The Guru Report: Black/D2-Jefferson Looks to Finish Unbeaten as Philly/Suburban Summer League Playoffs Open Thursday Night

By Bob Heller and Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

HATBORO, Pa. - Will Top-Seed Team Black/D2-Jefferson finish their run with a perfect record and will second-seed Maroon/D2-USciences Undergrads and third seed Kelly Green/D2-Kutztown continue avoiding losses except only among the top three?

The answers will begin to come Thursday night as quarterfinals action begin the two-week playoffs rounds at Kelly Bolish Gym, Home of the AAU Renegades with a pair of doubleheaders starting at 6:30 p.m. on Courts 1 and 2 followed by nightcap action at 7:45 p.m.

In the early games 1-seed Jefferson (7-0) meets 8-seed/D3-Arcadia (0-7), the only squad in the eight-team league to play last winter due to the coronavirus, on Court 1, while 6-seed Pink/USciences alumnae (3-4) meets 3-seed Kelly Green (5-2) on Court 2.

In their first meeting, Kelly was a narrow 56-52 winner.

The nightcaps will have 2-seed Maroon/D2-USciences Undergrads (6-1) meet 7-seed Royal Blue/D3-Ursinsus (1-6) on Court 1 while 5-seed Orange/D2-Chestnut Hill (3-4) will meet 4-Seed Sky Blue/D2-Holy Family (3-4) on Court 2.

The survivors advance to next Wednesday’s semifinals on Court 1 with a doubleheader at 6:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. as the highest surviving seed meets the lowest in the first game followed by the two other survivors in the second game.

The semifinals winners return the next night to play for the championship.

Four teams are familiar to each other with Jefferson, USciences, Chestnut Hill, and Holy Family competing in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC).

This will be the last winter USciences plays as undergrads with the school heading to a merger with D1-Saint Joseph’s after the next spring semester. The Pink/Devils alums were the the first school to compete as a postgraduate squad in the league.

In 2018 Jefferson went unbeaten across the summer regular season schedule only to lose to USciences in the championship. The following summer in 2019 Holy Family upset USciences in the championship prior to former Penn associate head coach Bernadette Laukaitis take the reins at her alma mater in Northeast Philadelphia.

The league stayed dark a year ago, a victim of the pandemic, one of many in the sports world.

Heading into the playoffs off the final standings five spots were cleanly determined with Maroon’s only loss to Black, Kelly Green’s only losses to those two, Royal’s only win over Arcadia, which struggled.

However an Orange upset last week over Pink created a three-way tie and with all 1-1 against each other, killing the first tie-break, while the second tie-break was also killed with none of the three beating the three frontrunners, it was decided to use most combined points against those top three seeds.

Holy Family eked out just enough points to gain the fourth seed while Pink off the head-to-head loss to Orange last week 50-47 fell to sixth.

To set up the quarterfinal action here are the rosters for each game, the team season results, and Bob’s detailed account of their previous games against each other.

(1) Seed - Black/D2-Jefferson (7-0) vs. (8) Seed - Red/D3-Arcadia (0-8) 6:30 p.m., Court 1

Team Black (D2-Jefferson) - 10 Players

    

4   Bridget Arcidiacono 5’10  Arch. Wood/Jefferson ’22   

5   Emma Kuczynski 5’7  Tamaqua Area HS/Jefferson ’24     

10 Sabria Lytes 6’  Harry S. Truman HS/Jefferson ’21      

11 Maeve McCann 5’6   Bonner-Prendie/Jefferson ’23      

12 Haley Meinel 5’10  Central Bucks South/Jefferson ’22  

13 Cassie Murphy 6’  Notre Dame/Jefferson ’24     

14 Ryleigh Parsons 5’5   Arch Wood/Jefferson ’23     

15 Morgan Robinson 5’8  Kingsway Regional/Jefferson ’23    

20 Allie Warren 5’10  E. Brunswick/Jefferson ‘20         

21 Sam Yencha 5’11  Holy Redeemer HS/Jefferson ‘24  

Team Red (D-3 Arcadia)  - 12 Players 

       

