LOWER MERION – For Conestoga’s three seniors, the fourth trip finally paid off.
Ryann Jennings, Maggie Neary and Libby Brown had been here before: Three straight Central League title games, three straight losses. They carried those memories from freshman year on.
Tuesday night, finally, they carried away a trophy.
Top-seeded Conestoga defeated No. 3 Haverford, 59-43, Tuesday night at Lower Merion’s Kobe Bryant Gymnasium, giving the Pioneers their first league title in 18 years and extending their winning streak to 13 games.
Conestoga celebrates the Central League championship after defeating Haverford 59-43 at Lower Merion Tuesday night. (PETE BANNAN/MediaNews Group)
All three seniors took turns posing with the hardware, but Jennings once again was the star. Fresh off a 47-point eruption in the Pioneers’ semifinal win over Radnor, the reigning league MVP dropped 27 points on 10-for-21 shooting, including four 3-pointers. She was selected MVP of the championship game.
“It means so much to me,” said Jennings, the Pioneers’ all-time leading scorer, who is headed to Lehigh in the fall. “Coming in as a freshman, this is one of the things I always wanted to do. We couldn’t do it our first three years, so to be able to finally win really does solidify … my high school career. I always wanted to win it and we finally did it senior year.”
Neary and Brown were right there with her. Neary sank two 3s and scored eight points, while Brown added 10. As a team, the Pioneers shot the long ball with precision, drilling 11 of 20 from beyond the arc, all before the fourth quarter.
“It’s amazing, and a really special feeling. We have worked so hard for this the last four years,” Brown said.
“It’s a testament to how together we’ve stayed,” Neary said. “It’s been us three since freshman year. Now we have a team that knows how much this means to us, and they’re playing for us, too. It’s all a result of hard work and great teamwork.”
The game was tied at 26 at halftime before Conestoga seized control after the break. The Pioneers outscored Haverford 33-17 in the second half.
Conestoga’s Maggie Neary drives to the basket as Haverford’s Grace Maloney defends Tuesday night at Lower Merion. Neary scored 10 points to help the Pioneers claim the Central League championship with a 59-43 victory. (PETE BANNAN/MediaNews Group)
After Maura Gilroy converted a three-point play to give Haverford a 29-26 lead early in the third, Conestoga answered with a 10-0 run. Maren Gallagher and Natalie Garzio hit back-to-back 3s. Neary and Brown followed with triples. Then Jennings stepped into a deep step-back 3 before the buzzer to send the ‘Stoga bench into a frenzy and push the lead to 45-35.
“We were all amped up coming into the third quarter, and the crowd really got us started,” Brown said. “We were locked in.”
Haverford struggled to find its offense in the second half, shooting 3-for-16 in the third quarter after 11-for-21 in the first half.
“We just didn’t start off the third quarter like we wanted to,” said Haverford sophomore Grace Maloney, who finished with 11 points and eight assists. “They hit all of their shots, or it felt like it. We kept trying to fight, but they hit everything and we just didn’t hit our shots.”
Gilroy, who scored a career-high 26 points in the Fords’ semifinal win at Garnet Valley, produced 14 points and seven rebounds. But the Pioneers made the senior power forward work for everything inside the paint.
“We felt really good at halftime. We knew we played a pretty good half. We were just saying to each other, to keep it going,” Maloney said. “Even though we played a pretty good first half, it wasn’t over. We knew we could do it, but we just didn’t make enough shots and make enough plays that we needed to.”
Neary credited the contributions of the younger players, who stayed composed in the biggest moment of the season.
“The underclassmen, particularly Natalie and Maren, gave us extra support,” Neary said. “We had a great student section, a great bench getting hyped up. It was all gas, no brakes.”
Haverford (17-7) tried to hang around in the fourth. Keira Hanson (14 points) knocked down a pair of 3s to trim the deficit, but Conestoga (17-7) had an answer every time.
Conestoga’s (13) Ryann Jennings fires over Haverford’s Maura Gilroy Tuesday at Lower Merion. Jennings scored a game-high 27 points to lead the Pioneers to the Central League championship with a 59-43 victory. (PETE BANNAN/MediaNews Group)
Brown hit a short jumper. Jennings went to work inside, scoring three straight field goals to stretch the lead back to double digits. The seniors closed it out at the free-throw line as Jennings, Neary and Brown – who coincidentally wear Nos. 13, 14, and 15 – combined to go 6-for-8 in the final minutes.
First-year coach Ken Doyle was happy to see Jennings, Neary and Brown finally celebrate.
“It’s a relief to win it this year in some ways because they’ve been working so hard over the last four years,” Doyle said. “Since I was hired in June, it’s been our goal and our motto of winning the Central League. They got over the hump after going through a little bit of a struggle the last three years in this game. I was just trying to help them get over it, and I’m proud of them.”
Both teams qualified for the District 1 Class 6A tournament. Haverford will host Great Valley, while Conestoga welcomes Upper Merion Friday night. With both in the same bracket, there is a chance they meet for a fourth time this sason in the quarterfinal round.
Conestoga has won all three meetings, none bigger than Tuesday’s.