EL TRAIN: Princeton Day School girls’ basketball player Ella McLaren, right, chases down the ball in a game earlier this season. Last Monday, junior guard McLaren scored six points in a losing cause as second-seeded PDS fell 55-39 to sixth-seeded Pennington in the Prep B state semifinals last Monday. The Panthers, now 11-8, will be hosting Somerville High on February 12 and Stuart Country Day on February 18 in regular season action. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

By Bill Alden

Hosting sixth-seeded Pennington in the Prep B state semifinals last Monday evening, the second-seeded Princeton Day School girls’ basketball team dug an early hole as it fell behind 20-8.

“Pennington is a good team, [Izzy] Augustine came out and hit some deep ones early,” said PDS first-year head coach Pat Reddington. “We wanted to force her into some deep, tougher shots and she ended up hitting them.”

Trailing 20-12 heading into the second quarter, the Panthers tightened things up, fighting Pennington to a 7-7 standstill in the period.

“Our girls battled, the second quarter was a little better so that was good,” said Reddington.

At halftime, Reddington was cautiously optimistic. “We were still in the game,” said Reddington. “We were turning the ball over, self-inflicted, a little bit in the first half. In the second half, the goal was not to do that.”

The Panthers, however, didn’t achieve that goal as the Red Hawks pulled away to a 55-39 win. “It didn’t really happen,” said Reddington. “We had a lot of turnovers.”

While PDS didn’t pull out the win, it made some good things happen in the fourth quarter as it outscored the Red Hawks 13-11 in the period.

“What you can always say about them is that we are never going to give up,” said Reddington, whose squad moved to 11-8 with the defeat. “That is something we can always build off of. That was something coming onto this year that was important to me is that we don’t have quitters and we don’t have complaining. Everybody just battles.”

Advancing to the Prep B semis marked progress for a Panther program that struggled to a 3-16 record last winter.

“We would have liked to get to the championship game but ultimately this is a successful season based off of last year,” said Reddington. “We are going to continue to build.”

Adding junior guard Juliana Hartman to the squad midway through the season has been a big plus for the PDS.”

“She joined right after the winter break,” said Reddington of Hartman who scored nine points in the loss to Pennington. “She was undecided, she is a big soccer player. She has definitely helped us control the ball. She has helped us defensively. She is usually our defensive stopper. We love having Jules here.”

Two other soccer players, juniors Ella McLaren and Nica Martin, have made a big impact as well this winter. McLaren contributed six points against the Red Hawks while Martin chipped in 10.

“Ella is always banged up because of how hard she plays,” said Reddington. “Early in the season, she really started to click and then she took a charge and broke her thumb. Nica has been playing good. With Jules, we were able to move her off the ball a little bit as well which helps her get going as well.”

A pair of senior stalwarts, Nandini Kolli and Shelby Ruf, have set a good tone for the team all season long.

“Nandini and Shelby are always our emotional leaders,” said Reddington. “I don’t know if they had the best games statistics-wise today but they forced their big into traveling a couple of times. They are huge for us. We always go as they go a little bit. I always give then a bunch of credit for playing through most of the 32 minutes. Shelby came out a little bit. They play a lot of minutes for us and they play hard.”

With PDS hosting Somerville High on February 12 and Stuart Country Day on February 18 before starting play in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) state tourney, Reddington is confident his squad will keep playing hard.

“We have Non-Public A coming up to get ready for,” said Reddington. “We have a couple of regular season games left and we might pick up a game or two as well. There is big stuff to build off of going into states and next year as well.”