4   Sydney Barrer 5’8 Wyomissing Sr. HS/Arcadia ’22   

5   Abbey Finkill 5’9 Warwick HS/Arcadia ’23   

10 Scarlett Glasser-Nehls 5’4 Watchung Hills Regional/Arcadia ’24    

11 Joanna Giustino 5’7 Monroe Twshp HS/Arcadia ’25       

12 Kylie Meredith 5’7 Conrad Welser HS/Arcadia ’25    

13 Sophia Rasiul 5’9 Twin Valley HS/Arcadia ’25       

14 Kate Robinson 5’3 South Hunterdon/Arcadia ’25      

15 Mara Weaver 5’11 Eastern York HS/Arcadia ’25       

20 Olivia Wyckoff 6’3 Kingsway Regional/Arcadia ’23       

21 Ally Zolty 5’7 Plymouth Whitemarsh/Arcadia ’25     

22 Jane Altemus 6’  Rider ’04 

23 Brady Wassel 5’10 Lansdale Catholic/Albright ‘22       

1-Black (D2-Jefferson) 7-0

 

June 17: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family), W 73-49

June 24: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-1), W 78-44

July 1: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae 1-1), W 60-47

July 8: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads 3-0), W 65-26

July 15: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 2-2), W 45-38

July 22: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 4-1), W-54-43

July 29: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 1-5) , 74-53

Aug. 5: vs. 8-Red (D3-Arcadia 0-7), Qtr.-6:30 p.m., Court 1

8-Red (D3-Arcadia) 0-7

 

June 17: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads), L 32-73

June 24: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson 1-0), L 44-78

July 1: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 0-2), L 37-52

July 8: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 1-2), L 45-50

July 15: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 1-3), L 33-61

July 22: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae 2-3), L 31-50

July 29: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 4-2), L 41-83

Aug. 5: vs. 1-Black (D2-Jefferson 7-0), Qtr-6:30 p.m., Court 1

Black 78   Red 44

The second early game saw Team Black (Jefferson University) improve to 2-0 with a dominating 78-44 win over Team Red (Arcadia University).

Bridget Arcidiacono and Maeve McCann provided much of the Black offense in the first quarter, combing for 20 of their team’s 26 points as they overcame a slow start to jump out to a 26-11 lead.  

Arcidiacono had 12 points while McCann had eight in the quarter. Kylie Meredith had six points for the Red squad in the period.

In the second quarter Black held Red to just one field goal, outscoring their opponent 17-5 to take a 43-16 lead at the half. Seven different Black players produced points in the quarter with Emma Kuczynski and Arcidiacono sinking two field goals apiece.

Black extended their lead to 62-27 after three quarters before cruising through the fourth quarter to produced the 33-point win.  Allie Warren scored seven of her ten points in the second half with Cassie Murphy also adding seven second half points (five in the fourth quarter).

Arcidiacono led all scorers with 20 points while Kuczynski and McCann finished with 14 points apiece.  

Meredith was the lone player in double figures for the Red team (0-2) with 12 points.

(3) Seed - Kelly Green/D2-Kutztown (5-2) vs. (6) Seed - Royal Blue/D3-Ursinus (1-6), 6:30 p.m., Court 2

Team Kelly (D2-Kutztown)  - 13 Players      

      

 4 Kelly Kowalik 5’10 Neshaminy/Tufts ‘24

 5 Samantha Brusha 5’10 Abington/Millersville ‘22

32 Isabella Arcun 5’6  Pennsbury/Kutztown ’25  

33 Noelle Baxter 5’8  Arch. Wood/Kutztown ’25   

34 Mary deSimone 5’6  Arch Carroll/W.Chester ’23  

35 Elizabeth Fasti 5’6  Arch. Wood/Kutztown/Misericordia ’23   

40 Abby Goodrich 6’  Springford/Kutztown ’23    

41 Shannen Hinchey 5’10  Ridley/Kutztown/Mansfield ’25   

42 Leah Johnson 5’5  Notre Dame/West Chester ’23    

43 Miranda Liebtag 5’10  Abington/Kutztown/Cabrini ’23   

44 Valerie McGriff 6’  North Penn/Kutztown/Bloomsburg ’24  

45 Casey Remolde 5’10  St. Basil’s/Kutztown ’23    

50 Annie Whalen 5’9  Arch. Wood/Kutztown ‘24

Team Pink  (D2-USciences Alums) - 12 Players

 

