By Mel Greenberg
A wild finish to the regular season carried through to a wild start to the playoffs Thursday as three of the four under-seeds pulled upsets in the Philadelphia/Suburban Women's NCAA Summer Basketball League quarterfinals at Kelly Bolish Gym, home of the AAU Renegades in Hatboro, Pa., in lower Bucks County.
Top-seeded Gold easily survived the carnage but No. 2 White, also known as the Division II West Chester squad, did not.
Neither did No. 3 Sky Blue, nor did No. 4 Hunter Green, all of whom finished above the six-way tie for fifth that existed with those lower teams all finishing 6-6.
The big shocker of the three surprises was Ted Hagedorn's Kelly Green squad, which couldn't do anything right at the beginning of the season, though some of the problems were not of the team's making.
Now, Kelly Green can't do anything wrong, as evident in reversing the 99-44 blowout White dealt them several weeks ago as Kelly Green advances to the semifinals with a 60-43 triumph.
Amazingly for Kelly Green, they upset Orange 54-50 on Tuesday night's closeout, got into the right mix with the tiebreakers and not only survived the eliminations but also landed the seventh seed to face White.
However, since the rules go by a re-seed of such with the highest surviving seed playing the lowest, Kelly Green is going to have to face top-seeded Gold at 7 p.m. on Tuesday on Court 1 before No. 5 Black, also known as the Division II Philadelphia University squad, faces No. 6 Maroon at 8:15 p.m.
In the NCAA, upset winners take over the slot of the defeated team, so if that system were in play Kelly Green would be playing Maroon while Black would meet Gold.
Black ousted Hunter Green in a narrow 58-54 triumph, while Maroon toppled No. 3 Sky Blue 69-59, and Gold easily beat Orange 81-69, though Orange did throw a scare after suffering a deep deficit.
The championship will be 7 p.m. Thursday.
Quarterfinals Recaps
Kelly Green 60, White 43 -- Though White was missing Golden Rams senior Kendall Benovy and sophomore Brittany Sicinski, two key performers, Kelly Green was without Megan Quinn, a Villanova sophomore out of Episcopal who had been the high scorer in recent games.
That left 6-foot-2 Maureen Leahy, a junior at Bryant in Rhode Island out of Cardinal O'Hara, as Kelly Green's lone true post player but she was not deterred as she worked hard in scoring, rebounding, and blocked shots.
Leahy finished with 19 points while Alex Louin, an incoming Villanova freshman from Mount St.Joseph's, scored 17 points,conecting on three 3-point attempts and also shooting 2-for-2 from the line.
White got 11 points from Victoria Smick, a West Chester Sophomore, and nine points from senior Mariah Powell out of Rustin High.
Kelly Green jumped out early, built a 32-22 lead at the half and then used a 19-4 run to seal the upset.
Incidentally, West Chester's first action in the post-Deirdre Kane era after the longtime coach stepped down Thursday, will be preseason tilt up in Connecticut against the two-time defending NCAA champion Huskies.
Black 58, Hunter Green 54 -- Philadelphia U. senior Najah Jacobs continued her prolific scoring attack as the Central High graduate collected 24 points, while Jess Kaminski, an incoming freshman from Archbishop Wood scored 10 points to reverse a regular-season 51-43 loss to Tuesday's opponent.
Sarah Fairbanks didn't leave her last summer action without the Saint Joseph's junior bombing the baskets one more time, scoring 21 points for Hunter Green, which trailed 36-22 at the half.
Sarah Veilleux, an incoming Saint Joseph's ftreshman, added 13 points to the Hunter Green attack, and Erin Fenningham, a Division II Holy Family junior out of Saint Basil, scored 10 points.
Maroon 69, Sky Blue 59 -- In the second largest upset by seed following Kelly Green, No. 6 Maroon, which reversed a 52-46 regular season setback and trailed 25-22 at the half, got 17 points from Ryann Fiascki, an East Stroudsburg junior from Archbishop Carroll, while Taylor Bryant, a Penn student from Upper Dublin High, not enrolled with the Quakers, and Elana Roadcloud, a Division III Ursinus junior from Springside, each scored nine points.
In Sky Blue's final appearance of the year, Jenna Swope, a Division III Gettsburg senior from Archbishop Wood, scored 14 points, while Mary Ellen McCollum, a recent Division II Holy Family graduate from St. Basil, scored 10 points, as did Tierra Scott, a Division II Bloomfield junior.
Gold 81, Orange 69 -- Keith Wood's frontunners, who lost just one game, an upset to the Division II University of the Sciences of Philadelphia Pink squad, which just missed the playoffs, got a brief scare after leading 40-21 at the half.
No. 8 Orange, which lost 79-58 during the season, rallied to within six points before Alex Smith, a recent Holy Family grsduate from the Peddie school, nailed a pair of 3-pointers and grabbed a key steal to send Gold to the semifinals.
Smith finished with 19 points, firing from beyond the arc for five treys overall, while Jasmine Elum, a 2012 Bethunde-Cookman graduate from Bodine High,
Amanda Fioravanti, a Saint Joseph's sophomore, had one more big night, scoring 26 points for Orange, while Penn senior Kara Bonenberger of the defending Ivy champions, scored 18 points, and her Quakers classmate Kathleen Roche scored 10 points.
As it is, Bonenberger and Roche won't be arround this coming week anyway since Penn is taking a foreign trip to Italy.
The commissioner also points out each of the four semifinals will be missing players as the end of the summer and back to school looms for many by mid-August.
Playoffs Schedule
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
Tuesday's Semifinals
7 p.m.
(1) Gold vs. (7) Kelly Green, Court 1
Gold beat Kelly Green, 61, 48
(5) Black vs. (6) Maroon, Court 2
Black beat Maroon, 62-45
Thursday's Championship
7 p.m.
Semifinals winners, Court 1
Top Playoffs Scorers
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 Green (L) vs.Black,Aug. 7
19 pts. -- Alex Smith, Gold (W) vs. Orange, Aug. 7
19 pts. -- Maureen Leahy, Hunter Green (w) vs. White. Aug. 7
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
^ -- Clinched top seed
fw -- includes forfeit win, fl - includes forfeit loss
Semfinalists 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)
5-Black (6-6): Pink (L), Red (L), Orange (W), K.G. (W-F), R.B. (W), H.G. (L), Purple (W), N.B.(L), Maroon (W), S.B.(W), vs. Gold (L), vs. White (L).
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
7-Kelly Green (6-6): White (L), Maroon (L-F), Black (L-F), N.B. (W-OT), Red (W), Purple (L), S.B. (L), Pink (W), Gold (L), H.G. (W), R.B. (W-F), Orange (W)
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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