Philly Summer League: Hunter Green Fires 20 Treys As Top Four Seeds Prevail in Quarterfinals

By Mel Greenberg

HATBORO, Pa. -- Hunter Green exercised its prowess as the top seed and bombed the nets from the outside with 20 three-pointers Thursday night for a lopsided 85-64 win over eighth-seeded Kelly Green while the three other highest seeds also prevailed in playoffs opening quarterfinals action in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades.

Fourth-seeded Maroon ended the seven-game win-streak of fifth seed Red by emerging with a 60-48 win to head to a rematch from the regular season against Hunter Green in Tuesday's semifinals at 7 p.m. on Court 1 to open the doubleheader as the league gets down to a Final Four.

In the other two games No. 2 White beat the seventh-seeded Division II West Chester-dominated Sky Blue 61-39 while No. 3 Gold rebounded off its regular-season loss to Red inTuesday's final to beat sixth-seeded Purple 57-46.

Hunter Green had a much easier time with Kelly Green, whose roster is dominated by Division II Holy Family, then a narrow 68-64 win in the regular season, in part because several of Kelly Green's better players missed Thursday night's action due to prior commitments.

A current Saint Joseph's star in senior Erin Shields and incoming Hawks freshman in Kathleen Fitzpatrick each scored 19 points and had five 3-pointers while Shields' sister Kerri, a recent Boston College graduate, scored 13 points and nailed three 3-pointers, and Danna Wieller, a recent Division II Bloomsburg graduate, scored 12 points and also hit three 3-pointers.

Hunter Green went 11-1 in the regular season as did White though Hunter Green got the top seed off a head-to-head win.

The win also kept former Saint Joseph's star Katie Kuester, this time serving as a player-coach, on track to win her third straight title.

Kelly Green, which went 5-7 and became the final of the eight-team playoffs qualifiers in the 13-team league on Tuesday night, got 22 points from Holy Family senior Maggie Serratelli, 19 from Tiigers junior Mary Ellen McCollum, and 16 from Holy Family senior Erin Fenningham.

Red, roster dominated by Division III Scranton, won seven-straight since a loss to Maroon, roster-dominated by Division II University of the Sciences of Philadelphia, and tied Maroon for fourth at 8-4, but Maroon's win in the previous game earned it the No. 4 seed designation.

In Thursday's quarterfinals rematch USP's Brianne Traub had 18 points, the Devils' Camille McPherson scored 11 points, and USP's Jessica Sylvester scored 10 points in the Maroon win.

Red got 16 points from incoming Scranton freshman Sarah Payonk and eight points from Royals junior Lindsay Fluehr.

Two Saint Joseph's stars were key contributors's to Gold's win over Purple as sophomore Sarah Fairbanks scored 21 points and junior Natasha Cloud scored 10 points.

Gold was 9-3 in the regular season.

Purple, which earned the sixth seed at 7-5, got 11 points each from Megan Gallagher, a Division III DeSales senior, and Kiernan McCloskey, an incoming Lehigh freshman.

In White's win over Sky Blue, which was 6-6 in the regular season, Villanova junior Emily Leeer scored 17 points, former Holy Family star Catherine Carr scored 16 points and Bethune-Cookman former star Jasmine Elum scored 14 points.

West Chester junior Kendall Benovy scored 14 points for Sky Blue, while junior Golden Rams star Serifat Junaid scored 11 points and sophomore Brittany Sicinski, who had tied Hunter Green's Erin Shields with five nights scoring 20 points or more, was held to eight by White.

Playoffs Semifinals Preview

Maroon vs. Hunter Green

During the regular season in a game on June 25 Hunter Green scored an easy 79-62 win as Erin Shields scored 19 points, her sister Shannon, a sophomore at University of San Diego, scored 15 points, and Jessica Pongonis, a Saint Joseph's incoming freshman, scored 14 points.

USP's Brianne Traub scored 15 points, while the Devils' Jessica Sylvester scored 14 points, and USP's Isabella Ross scored 13 points.

