Philly Summer League: Father-Daughter Act Carries Gold to Title Game Against Maroon

( Guru's note: Enhanced information to original post and team rosters for title game added.)

By Mel Greenberg

The Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League had its own special kind of father-daughter night Tuesday in the semifinals at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades in Hatboro, Pa., in Lower Bucks County.

Coach Keith Wood's Gold squad, the top seed which stayed in first place since the June opener, turned back the challenge from seventh-seeded Kelly Green to gain a 75-68 victory and advance to Thursday's championship on Court 1 at 7 p.m.

Helping Gold, which lost just one game the past three months, was Wood's daughter Ashley, a recent Kutztown graduate out of Spring-Ford High, who bombed the baskets for a playoff-best 31 points.

Now just sixth-seeded Maroon stands in the way of the title after Maroon, a squad of predominately Division II East Stroudsburg players, edged Black, which is also Division II Philadelphia University, 48-42.

When the two met early in the 12-game schedule Gold rolled to an 85-68 win.

Gold reigned 3-pointers on Kelly Green, which rallied from a tough summer start to get to the semifinals.

Wood tossed four treys from beyond the arc while Alex Smith, a recent Holy Cross graduate out of the Peddie School, scored 19 points and also connected on four 3-pointers.

Jasmine Elum, a 2012 Bethune-Cookman graduate out of the Peddie School, scored 17 points and nailed a trio of treys.

Kelly Green's Alex Louin, an incoming freshman to Villanova out of Mount St. Joseph's, scored 20 points, while Bryant junior Maureen Leahy out of Cardinal O'Hara scored 19 points and Megan Quinn, a Villanova sophomore out of Episcopal Academy, scored 16 points.

The other game was a low-scoring affair and no one on the winning Maroon squad was able to reach double figures.

Rachel Falkowski, an East Stroudsburg sophomore out of Central Bucks South, scored nine points for Maroon, which finished 6-6 and upset third-seed Sky Blue 69-59 in the quarterfinals last Thursday.

Courtney Brown, whose class and high school affiliations are the same as Falkowski's, also scored nine points, while Melissa Poderis, an East Stroudsburg junior out of Vila Jos. Marie, scored eight points.

Black was hurt by the absence of senior Najah Jacobs out of Central High, who had been one of the league's top scorers, though her situation was similar to many others in the league once the schedule dips into mid-August.

Gold, for example, went the whole way with just five players and were missing Saint Joseph's senior Natasha Cloud and Delaware sophomore Stephanie Leon.

Kelly Green went with just eight players, missing Saint Joseph's sophomore Mackenzie Rule and recent acquisition Vicky Tumasz, who just graduated North Penn High.

Gold held leads of 56-49 but then reduced to just 67-64 with three minutes left in regulation.

The llast eight points for Gold came from a pair of field goals from Wood, while Elum and Shira Newman, a Millersville 2013 graduate out of North Penn High, converted 1-and-1 off the line.

Louin and Quinn scored the final four points for Kelly Green with baskets.

Senior Monica Shacker out of Germantown Academy scored 15 points for Black, while junior Mary Newell out of Villa Joseph Marie scored 10 points.

Maroon used a 19-0 run from which Black could not recover.

Michelle Boggs, an East Stroudsburg junior, scored seven points and was a defensive presence for Maroon.

Oddly, Maroon almost met with disaster down the stretch of the regular season when it used an ineligible player in a win over White, forcing longtime Commissioner David B. Kessler to issue a forfeit, which preserved White's No. 2 position.

But Maroon landed in the six-team tie for fifth and was able to survive the series of tiebreakers to determine who would move into the eight-team field out of the original 13 squads and what the 5-8 seeds would be.

Your Traveling Guru

The Guru will be on the scene Thursday after missing the first two rounds due to conflicts with games required to attend in the WNBA.

In the last 24 hours starting Tuesday afternoon, the Guru shot up to New York on Jersey Transit to substitute for vacationing Associated Press national women's writer Doug Feinberg for the showdown with Phoenix, then headed back to central Jersey and stopped for a late night snack in a diner at the end of Roosevelt Blvd. while edited Rob Knox's sidebar and main game story for this site, which is posted above this report.

Then it was off to Perryville, Md., just above the Susquehanna River, to jump on a cheap MARC commuterr line to get down here to Washington for the tipoff at 11:30 a.m. against Elena Delle Donne's Chicago Sky in a key game with playoff implications in the East.

But since he arrived early, he spent the last 45 minutes in Union Station alongside a creperie stand writing this report and now it's off to jump on the Metro to get over to the Verizon Center.

Sleep is not an option, except on trains.

Noted

Sarah Veillux, who played for Hunter Green, which was eliminated in the quarterfinals after being the fourth seed, is an incoming freshman for Saint Joseph's and had a productive summer in the league.

The Guru mentions here because he discovered that back in early July the Hartford Courant, which covers the powerful UConn women's squad and the WNBA Connecticut Sun along with other sports made Veillux the area high school athlete of the year.

You will see a spot below that says roster, but doesn't have anyone listed. That will be updated later today for the championship game squad but it takes a bit of manipulation and the Guru needs to get over to the arena.

Playoffs Schedule

Tuesday's (Aug. 12) Results

Semifinals

(1) Gold 75, (7) Kelly Green 68
(6) Maroon 48, (5) Black 42

Thursday's (Aug. 7) Results

Quarterfinals

(1) Gold 81, (8)Orange 69
(5) Black 58, (4) Hunter Green 54
(7) Kelly Green 60, (2) White 43
(6) Maroon 69, (3) Sky Blue 59

Thursday's Championship

7 p.m.

