Senior Emerson Gunther caught fire in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter where she was 3-of-3 for eight points, and put together a game-high 19 points to spur the comeback offensively. Martin did a lot of the work defensively matched up with Bensalem senior Grace McShane, who has been putting up gaudy stat line after gaudy stat line all year and junior point guard Ruby Bross supplied the energy as the smallest player in the CR South lineup grabbing some of the game\u2019s biggest rebounds.<\/p>\n
The Golden Hawks trailed 23-15 at halftime but got back in the game during the third quarter before winning the final frame 13-2 and holding Bensalem scoreless over the final 7:14 of play. Bross, Martin, Gunther, senior Bella Hettler and sophomore Carly Conetta all played the entire second half, sparking the comeback efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know this will sound so cringe, but it felt like we were in a flow state,\u201d Gunther said. \u201cI didn\u2019t even notice, it was awesome, we just played great team basketball and Carly came off the bench to give us some clutch minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBella really helped us on the rebounds, we were unselfish and we looked for the extra pass,\u201d Martin added.<\/p>\n
The loss to CR North on Wednesday put CR South about as close to the edge of the bubble as possible, bumping them to No. 24 in the Class 6A rankings at the start of the day Thursday. With two tough games left against Perk Valley and Pennsbury following the game against Bensalem to close the season, the Golden Hawks needed at least one win somewhere in there to try and get away from life on the edge.<\/p>\n
Gunther has committed to Salisbury and Bross has another year of high school hoops but Martin has decided not to play beyond this year, so if they wanted their time together to extend past next week, they had to do something about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter (Wednesday) we looked it at like \u2018we have three games left, we have to step up,\u2019\u201d Gunther said.<\/p>\n
To get it Thursday, they were going to have to do something not many teams have done this year and best a Bensalem team that had already accrued 17 victories and was No. 12 in the rankings coming into the game. What CR South had on its side was the fact it owned one of the three losses Bensalem had on its record coming and with the trio of Martin, Gunther and\u00a0Hettler, three players who knew every bit of what McShane was bringing to the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a very good player, she has a high basketball IQ and she can see the floor very well,\u201d Martin said. \u201cPlaying with her for three years now, I know her spin move in the paint, I know I\u2019d rather force her left than have her take a wide-open right-handed layup and I think that definitely helps.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce she starts, she gets hot and I think that was huge. We had a game plan, they (Bross and Gunther) talked me through the screens because I was supposed to face-guard her so I couldn\u2019t see anything and their communication helped a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin covered her longtime summer teammate the entire game, the CR South senior face-guarding McShane in a battle that went similar to the game as a whole. McShane, who announced her commitment to Rowan earlier this week, had 14 of her 18 points in the first half but did not have a point in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Gunther, who made the go-ahead three in the fourth quarter, pointed to her teammates\u2019 defense instead as the turning point.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was Gill,\u201d Gunther said. \u201cShe locked down Grace, we all helped out on her because she was a focal part of our strategy, but Gill just did a great job.\u201d<\/p>\n
McShane\u2019s two baskets in the third quarter did come at a key interval, the senior getting back-to-back scores for a 31-27 lead after CR South came back to tie it 27-27 on a Bross three. She also kept looking for teammates, but the Owls couldn\u2019t get that secondary scorer going that\u2019s been a hallmark in most of their wins this season. Bross did a nice job not giving Bensalem\u2019s Mary Beck, the senior guard a pretty potent shooter, much room to get looks while Hettler was a deterrent around the rim.<\/p>\n
\u201cRuby and I knew what we had to do in order to help Gill out,\u201d Gunther said. \u201cIt was just an awesome win, I\u2019m so excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bensalem still has plenty to look forward to. The Owls finish the regular season on Tuesday against Neshaminy and they\u2019re in good standing to qualify for the eight-team SOL playoff then host a first round district playoff game.<\/p>\n
Bross candidly said her team\u2019s energy just wasn\u2019t good in Wednesday\u2019s loss and it showed in a slow start that put the Golden Hawks behind early. The junior point guard and her teammates didn\u2019t get off to a great start shooting the ball either on Thursday but even with McShane – who will be teammates with Bross\u2019 older sister Lily at Rowan next year – starting well offensively, the CR South players felt like they were much more competitive.<\/p>\n
The point guard certainly helped with that. Bross had five rebounds in the fourth quarter, the junior citing the previous meeting with Bensalem where she\u2019d gotten beat on some key boards and not wanting a repeat, and she nearly came up with an extra possession for her team off a missed foul shot despite being outnumbered four-to-one going for the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just keep working,\u201d Bross said. \u201cSomething doesn\u2019t go your way? Keep working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin only scored two points, both coming at the foul line, but the senior made the key pass on a couple of big shots including the three by Bross that briefly tied the score in the third and later on Gunther\u2019s go-ahead triple that put the Hawks ahead 35-33 with 5:13 to play.<\/p>\n
\u201cEm wasn\u2019t hitting her shots in the first half but she just kept firing and Ruby hit some really big threes,\u201d Martin said. \u201cYou keep shooting. You\u2019re shooters so you keep shooting, (CR South coach Steve Polinsky) wants us to keep shooting any time we catch the ball and are open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even with Thursday\u2019s win, Council Rock South was still on the edge of that bubble as results started to permeate the rankings. Whatever that looks like Friday afternoon or Sunday evening heading into the final week, the Hawks are sure of two things.<\/p>\n
They have at least two games left, and they\u2019re going to do all they can to win them to make sure there\u2019s another one added on.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a mixture of both,\u201d Martin said. \u201cYou have to focus on the game itself but in the back of your mind you\u2019re thinking \u2018I have to give it my all, this is it.\u2019 It\u2019s either this or go home.\u201d
\n~~~<\/p>\n
By Quarter<\/p>\n
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH 8 | 7 | 12 | 13 || 40<\/p>\n
BENSALEM 11 | 12 | 8 | 2 || 33<\/p>\n
Scoring<\/p>\n
CRS: Emerson Gunther 19, Ruby Bross 7, Bella Hettler 6, Carly Conetta 6, Gillian Martin 2<\/p>\n
B: Grace McShane 18, Sydney Daut 6, Mischa Ellzy 6, Mary Beck 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Senior Emerson Gunther caught fire in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter where she was 3-of-3…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[191,193,192,194],"class_list":["post-143164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bensalem","tag-bensalem","tag-bensalem-headlines","tag-bensalem-news","tag-bensalem-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}