Consolation Game

Bill Sachs and Chris Whalen each came up with steals and key baskets in the final minute of the game and helped Archbishop Ryan High salvage a dramatic 63-60 victory over Pennsauken in the consolation game of last week's Camden County (N.J.) College Holiday Tournament. The Raiders (5-3) found themselves in a high-quality four-team field, losing a 66-49 first-round game on Monday to unbeaten Solebury School (7-0) of Bucks County, which is ranked No. 6 in The Inquirer's Southeastern Pennsylvania poll.

The St. James Bulldogs rebounded from a 46-45 defeat Friday night at the hands of the Marple Newtown Tigers to defeat West Chester Henderson 49-40 Saturday and capture third place in Henderson's own tournament. The Bulldogs were paced by junior guard Brian Selby, who scored 13 points, and junior guard Chris Linden, who netted 11. Named to the all-tournament team was junior forward Joe McGowan. Coach Tom Stewart said he was happy that his team was able to come back after Friday's surprising loss.

For West Chester East center Eric Loper, it was a matter of setting the record straight. For Vikings coach George McDermott, it was nothing short of redemption. For the rest of the crowd, it was a 63-54 East triumph over Bishop Shanahan in Tuesday's consolation game of the Bishop Shanahan Holiday Basketball Tournament. Loper, who was held to 8 points in Shanahan's 55-52 win over East on Dec. 15, led the way for the Vikings with a career-high 22 points, 12 rebounds and 3 assists.

The Nazareth Academy girls basketball team could've chosen any of a thousand reasons for not going all out in Friday's Catholic Academies League consolation game at Philadelphia Textile. The Pandas were coming off an abysmal semifinal performance in a loss to Villa Maria on Tuesday. They were losing a pair of all-league guards to graduation. The season was already a success, since the team had made the playoffs for the first time in seven years. The excuses were there for the taking, but Nazareth coach MaryJo Kelly and her players would have none of it. The Pandas took the court against Mount St. Joseph on Friday with two apparent goals in mind - honor the seniors who had taken them this far and show that the foundation is there for the team to return to postseason play next season.

The West Chester Christian Conquerors saved their best for last to cap one of their best seasons ever. The Conquerors played their best all-round game of the season in the consolation final of the American Association of Christian Schools national tournament, outlasting Texas Christian Academy of Arlington, Texas, 82-78, Saturday. The victory earned for the Conquerors fifth place overall in the three-day tournament, which was held at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis. West Chester Christian finished its season with a 22-7 record, tying the school mark for victories and going further in the postseason tournaments than any team in school history.

There were some great individual performances in two of Garnet Valley's three games last week. Unfortunately, two of them were by opponents and led to losses to Archbishop Kennedy and Tatnall School. The Jaguars (1-3) then put a complete game together against Wilmington Christian in the consolation game of that school's tournament in Wilmington Saturday afternoon and won their first game of the season, 87-46. "Until this last game we had not played anywhere near where we should have been playing," coach Jerry Doemling said after the victory.

Bishop Shanahan's Matt Mento found a hot shooting hand in the second half of Friday night's dual season opener. Unfortunately, it came too late to help Shanahan avoid a 63-60 loss to host Phoenixville. Phoenixville (1-0) had a 20-point lead in the early part of the third quarter. But Mento, a senior guard who scored 16 points in the second half, hit two of his three-point shots to help the Eagles shrink the lead to 52-37 after three quarters. "Since we were down, we needed those three-pointers to get us back into the game," said Mento, who tied Mark Samoylo for high scoring honors with 20 points.

When you outscore a team 22-0 in a quarter, it isn't just a run. It's the game. That's what happened in Saturday night's championship game of the Upper Perkiomen girls' Tip-Off Tournament, as Quakertown fell victim to a rambunctious third quarter by Central Bucks East and went on to lose, 51-17. The C.B. East outburst broke open what was a fairly even game at halftime. The Patriots, trying to recapture the glory of last season's appearance in the PIAA Class AAAA state tournament, lost four of last year's seniors as well as their coach, but what they have now isn't bad. New coach Brenda Scheffey has senior Beth Mattern and junior Jamie Dawson in the frontcourt and steady junior Cristin Tuthill at the point.

If this is Christmas, then basketball tournament time is just around the corner. From as near as the Southampton Kiwanis Tournament, with eight teams, to as far as the Benedictine (Virginia) Tournament, which involves Bishop McDevitt, area boys' and girls' teams will take a week off from their league and conference battles to face new foes in a variety of settings this weekend. The complete list of area basketball tournaments follows: Boys' tourneys Benedictine Tourney at Benedictine (Va.)

Marple Newtown's St. Anastasia CYO boys' basketball team failed in its bid for a third straight title at the Fifth Devon Prep Schoolboy Tournament, and eventually settled for fourth place. St. Anastasia's Spartans dropped the tournament's consolation game to King of Prussia's Mother of Divine Providence, 50-49, in overtime Sunday. The tourney was won by Springfield's Holy Cross as the Crusaders defeated Epiphany of Our Lord, 42-38. Host Devon Prep, which was eliminated in the tournament quarterfinals by St. Anastasia, finished with an exhibition loss to Holy Trinity (Conn.

