Garnet Valley’s Haylie Adamski shoots and scores over Spring-Ford’s Siena Miller during a District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal Saturday at Spring-Ford. (Austin Hertzog – MediaNews Group)
By Austin Hertzog
The Spring-Ford girls basketball coaching staff occasionally tells its team to ‘rip off the rear-view mirror’ as a way to not dwell on a mistake or the past.
It was a rip-off-the-mirror sort of first half Saturday for the reigning district champion Rams thanks to Central League champion Garnet Valley in their District 1 Class 6A quarterfinal matchup.
“No matter what happens in a game, if you make a mistake we tell them, ‘Rip off the rear view mirror,’” said Rams head coach Mickey McDaniel. “You have 0.3 seconds to be upset with that mistake but then you’ve got to move on.”
The Rams had a bit longer at halftime to dwell upon a 12-point first half that came courtesy of the Jaguars’ devastating 2-3 zone defense, but, like directed, it was left to the past.
Sophomore Katie Tiffan was Saturday’s glass shatterer with an individual 12-point run to start the third quarter that sent No. 11 Spring-Ford on its way to a 40-30 win over No. 14 Garnet Valley to advance to its fifth straight District 1 semifinal.
“Second half we really brought it to them,” said sophomore Anna Azzara. “Great effort on the defensive end and on the offensive end. We were knocking down our shots more than we were in the first half.”