Gold vs. White

Gold, which meets White in the 8:15 p.m. second semifinal Tuesday on Court 1, had just upset Hunter Green the previous Tuesday when it next met White on July 9, a night that began a series of three straight days of full schedules with a rare Wednesday night used to account for the previous Thursday idled by the July 4th holiday.

But White handed the Gold squad a 67-51 thumping as Catherine Carr scored 16 points, Jasmine Elum scored 12, and Ashley Wood, a recent Division II Kutztown graduate, scored nine points.

Gold, whose coach Ted Hagedorn guided the last two Philly Summer League champs that both went unbeaten, got 16 points from Natasha Cloud, 11 from Sarah Fairbanks, and eight from recent Division III Swarthmore graduate Madeline Ross.

Championship Scenarios

Looking ahead Thursday's one-night winner-take-all championship, remember, there is no best-of-three championship round this year to avoid losing players taking off for final summer vacation days or early returns to collegiate campuses for the 2013-14 season.

If Hunter Green meets White in the final, it is a rematch of a Hunter Green 66-60 win over White on July 10 when Erin Shields scored 29 points, hit three 3-pointers and was a perfect 14-for-14 from the line as White suffered it's only defeat of the summer despite 23 points from Catherine Carr and 14 from Jasmine Elum

A Hunter Green-Gold win gets Hunter Green a chance to erase its only setback that occurred on July 2 when Gold took the game 68-61 as Natasha Cloud scored 14 points, Maureen Leahy scored 11, and Madeline Ross and Elle Hagedorn each scored 10 points. Huunter Green's Erin Shields had 21 points and connected on five 3-pointers while Katie Kuester and Lauren Rothfeld, a Salisbury incoming freshman, each scored eight points.

If Maroon upsets Hunter Green, a potential game against Gold would reprise a Gold-Maroon game from July 16 when Gold took a narrow low-scoring 38-35 win as Sarah Fairbanks scored eight points, while Mackenzie Rule and Natasha Cloud each scored seven pints.

Maroon got 13 points from Jessica Sylvester and eight from Brianne Traub.

On the other hand, Maroon-White reprises a game from June 27, the fourth night of the season, as White won 53-35.

Ashley Wood, the daughter of Team White coach Keith Wood, scored 15 points, and Emily Leer scored 12 points.

Maroon, dominated by Division II University of the Science of Philadelphia, got 11 points from the Devils' Jessica Sylvester, and six each from USP's Brianne Traub and Camille McPherson.

Directions

The Gym, which has a big sign on the front, is near the end of Willow Grove Industrial Commons business park at the end of Turnpike Drive, which is off Davisville Road by the Pennsylvania Turnpike.

It is near the intersection of Byberry Road and Davisville Road, which runs from 611 in Willow Grove.

Admission is free and there is a reasonably priced snack bar with drinks, hot dogs, water ice, hamburgers and munchies.

If it is raining and parking isn't right near by the entrances, a Guru secret is to go to the back of the complex, look for the deck, and if the back door is open, the walk will be shorter.

Playoffs Results and Schedule

Quarterfinals

Thursday, Aug. 1
1-Hunter Green defeated 8-Kelly Green 85-64.
4-Mauroon defeated 5-Red 60-48
2-White defeated 7-Sky Blue 61-39
3-Gold defeated 6-Purple 57-46

Semifinals

Tuesday, Aug. 6
Court 1
7 p.m. (1) Hunter Green (11-1 regular season) vs. (4) Maroon (8-4)
<8:15 p.m. (2) White (11-1) vs. (3) Gold (9-3)

Thursday, Aug. 8
Court 1
7 p.m. Championship winner take all between Hunter Green-Maroon winner vs. White-Gold winner.

Tidbits From the Commissioner

David B. Kessler, now in his 20th season as commissioner of the league, in the game-day newsletter, notes that this time around there are 156 players representing over 60 collegiate programs and the average player height is 5-foot-9 and the average age is 20.5.