Lower Moreland's three-pointer at the buzzer hit the rim and fell astray on Wednesday night as New Hope-Solebury won, 29-28, at Upper Moreland in a District 1 Class AA girls' basketball semifinal. The Lions relied on balanced scoring highlighted by eight points from both Elise Kalinovich and Grace Massimino. In the other semifinal at Upper Moreland, Olivia Bradford led Christopher Dock to an easy 61-29 win over Bristol. The senior guard scored 12 of her game-high 22 points in the first half as Dock took a 27-13 lead.

Carmen Raroha scored the deciding goal and Bishop Eustace survived a two-man shorthanded situation in the final minute to edge visiting Haddonfield, 7-6, on Saturday in Olympic Conference lacrosse action. Raroha's second goal of the game put the Crusaders ahead with 3 minutes, 58 seconds left, and goalie Kevin Cardillo made 21 saves to secure the verdict the Crusaders, ranked No. 9 in South Jersey by The Inquirer. Joel McGowan scored his 97th and 98th career goals, and Tyler Margraf added two goals and two assists for Eustace.

Monsignor Bonner has had a rough start to the basketball season, but a long-distance shot at the buzzer eased the pain a bit on Thursday. Perkiomen Valley tied the game with 6 seconds left, but Billy Cassidy nailed a shot from 24 feet away and handed the Friars a 56-53 win over the visiting Vikings in a nonleague game. After Perkiomen Valley tied it, Cassidy inbounded to Shawn McCafferty who sent the ball back to Cassidy at midcourt. Cassidy took the ball to the right of the key, from where he launched the game-winner.

Cherry Hill East turned a showdown of unbeaten girls' basketball teams into a one-sided matchup on Thursday as the Cougars battered Gloucester Catholic, 59-39, in the championship game of the Gloucester Catholic holiday tournament. Marie Boisvert was named the tournament MVP after scoring 18 points, including three three-point baskets in a 13-2 third quarter that extended East's lead from seven points at halftime to 18 points. Darby Festa added 15 points for East (4-0), which had seven threes in the game, and the Rams' (4-1)

There were plenty of stories about airport delays over the last couple of days, but it's hard to top the one told by the basketball teams representing Archbishop Ryan and St. Basil. Ryan went overtime on Tuesday night in beating St. Basil, 42-38, in a first-round game of the Ft. Myers Tournament after the two teams went overtime getting to Florida. Ryan found out its flight to Florida was canceled, heard St. Basil was boarding a bus, and hopped a ride with the Panthers. After a 24-hour ride, tournament officials hastily rearranged the tournament to allow the Ragdolls and Panthers to play each other.

A huge holiday basketball tournament had to wait 24 hours to begin after a massive winter storm. But the Jameer Nelson/Philly.com Classic is always worth the wait. Mike Robbins scored 16 points and was named the most valuable player of the game as Lower Merion got past Pocono Mountain East, 54-51, at Widener University. In a game at Plymouth Whitemarsh, Aaron McGlawn and Nafis Walker led a balanced Cheltenham scoring attack with 11 points each as the Panthers tripped Chestnut Hill Academy, 46-33.

Jess Rotella scored all of Archbishop Prendergast's seven points in overtime and the Pandas escaped with a 45-39 win over Haverford High in the championship game of the Haverford Tipoff girls' basketball tournament on Sunday. Rotella had a basket and five foul shots in OT to finish with 16 points and tournament MVP honors. Merion Mercy won the consolation game, 51-42, over Pennsbury, with Martha Pannepacker's 14 points and Meg Andruszko's 11. St. John The Baptist. Archbishop Wood won its only game in the showcase event at West Islip, N.Y., beating La Salle Academy (R.I.

Gateway's football team has decided to forfeit Friday's game at Haddonfield because of a declining number of available players. Coach Mike Karp said Wednesday that he hopes the Gators can finish out the season, but that it will be determined on a week-to-week basis. He said the Gators have just 15 available players who practiced Tuesday, including two freshmen. "We have injuries and illness, and due to the dropped numbers, it wouldn't be ideal to play on Friday night," Karp said.

With her forward linemates, Caroline Troncelliti and Samantha Ostoich, counted on primarily for their scoring, Villa Maria Academy's Kaylee Prendergast knows she's not in the game to provide goals. "I'm not a big scorer. I see my job as keeping everyone motivated and staying focused on the game," Prendergast said after Villa whipped Merion Mercy, 7-2, Tuesday in a District 1 Class AA field hockey semifinal at Conestoga. Prendergast not only did her job of leading the aggressive Hurricanes, but she also added a goal, her fifth of the season.

Kim Flacco scored with 5 minutes, 55 seconds left in overtime to give Haddon Township a 1-0 thriller over host Pitman on Saturday in the championship game of the Madelyn Chiomento Field Hockey Tournament. Taylor Kennedy was named the tournament's Offensive MVP, and the Hawks' Brelyn Howard and Ally Turner made all-tournament. Pitman's Alexa Swartz was named the Defensive MVP, with Nicole Bertoldi and Leigh Patrick on the all-tournament team. In the consolation game, Lower Cape May edged Cherry Hill West, 1-0, on MaryBeth Keeler's goal.