Panthers

The game had more strange plot twists than a Stephen King novel. Not to mention an unlikely hero. Strath Haven's Kevin Towns hit a pair of free throws with 16 seconds left in the third overtime Tuesday night to give the Panthers (15-1, 9-1) a 57-54 victory over Ridley and sole possession of first place in the Central League. However, Towns (6 points) wasn't the Panthers' biggest star. That role belonged to 5-foot, 10-inch junior John Hopson, who didn't play in the first meeting between the teams this season and scored only 3 points this time.

A year ago, Upper Dublin vs. Cheltenham was the premier game in girls' basketball. The teams played three times, with UD winning two of the contests. At times, the games were reduced to shootouts between the Flying Cardinals' flashy point guard, Jane Catanzaro, and the Panthers' spectacular shooter, Pam Bryant. Those stars are gone now, having taken their considerable talents to the collegiate level. They have left behind young, inexperienced teams searching for identities.

Bensalem coach Don Bogan believes that these things go in cycles. For the last three years, his senior-laden Owls won nearly three of every four games. Now, things have changed. The latest version of the Owls has players who are young and inexperienced, and Thursday, they were handed their ninth loss in 13 games, a 48-45 nonleague decision to Quakertown. "It was another winnable game," Bogan said. "I'm not going to keep saying we're young. These kids aren't freshmen anymore, because we're past the halfway point of the season.

The teams came in having lost their last 16 games combined after winning their openers. They each had been shut out six times. OK, so it wasn't a matchup of high-powered offenses, and the teams weren't quite coming in on good streaks. In fact, maybe these teams would just rather forget their nightmarish seasons altogether. So when the William Tennent and Archbishop Wood football teams came in to their second annual Thanksgiving tilt looking to salvage something from 1994, it came down to intensity to decide the winner between the neighborhood rivals.

There was hesitation when Tara Bailey grabbed the ball. It was the end of the third quarter. Her team was losing to Hazleton in the first round of the PIAA Class AAAA state tournament, she had just been called for a foul and nothing was going right. Her frustration turned to something else. The Strath Haven guard returned the ball to the referee, but it hit the hardwood with a little more impact than it should have. Seconds later, the senior was assessed the first technical foul of her life.

It really wasn't a fair fight. Great Valley's Jennifer Lawson had to outscore an entire team. And in the quarterfinals of the District 1 Class AAA girls' playoffs, it was a very good team. Too good for one person to handle. Strath Haven's (22-3) balanced attack - three players in double figures - overwhelmed a 20-point effort by Lawson and brought the Panthers a 54-41 win over Great Valley Saturday night at Interboro High School. The Panthers will face Archbishop Kennedy in a semifinal tomorrow at a site yet to be determined.

Clutch free-throw shooting and aggressive play down the stretch enabled Penncrest (7-0, 3-0) of the Central League to wrench a 55-49 victory from the host Panthers (6-3, 1-0) in the championship round of the Cheltenham tourney Monday night. Roxborough defeated Chestnut Hill Academy in the consolation round, 41-39. With a little more than 2 minutes left in the final period of a game that began to see-saw at 3 minutes, 56 seconds of the opening quarter, Penncrest guard Sean Rothwell set off a chain of events that shook the hosts.

For teams in the Suburban One League, playing a PIAA Class AAAA state playoff game at King's College has usually been a chamber of horrors. Especially playing before a packed house of more than 3,000 Hazleton supporters. Abington experienced the feeling in 1985, losing to Hazleton by a point. Upper Dublin led the Mountaineers by 22 points a year later and lost by 2. Tuesday night it was Cheltenham's turn. The Panthers, the fifth seed from District 1, traveled to King's to meet Hazleton, the top seed from District 2, and proceeded to fall behind by 11 points in the first quarter.

His North Catholic basketball team may have lost its last three battles, but Joe Rapczynski is not ready to adopt another plan of attack. "I would be worried if they were three league games," said Rapczynski, whose Falcons were beaten by Mastbaum Friday in a nonleague game at North, 63-56. "But we won't start playing in the league until next month. We just haven't jelled yet. I'm confident we can take stock in ourselves and come back strong," the coach said. Not much strength was in stock for Rapczynski's Falcons against tall and talented Mastbaum.

Strath Haven coach Bruce Moore wasn't exactly sure where his team was headed for Friday night's basketball game. The second-year Panthers coach just knew he liked where Strath Haven had been. Caravel Academy was the opponent Friday. Where is it? "Only the bus driver knows," Moore said earlier in the week. Middletown, Del., it turned out. And the bus ride took its toll. Strath Haven lost to Caravel Academy, 78-75, in its last non-Central League game of the regular season. "We were real flat," Moore said.