Looking ahead to next season, the 2014 draft will be May 29, the season will open June 17, the entry deadline for registration form, player information sheet, and fee is May 24th,

On a serious note, the commissioner would like to remind players to please remove all jewelry prior to playing in games. He says it's a rule designed for everyone's protection and game officials need to enforce it because of potential liability issues if an injury occurs.

Explaining the Final Standings

Hunter Green and White tie for first and Hunter Green is the No. 1 seed off a head-to-head win.

Gold is alone in third.

Maroon and Red tie for fourth and Maroon has head-to-head win.

Purple, Sky Blue and Kelly Green are 6-7-8 alone at each slot and finish the group of playoff qualifiers.

Black is alone in ninth.

Navy Blue and Heather Grey tie for 10th with Navy Blue winning the head-to-head matchup between the two teams.

Orange is alone in 12th and Royal Blue finishes the standings alone in 13th.

The running grid is in proper order to look at tiebreakers for seeding and making the eight-team field.

Also, continued special thanks to Tom Utescher for providing pictures that will enable this report to switch over to being housed in PhilahoopsW and a duplicate of Thursday's report of 7/18 here is now over at http://philahoopsw.com to see what the future of coverage may be.

The Guru will tweet @womhoopsguru when photos and coverage at philahoopsw are in play.

Final Standings

Team, Won-Loss, Pct., GB, Pts., Opp. Points

%x-1-Hunter Green, 11-1, .917, ---, 759, 661
%x-1-White, 11-1, .917, --- 738, 552
%x-3-Gold, 9-3, .750, 2.0, 605, 562
$%x-4-Maroon, 8-4, .667, 3.0, 650, 639
%-4-Red, 8-4, .667, 3.0, 744, 652
%-6-Purple, 7-5, .583, 4.0, 693, 678
%-7-Sky Blue, 6-6, .500, 5.0 , 753, 744
%-8-Kelly Green, 5-7, .417, 6.0, 726, 728
9-Black, 4-8, .333, 7.0, 671, 740
10-Navy Blue, 3-9, .250, 8.0, 666, 766
10-Heather Grey, 3-9, .250, 8.0, 695, 713
12-Orange, 2-10, .167, 9.0, 584, 690
13-Royal Blue, 1-11, .091, 9.0, 455, 614

%-Clinched playoff spot
x-Advanced to semifinals

Running Grid
This is the tracking tie-breaker and seeding guide for the eight-team playoffs, which will began after the regular season ends July 30.

1-Hunt. G. vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), Maroon (W), vs. Kelly G (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W), vs. White (W), vs. Purple (W), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky B. (W), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. R.B (W-Forfeit).

1-White vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (W), vs. Kelly Green (W), vs. Gold (W), vs. Hunt. G. (L), vs. R.B. (W-Forfeit), vs. Purple (W), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky Blue (W), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Black (W).

3-Gold vs. Purple (W), vs. N.B. (L), vs. Sky B. (W), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (W), vs. White (L), vs. R.B. (W-Forfeit), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (W), vs. Kelly G. (W), vs. Black (W), vs. Red (L).

4-Maroon vs. Sky B. (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (W), vs. Orange (W), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Kelly G. (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W), vs. Royal Blue (W), vs. Purple (W)

4-Red vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Kelly Green (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. vs. Black (W), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Purple (W), vs. Navy Blue (W), vs. Sky Blue (W), vs. Gold (W).

6-Purple vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W-OT), vs. R.B (W), vs. N.B. (W-OT), vs. Sky B. (W), vs. Kelly G (W), vs. Hunt. G (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (L), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W).

7-Sky B. vs. Maroon (W), vs. Kelly G (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (W), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Purple (L), vs. Orange (W), vs Heath. Grey (L), Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (L), vs. N.B. (W).

8-Kelly G. vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky B, (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (W), vs. Purple (L), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (L), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Orange (W).

9-Black vs. R.B. (W), vs. Purple (L-OT), vs. N.B. (L), vs. Sky B (L), Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt. G (L), vs. Red (L), vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Kelly Green (W), vs. Gold (L), vs. White (L).

