Girls Basketball: Ireland, McAteer power Garnet Valley to state berth

CONCORD >> Garnet Valley played a numbers game with Spring-Ford in the second round of the District One Class AAAA tournament Wednesday night.

Despite the fact that the numbers didn’t always turn out the way the third-seeded Jaguars (23-3) wanted, GV ended up with more positive numbers than the No. 14 Rams (15-9), and that translated into a 66-57 victory. With the win, GV earned its place among the top eight teams in the district and qualified for the state tournament. Garnet Valley will host Upper Dublin at 7 p.m. Saturday in a district quarterfinal contest while Spring-Ford drops into the playback round as it attempts to earn a chance to compete in states.

“A four-point play at the start, some missed layups and we’re down 7-0 before we knew it,” Jaguars head coach Joe Woods said. “And that’s a good team we were playing. We kept our composure, and our senior leadership and our foul shooting (18-for-20) helped pull us through.”

As has been the case in their Central League championship season as well as their success in the playoffs, GV’s seniors got plenty of help from the team’s talented underclassmen in Wednesday’s contest. Senior Maddie Ireland filled up the stat sheet with 21 points, nine steals and four assists. She made her first seven foul shots before missing one in the fourth period.

Even though Sam Tomasetti, the other senior starter, didn’t make a shot, her coach wasn’t complaining. “She really had a big game,” Woods said of Tomasetti, who pulled down 12 missed shots, dished off three assists, blocked three Spring-Ford field goal attempts and added a pair of steals.

Click HERE to read the full article.