By DAVE O’SULLIVAN Publisher ABSECON — It’s taken awhile for the Holy Spirit girls basketball team to figure out how to play without Summer Crilley, the 1,000-point scorer who graduated last year and now plays at Rowan University. Looks like the Spartans have it all figured out now. Holy Spirit ripped off a 13-0 run to start the second quarter — part of a 26-2 first-half run — and easily handled Wildwood Catholic, beating the Crusaders 57-29 in the finale of the two-day, 8-game 97.3 ESPN FM Girls Basketball Shootout. Wildwood Catholic (10-4) got off to a fast start and took an early lead, but a 3-pointer by Natalie Neiderhofer from the top of the key put Holy Spirit (9-2) up 12-11. The Spartans never trailed again. The 13-0 run to start the second quarter pushed a 15-13 lead to 28-13, and by halftime Holy Spirit had a 30-15 lead. 
Natalie Neiderhofer, left, and Cass Gallagher surround Wildwood Catholic’s Becky Andress during the Spartans’ win over the Crusaders. (Glory Days Magazine photos/Dave O’Sullivan) “I was a little nervous to take that three. I was wide open, but was either that or I could have driven the lane so I was a little nervous to pull up right there (and take the shot) but I’m glad I did,” said Neiderhofer, who finished with 15 points, three rebounds, three assists and four steals. Wildwood Catholic focused a lot of its attention on senior guard Audrey Wilson, but Wilson still managed to lead all scorers with 16 points, including three 3-pointers. “They pressured (Audrey) a lot, so I’m really glad that everyone else was able to contribute,” Neiderhofer said. “She played through it really well, so I’m proud of her.” Holy Spirit was coming off a couple of tough losses, and it was clear some hard work on the practice floor is starting to pay off. The Spartans dominated in all phases of the game. They took more than twice as many shots and had 44 rebounds to the Crusaders’ 25, including 27 offensive boards. Holy Spirit also forced 27 turnovers and finished with 18 steals. “We had two losses previously and we came out flat in certain quarters. Against Atlantic City we had a 20-3 quarter, which is totally unacceptable, so we’ve just been working hard at practice to keep our defensive intensity up,” Wilson said. “We pride ourselves on our defense, so our goal is to never let anything like that happen again. 
Holy Spirit’s Amanda Reale grabs a rebound in the corner during the Spartans’ win. “In the past, we haven’t been doing well on boxing out and getting rebounds, so we’ve really been working hard at that at practice. I’m glad we stepped up and did better with that,” Neiderhofer said. Alexa Steffens finished with five points and seven rebounds for Holy Spirit, while freshman Francesca Geromini added seven points and two rebounds off the bench. Caitlin McMullan led the Crusaders with nine points and Lauren Moretti added eight. “It’s definitely a great win for us. We scrimmaged them earlier in the season and we didn’t play to the best of our ability, so it was nice to come in and actually show what kind of team we have become and the really good defense that we can play,” Wilson said. Mo’ne Davis, who gained fame this past summer during the Little League World Series, was the starting point guard for Springside-Chestnut Hill in Pennsylvania. Her team lost 60-38 to Timber Creek in the game prior, but the eighth-grader led her team with 11 points, including three 3-pointers, in front of a capacity crowd there to get a glimpse of the teenager who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated last summer after she became the first girl to record a pitching win at the Little League World Series. Contact Dave O’Sullivan: sully@acglorydays.com; on Twitter @GDsullysays [adsense]
Holy Spirit’s defense smothers Wildwood Catholic in Shootout finale
