennessy 0 1-2 1,

Flagg 2 1-2 5, Miller 0 0-1 0,  Totals  11 8-13 31.

Boyertown  (59)

Scauer 2 0-4 4,  Mullen 5 5-7  15, Furman 4 2-4, Eisenhard 5 1-2 12, Schlesman 1 2-3 4,

Cotellese 1 0-0 2, Kirchner 0 3-4 3, Snyder 1 0-0 2, Terry 1 0-0 2, Dehave 0 1-2 1.

Totals 20 14-28 59

Three point field goals – Furman 4, Eisnehard, DiFebbo.