4   Sarah Abbonizio  5’8   Episcopal Academy/USciences ’18   

5   Allie Crone  5’8     USciences 

10 Molly Greenberg  5’6   St. Basil Academy/USciences 

11 Melia Kolb  5’7  Jenkintown/USciences/Dickinson College ’23      

12 Natalie Kolb  5’7 Jenkintown/USciences/Franklin & Marshall  ’23   

13 Ashley Kremp  5’9 Jenkintown/USciences/Penn State ’22   

14 Jen Kremp  5’8  Jenkintown/USciences/Dickinson College ’22     

15 Shannon May  5’4  Archbishop Wood/USciences ’21   

20 Laura Trisch 5’10  Archbishop Wood/USciences ’18  

21 Irisa Ye 5’9  North Penn/USciences ’21   

22 Jordan Vitelli  5’6  Central Bucks South/USciences ’20 

23 Brigit Coleman 5’6  Gwynedd Mercy/USciences ’22    

3-Kelly (D2-Kutztown) 5-2

 

June 17: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill), W 80-42

June 24: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 0-1), W 60-50

July 1: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads 2-0), L 60-63

July 8: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 1-2), W 85-40

July 15: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae 2-2), W 56-52

July 22: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson 5-0), L 43-54

July 29: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-6), W 83-41

Aug. 5: vs. 6-Pink (D2-USciences Alums 3-4), Qtr.-6:30 p.m., Court 2

6-Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae) 3-4

 

 June 17: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus), W 64-55

June 24: vs. Maroon (D2-Usciences 1-0), L 32-38

July 1: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson 2-0), L 47-60

July 8: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 1-2), W 51-48

July 15: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 3-1), L 52-56

July 22: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-5), W 50-31

July 29: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 2-4), L 47-50

Aug. 5: vs. 3-Kelly (D2-Kutztown 5-2), Qtr.-6:30 p.m., Court 2

Kelly Green 56   Pink 52

Kelly Green (Kutztown University) also kept pace with first place Black with a hard-foughtphysical win over Pink (USciences alumnae), 56-52 in one of the two early games at Kelly Bolish Gym.

Kelly improved to 4-1 while Pink drops to 2-3.  Leah Johnson, a junior from West Chester University led Kelly with 17 points.  Sarah Abbonizio a 2018 USciences graduate led Pink with 15 points.

Casey Remolde and Annie Whalen got the scoring going as Kelly jumped out to an early 10-4 lead.  

Pink rallied with eight straight points, capped by an Abbonizio basket to take their first lead of the game at 12-10 before Kelly scored five of the next six points to end the first quarter with a 15-13 lead.

Abbonizio sank a three-point basket to open the second quarter as Pink regained the lead 16-15.  Irisa Ye’s two free throws pushed Pink’s lead to 21-17 before Kelly scored seven of the next nine points, capped by a Kelly Kowalik (Tufts’24) three pointer to retake the lead 24-23.  

Kelly added to their lead with two Noelle Baxter free throws before Pink’s Shannon May scored to pull Pink with one at the half, 26-25.

Kelly opened up a seven-point lead in the third quarter, 34-27 an appeared to be in control.  

Pink battled back closing within three twice and then scoring the final six points of the quarter to retake the lead 41-40.

Melia Kolb’s basket to open the fourth quarter gave Pink a 43-40 advantage.  Kelly followed with six straight points to flip the lead to their advantage 46-43.

  A 7-4 run by Pink, capped by a Jordan Vitelli bucket knotted the score at 50-50 with 2:15 left.  

Kelly then put the game away with five straight points taking a 55-50 lead with 25 seconds left before settling in for the 56-52 win.

(2) - Seed Maroon/D2-USciences Undergrads (6-1) vs. (7) - Seed Royal Blue/D3-Ursinus (1-6),  7:45 p.m., Court 1

Team Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads) - 12 Players

 

4   Dayna Balasa   5’8  Upper Dublin/USciences ’25   

5   Isla Brennan 5’7 Middletown HS South/USciences ’23 

10 Juliana Gura 5’10 St. Basil’s Academy/USciences ’22   

11 Taylor Hamm 6’  Perkiomen Valley/USciences ’22 

12 Jessica Huber 5’9 North Penn/USciences ’21   

13 Harlem Jennings 5’7   Arch. Carroll/USciences ’24

14 Bria Johnson 5’8   Montgomery HS/USciences    

15 Shayla Johnson 6’2 USciences ’25   

20 Kendall Keyes 5’6  Lenape/USciences ’22    

21 Anna McTamney 5’10  Plymouth Whitemarsh/USciences ’25    

22 Kerry Patterson 5’8  Card O’Hara HS/USciences ’23    

23 Allison Waters 5’9   Manasquan/USciences  ’25   

 