10-N.B. vs. Kelly G. (L), vs. Gold (W), vs. Black (W), vs. R.B. (L), vs. Purple (L-OT), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Heath. Grey (W), vs. Hunt. Green (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (L), vs. Orange (L), vs. Sky B. (L).

10-Heath. Grey vs. Orange (W), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Kelly G. (L), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (L), vs. R.B. (W), vs. Red (L), vs. N.B. (L), vs. Sky Blue (W), vs. Hunt. Green (L), vs. White (L), vs. Purple (L).

12-Orange vs. Heath. Grey (L), vs. Hunt G. (L), vs. White (L), vs. Red (L), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Sky B (L), vs. Gold (L), vs. Black (L), vs. Royal Blue (W), vs. Purple (L), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Kelly G. (L).

13-R.B. vs. Black (L), vs. Purple (L), vs. N.B. (W), vs. Sky B. (L), vs. Heath. Grey (L), vs. Gold (L-Forfeit), vs. White (L-Forfeit), vs. Red (L), vs. Orange (L), vs. Maroon (L), vs. Kelly G. (L), vs. Hunt. G. (L-Forfeit).

Top Individual Peformances (20 or more points)

32 Pts.: Kerry Kinek, Heather Grey (W), vs. Sky Blue, July 16
29 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green, (W) vs. White, July 10
27 Pts.: Kathryn Stockbower, Heather Grey (W) vs. Orange, June 18
26 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Black, June 27
26 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (W) vs. Navy Blue, July 16
26 Pts.: Jasmine Elum, White (W) vs. Heather Grey, July 25
25 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (W) vs. Red, June 18
25 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (W) vs. Orange, June 20
25 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Royal Blue, July 2
25 Pts.: Liz Sharlow, Purple (W) vs. Orange, July 23
25 Pts.: Kerry Kinek, Heather Grey (L), vs. White, July 25
24 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (L) vs. Maroon, July 10
23 Pts.: Katie Kuester, Hunter Green (W) vs. Red, June 18
23 Pts.: Catherine Carr, White (L) vs. Hunter Green, July 10
23 Pts.: Liz Sharlow, Purple (L) vs. White, July 16
23 Pts.: Kara Bonenberger, Royal Blue (L) vs. Maroon, July 23
23 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Navy Blue, July 30
23 Pts.: Geena Gomez, Navy Blue (L) vs. Sky Blue, July 30
22 Pts.: Alyssa Bonenberger, Royal (L) vs. Purple, June 25
22 Pts.: Kelsey Watson, Royal (L) vs. Sky Blue, July 2
22 Pts.: Jasmine Elum, White (W) vs. Black, July 30
22 Pts.: Maggie Serratelli, Kelly Green (L) vs. Hunter Green, Aug. 1 qfinals
21 Pts.: Kendall Benovy, Sky Blue (W), vs. Black, July 2
21 Pts: Ashley Wood, White (W) vs. Kelly Green, July 2
21 Pts.: Erin Shields, Hunter Green (L) vs. Gold, July 2
21 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (L-OT)., vs. Purple, July 2
21 Pts.: Brittany Wood, Kelly Green (L) vs. Purple, July 10
21 Pts: Liz Sharlow, Purple (L) vs. Hunter Green, July 11
21 Pts: Kerry Kinek, Heather Grey (L) vs. Navy Blue, July 11
21 Pts: Emily Leer, White (W) vs. Sky Blue, July 23
21 Pts.: Jacqueline McCarron, Black (W) vs. Kelly Green, July 23
21 Pts.: Sarah Fairbanks, Gold (W) vs. Purple, Aug. 1 qfinals
20 Pts.: Ciara Andrews, Navy Blue (W) vs. Black, June 25
20 Pts.: Camille McPherson, Maroon (W) vs. Red, July 2
20 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (L) vs. Purple, July 9
20 Pts.: Brittany Sicinski, Sky Blue (W) vs. Orange, July 10
20 Pts.: Catherine Carr, White (W), vs. Black, July 30
20 Pts.: Ciarra Andrews, Navy Blue (L) vs. Sky Blue, July 30

Till next report.

-- Mel


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