(6) Maroon vs. (1) Gold, Court 1
Gold beat Maroon 85-68 in last meeting

Top Playoffs Scorers

31 pts. -- Ashley Wood, Gold (W) vs. Kelly Green, Aug. 12
26 pts. -- Amanda Fioravanti, Orange (L) vs. Gold, Aug. 7
24 pts. -- Najah Jacobs, Black (W), vs. White, Aug. 7
21 pts. -- Sarah Fairbanks, Hunter Grn (L) vs. Black, Aug. 7
20 pts. -- Alex Louin, Kelly Green (L) vs. Gold, Aug. 13
19 pts. -- Alex Smith, Gold (W) vs. Orange, Aug. 7
19 pts. -- Maureen Leahy, Hunter Green (w) vs. White. Aug. 7
19 pts. -- Alex Smith, Gold (W) vs. Black, Aug. 12

Final Regular Season Standings

Team, W-L, Pct., G.B., Pts., Opp Pts.

%@*^-Gold, 11-1, .917, --, 914 696
*-fw-White, 10-2, .833, 1.0, 803 583
*-Sky Blue, 7-5, .583, 4.0, 639 559
*-fw-Hunter Green, 7-5, .583, 4.0, 650 706
@*-fw-Black, 6-6, .500, 5.0, 573 594
%@*-fw, fl-Maroon, 6-6, .500, 5.0, 715 597
@*-fw,fl(2)-Kelly Green, 6-6,.500, 5.0, 497 555
*-fw-Orange, 6-6, .500, 5.0, 695 700
fw-Pink, 6-6, .500, 5.0, 562 544
fl(2)-Purple, 6-6, .500, 5.0, 570 525
Navy Blue, 5-7, .417, 6.0, 709 696
Red, 2-10, .167, 9.0, 589 834
fl(2)-Royal Blue, 0-12,.000, 11.0, 574 789

* -- Clinched playoff slot
@ -- Semifinalsts
-- Finalists
^ -- Clinched top seed
fw -- includes forfeit win, fl - includes forfeit loss

Finalists Season Tracker

Placements reflect seeds (in front of team name) at the end of the regular season.

1-Gold (11-1): H.G. (W), Orange (W), Maroon (W), Purple (W), White (W), R.B. (W), N.B.(W), S.B. (W). K.G. (W), Pink (L), vs. Black (W), vs. Red (W)

6-Maroon (6-6): Red (W), K.G. (W-F), Gold (L), R.B. (W), S.B. (L), Orange (W), N.B. (W), Pink (W), H.G. (L), Black (L), White (L-F), Purple (L), Bye

TEAM GOLD

4 SHIRA NEWMAN, 5’7, UPPER DUBLIN/MILLERSVILLE ‘13
5 ELIZABETH JORDAN, 5’10, HONONEGAH HS/LEHIGH ‘16
10 LAUREN CRISLER, 6’2, NORTH PENN/AMERICAN ‘17
11 TAYLOR CAMPBELL, 5’8, MARQUETTE HS/LEHIGH ‘18
12 NATASHA CLOUD, 5’11, CARD. O’HARA/ST JOS. ‘15
14 ASHLEY WOOD, 5’6, SPRING-FORD/KUTZTOWN ‘14
15 JASMINE ELUM, 5’6, BODINE/BETHUNE-COOKMAN ‘12
20 MEGHAN GIBSON, 5’9, ARCH RYAN/HOLY FAMILY ‘11
21 NINA BRASCETTA, 5’5, ARCH RYAN/PHILA U. ‘10
22 ALEX SMITH, 5’8, PEDDIE SCHOOL/HOLY CROSS ‘14
24 DARBY FESTA 5’10, CHERRY HILL EAST/HAVERFORD ‘17
32 PALLAVI JUNEJA, 5’5, PEDDIE SCHOOL/HAVERFORD ‘15
40 STEPHANIE LEON, 6’4, U. DEL ‘17
42 CANDACE RITA BELVEDERE,6’3, KELLENBERG MEMORIAL/ST. JOS. ‘18
COACH: KEITH WOODS

TEAM MAROON

2 MOLLY RUBIN, 5’7, PRINCETON DAY SCHOOL/KENYON COLL. ‘16
4 RYANN FIASCKI, 5’8, ARCH CARROLL/E. STROUDSBURG ‘15
5 TAYLOR BRYANT, 5’5, UPPER DUBLIN/U. OF PA.
11 COURTNEY BROWN, 5’7, COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH/E. STROUD. ‘17
13 DANIELLE DERR, 5’10, UPPER DUBLIN/BLOOMSBURG ‘13
14 RACHEL FALKOWSKI, 5’9, CENTRAL BUCKS SOUTH/E. STROUD. ‘17
15 MELISSA PODERIS, 5’6, VILLA JOS. MARIE/E. STROUDSBURG ‘16
20 ELANA ROADCLOUD, 5’11, SPRINGSIDE/URSINUS ‘16
22 SHANNON BARLOW, 6’1, NESHAMINY/DEL VAL ‘15
24 MADDIE WALLACE, 6’2, ARCH CARROLL/E. STROUDSBURG ‘18
40 BRITTANY WOOD, 5’11, ARCH. RYAN/DEL VAL ‘16
50 MICHELLE BOGGS, 6’1, SPRINGSIDE/E. STROUDSBURG ‘16

That's it for now.

Thanks to the Commissioner David B. Kessler, Deputy Commissioner Steve Michielli, and Tom Utescher for supplying the Guru with info to enhance this report.



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