Team Royal (D3-Ursinus)  - 12 Players           

    

  4  Rachel Saxton 5’4” New Hope Solebury H.S./Muhlenberg ‘25

30 Dana Bandurick 6’  Council Rock North/Ursinus/Swarthmore ’23     

31 Sydney Blum 5’11  Council Rock North/Ursinus/The College of New Jersey ’23    

32 Maria D’Aulerio 5’6  Nazareth Academy/Ursinus’24    

33 Charlotte DiLello 5’7   Germantown Academy/Ursinus ’25    

34 Sarah DiLello 5’6  Germantown Academy/Ursinus ’24     

35 Erin Devine 5’10  Princeton HS/Ursinus ’23     

40 Kelly Grant 5’3  St. Basil’s Academy/Ursinus ’24     

41 Alyssa Martin 5’9  Gwynedd Mercy/Ursinus ’23     

42 Katie McCusker 5’10  Washington Twshp HS/Ursinus ’24   

43 Tamia Wessels 5’6 Abington HS/Alvernia’24      

44 Sabrina Vlahovic 5’7  New Hope Solebury/Plymouth State U. ’24  

2-Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads) 6-1

 

June 17: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia), W 73-32

June 24: vs. Pink (USciences Alumnae 1-0 ), W 38-32

July 1: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 2-0), W 63-60

July 8: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson 3-0), L 26-65

July 15: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 1-3), W 61-50

July 22: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 2-3), W 58-52

July 29: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 3-3), W 68-39

Aug. 5: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 1-6), Qtr.- 7:45 p.m., Court 1

7-Royal (D3-Ursinus) 1-6

 

June 17: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae), L 55-64

June 24: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 1-0), L 44-53

July 1: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-2), W 52-37

July 8: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 2-1), L 40-85

July 15: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads 3-1), L 50-61

July 22: vs. Sky Blue  (D2-Holy Family 2-3), L 44-83

July 29: vs. Black (Jefferson 6-0), L 53-74

Aug. 5: vs. 2-Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads 6-1), Qtr.-7:45 p.m., Court 1

Maroon 61   Royal Blue 50

Team Maroon (USciences) kept pace with Black as the used a solid second half to cruise to a 61-50 win over Team Royal Blue (Ursinus College) in the other late game.

Maroon improves to 4-1 while Royal falls to 1-4.  

Jess Huber and Harlem Jennings scored ten points apiece to lead Maroon while Dana Bandurick led Royal with 15 points.

Six lead changes and three ties highlighted the opening quarter as both teams battled to a 17-17 tie through the first ten minutes. 

 The lead changed hands two more times in the opening minutes of the quarter before Maroon used a 9-0 run to take a 28-20 lead.  

Baskets by Alyssa Martin and Jennings followed before Royal scored the final seven points of the quarter to cut Maroon’s lead to one at the half.

Bandurick’s layup-and-one tied the game at 37-37 before Maroon scored the next 12 points to open up a 49-27 lead.  Free throws by Tamia Wessels broke the run.  Kerry Patterson added a basket to end the third quarter giving Maroon a 51-39 lead.

Neither team scored in the first three minutes of the quarter before Maria D’Aulerio connected on a long jumper to cut Maroon’s lead to ten.  

Allison Waters then gave Maroon their biggest lead of the game, 54-41 with a three-pointer from the corner.  Two quick three-point baskets by Bandurick and Martin cut the lead to seven and forcing a Maroon timeout with 2:08 left.  

Maroon came out of the timeout and outscored Royal 7-3 over the final two minutes to seal the win.

(4) Seed - Sky Blue/D2-Holy Family (3-4) vs. (5) Seed - Orange/D2-Chestnut Hill (3-4), 7:45 p.m., Court 2

Team Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family) - 12 Players

    

