Girls Basketball: Top-seeded Springfield ready to take all comers in 5A

Springfield fell short of winning a Central League title, but the Cougars are feeling pretty good about themselves as they prepare for the District 1 5A playoffs. Following a 19-3 regular season, and a trip to the Central League semifinals, the Cougars earned the No. 1 seed in their district tournament, which is slated to begin Tuesday, Feb. 21. The unofficial district tournament brackets were announced Sunday following the seeding meeting at Penncrest. Springfield opens the tourney with No. 16 Pope John Paul II (10-12), one of five teams with losing records to qualify.

“This is a special team, a special group, and we’ve had a great season together,” Springfield coach Kylynn McNichol said. “We would have liked to play for a Central League championship, especially for our seniors … but as I said to the team, the season is not over yet. We’ll be playing a lot of basketball in the next couple weeks. We’ll need to regroup, get our focus back and be ready to go next week.

“Take today away and we’ve had a tremendous season. They earned this No. 1 seed, they’ve beaten a lot of good teams to get here. They’ve really come together. They’ve won game in and game out as a team. I’m excited for districts and I’m really looking forward to seeing what we can do together.”

Radnor (16-6) is the fourth seed and will play Del Val League co-champion and 13th seed Interboro (12-10). Elsewhere in 5A, 14th-seeded Penncrest (9-12), which was aided by a late-season forfeit win over Chichester, meets No. 3 Villa Maria (14-8).

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