STORY WRITTEN BY ANDREW ROBINSON, The Reporter - Dec. 18, 2023

PHILADELPHIA — Pick a player in Germantown Academy’s main rotation and it’ll probably be hard to pick something they don’t do well.

Playing their third game in as many days, the Patriots needed their whole rotation to do a little bit of everything against a disciplined Pennsbury team. The scoring was balanced, the defense was unified and the experience showed as GA wrapped up a busy weekend on a good note.

GA downed the Falcons 44-37 at the CoBL Girls’ Winter Classic held at Jefferson Sunday morning.

“I thought we moved the ball so well today,” GA junior Jess Kolecki, the team’s game MVP, said. “We ran through our offenses with such good pace. They’re a great rebounding team and we kept them off the glass, I think we just played really well today.”

Germantown Academy (7-1) set the tone in the first quarter. Kolecki struck a three on the opening possession, putting the Patriots in front for good but it was their defensive efforts that helped keep it that way early on.

With Isabella Casey, who led GA with 12 points, starting out defensively on Falcons senior Sofia Vitucci and Kolecki taking on the assignment later on, the Patriots limited Pennsbury (5-2, 3-1 SOL Patriot) to just four points in the opening eight minutes. Casey and Gabby Bowes were teammates this summer on their Lady Runnin’ Rebels team that won the HGSL 17U title, so there was already some familiarity there.

GA could have used the start time, its quick turnaround or it being a third game in about 72 hours as excuses, but none of those would have stood with this veteran group.

“Our intensity and our energy,” senior Jess Aponik said. “We bring it every day at practice. Even if we’re having a bad day, everyone picks each other up. We’re all best friends, we’re so close and having each other’s back and supporting each other in practice is where it starts.”

Pennsbury’s got a pretty veteran group too and the Falcons weren’t down long. The SOL side won the second quarter 12-10 and while it wasn’t enough to make up the entire deficit, it made it a manageable seven-point hole at 23-16 and more importantly told GA it couldn’t let up.

With three seniors and two juniors in the starting five and another senior as the first player off the bench, that wouldn’t have been likely.

Casey had nine of her 12 in the first half while Jess Aponik, a Kutztown recruit, had all six of hers after halftime while her twin sister Jenna was a spark off the bench with seven points.

“We know Pennsbury is really intense on defense and is a strong defensive team, so we worked on passing the ball and moving the ball quickly,” Jess Aponik said. “We wanted to get the best shot and not be settling for a random shot.”

A run fueled by Kolecki and Aponik gave GA the first six points of the third quarter, putting the Patriots ahead 32-16 and prompting a Falcons timeout. The teams would trade scores the rest of the quarter and into the fourth, Germantown Academy taking a 41-25 lead on a Sam Wade putback with 5:55 to play.

“Our offenses, we can do whatever we want into those offenses,” Kolecki said. “We can put someone in the post, put someone at the three, we can do it all and that makes us really hard to guard.”

Pennsbury came back with the next nine, senior Daniella MacDonald keying up a pair of threes in the run that got things back within single digits. At that point, the Patriots took a page out of Pennsbury’s book and played deliberately.

In the Inter-Ac and in PAISAA games, the Patriots use a 30-second shot clock. Against PIAA competition, that isn’t the case but GA looked adept at working the clock and waiting for the right play down the stretch.

Kolecki credited the team’s comfortability playing different styles to first-year coach Lauren Power.

“She’s brought a different energy and she pushes us so hard in practices,” Kolecki said. “She keeps it real, she expects us to work that hard and it’s brought a new level to our team.”

Sunday marked GA’s sixth straight win after falling to Friends’ Central by three points on Dec. 5.

“We had that game,” Aponik said. “Digging in, playing all four quarters is something we really needed to focus on coming away from that game and going into the rest of our season.”

Germantown Academy 44, Pennsbury 37
Germantown Academy 13 10 12 9 — 44
Pennsbury 4 12 7 14 — 37
Germantown Academy: Isabella Casey 12, Jess Kolecki 11, Jenna Aponik 7, Jess Aponik 6, Sam Wade 4, Gabby Bowes 4.
Pennsbury: Sofia Vitucci 16, Daniella MacDonald 11, Maggie Burns 4, Layla Matthias 1.