4   Anjelai Hayes 5’6  Woodbury HS/Holy Family ’21      

5   Megan Hughes 5’10  Point Borough HS/Holy Family ’22     

10 Jennifer Kokulus 5’11  Freedom HS/Holy Family ‘24      

11 Monee Moore 5’7  Arch. Ryan/Holy Family ’23    

12 Ava Morrow 5’10  Twin Valley HS/Holy Family ’25      

13 Megan O’Connell 5’6  St. Hubert/Holy Family ’22     

14 Carolyn Prevost 6’1  Montgomery HS/Holy Family ’24   

15 Jessica Riepe 5’8  Marlboro HS/Holy Family ’25       

20 Jada Saeger 5’4  Northern Lehigh HS/Holy Family ’23   

21 Dakota Schultice 5’7  Timber Creek HS/Holy Family ’24    

22 Kyliah Singletary 5’11  West Catholic/Holy Family ’23    

23 Lindsay Tretter 5’8  Arch Wood/Holy Family ’24     

Team Orange (D-2 Chestnut Hill) - 15 Players

     

4   Trinity Brittingham 5’8  St. George’s Technical HS/Chestnut Hill ’23    

5   Kaitlyn C. Carter 5’11 Penn Charter/Chestnut Hill ’24   

10 Emily Chmiel 6’2  CB East/Chestnut Hill ’25      

11 Lauren Crim 5’5  Lansdale Catholic/Chestnut Hill ’23      

12 Maura Conroy 5’5  Gwynedd Mercy/Chestnut Hill ’22      

13 Kayla Dougherty 5’6  Williamstown HS/Chestnut Hill ’24     

14 Brianna Hewlett 5’9  North Penn HS/Chestnut Hill ’22      

15 Lindsey Lane 5’11  Haverford/Chestnut Hill ’23       

20 Rachael Millan 5’8  Lower Moreland/Chestnut Hill ’22      

21 Morgan Orloski 5’5  Bethlehem Catholic/Chestnut Hill ’22     

22 Brianna Rider 5’11  St. Timothy’s School/Chestnut Hill ’25      

23 Cassie Sebold 5’5  Arch. Wood/Chestnut Hill ’22        

24 Abigail Spratt 5’6  Central Bucks W./Chestnut Hill ’22    

25 Morgan Sterner 5’6  Northampton Area HS/Chestnut Hill ’25     

30 Amber Washington 5’1  St. George’s Technical HS/Chestnut Hill ‘23    

4-Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family) 3-4

 

June 17: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson), L 49-73

June 24: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown 1-0), L 50-60

July 1: vs. Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 1-1), W 60-51

July 8: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae 1-2), L 48-51

July 15: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-4), W 61-33

July 22: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 1-4), W 83-44

July 29: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads (5-1), L 39-68

Aug. 5: vs. 5-Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill 3-4), Qtr-7:45 p.m., Court 2

5-Orange (D2-Chestnut Hill) 3-4

 

June 17: vs. Kelly (D2-Kutztown), L 42-80

June 24: vs. Royal (D3-Ursinus 0-1), W 53-44

July 1: vs. Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 0-2), L 51-60

July 8: vs. Red (D3-Arcadia 0-3), W 50-45

July 15: vs. Black (D2-Jefferson 4-0), L 38-45

July 22: vs. Maroon (D2-USciences Undergrads 4-1), L 52-58

July 29: vs. Pink (D2-USciences Alumnae 3-3), W 50-47

Aug. 5: vs. 4-Sky Blue (D2-Holy Family 3-4), Qtr.-7:45 p.m., Court 2

Sky Blue 60    Orange 51

Sky Blue (Holy Family University) got into the win column with a 60-51 over Team Orange (Chestnut Hill College)..

Ten different players scored to pace the Sky Blue offense led by Lindsay Tretter’s 14 points. (Four three-point field goals).  Ava Morrow added 13.  

Morgan Sterner and Brianna Hewlett had 12 and 10 points respectively to lead the Orange squad.

Sky jumped out to an early 14-3 lead with Morrow and Meghan O’Connell leading the way. 

 Orange countered with a 6-1 run to close within six at 15-9 before a Jessica Riepe three-pointer pushed Sky’s lead to 18-9 as the quarter ended.  

Tretter’s three-pointer early in the second quarter upped Sky’s lead to double digits 27-16.  Sky’s lead oscillated between nine and 11 points before Orange broke the cycle by scoring the final two baskets of the quarter to pull within seven 35-28 at halftime.

Orange opened the scoring in the third quarter to pull within five but Sky produced with a 10-4 spurt to again lead by double digits 45-34.  Orange closed out the third quarter with a 6-2 mini-run capped by a basket from Kaitlyn Carter to make the score 47-40.

The fourth quarter saw Orange pull within five twice before Sky started to pull away late, outscoring Orange 7-4 over the final three minutes to earn the nine-point win, their first of the season.