Girls Basketball: Mary O’Brien’s 23 points boosts short-handed Marple Newtown

NEWTOWN SQUARE — Mary O’Brien knew before the start of the season that she had to become Marple Newtown’s best scoring option.

This is now she and fellow Brooke Impriano’s team. For the Tigers to have success, the two varsity veterans had to make up for the loss of last year’s leading scorers, Haley Levy and Nikki Mostardi, who led the Tigers to a 20-win campaign and a PIAA tournament win for the first time in team history.

“Losing our two main scorers from last year, we knew – me and Brooke knew that we had to shoot a little more and be a little more selfish than usual,” O’Brien said Thursday after leading the Tigers over Upper Darby, 43-25.

Because Impriano injured her ankle earlier this week and was unavailable for Thursday’s contest, O’Brien put the onus on herself. The four-year starter almost outscored Upper Darby by her lonesome. O’Brien shot 10 of 19 from the floor, including 4 of 12 from 3-point distance, and finished with a game-high 23 points.

“Tonight I felt like I had to shoot whenever I (was) open and take a good quality shot,” she said. “I also try to tell my teammates to do the same thing. If you’re open, shoot it.”

O’Brien missed on six of her first seven field goal attempts, allowing UD to hang around in the first quarter. But once she banked her first 3-ball in the second quarter, O’Brien settled in and had an all-around stellar night on offense. When she wasn’t sinking her shots from beyond the arc, O’Brien fearlessly drove inside the lane, getting tough layups and other high-percentage baskets.

“Once we started moving around more, we were getting good open shots,” O’Brien said. “We kind of have a problem with standing still for too long around the edges and settling for 3s. I wasn’t making anything to start, but then we all started to gel and make our shots in the second half.”

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