Fencor 1989s

Caring for team 07/23/05 James D. Horne Staff Defending champions have gift, which lies in love for each other By JAMES D. HORNE The Leaf-Chronicle Yes, Philadelphia-based Fencor is the top seed at this year's AAU 15U Girls National Basketball Championships. Sure, they come into this year's tournament after most of the same group won the AAU's 14U title last year in Monroe, La. And most people in the basketball world know that Fencor is led by Elena Delle Donne, who is listed as the top freshman guard in the country by USA Today. But here's the essence that makes Fencor such a dominating team. "It's amazing how much this team cares for each other," Fencor head coach Veronica Algeo said after the team's 72-40 opening game win over the Clarksville Net Force at the Dunn Center on Friday. "Caroline Doty fractured her fibula right before Nationals last year, and we went with eight healthy players. The girls were so awesome to her. And Caroline was so awesome to them during the games, she was like an assistant coach on the bench. All the girls went out and got T-shirts with Doty's No. 5 and wore them as warm-ups. "It's hard to say how these girls have become so close. But it's a unique thing, particularly the way sports in our culture have become so individualistic." In the team members' eyes, the reason why Fencor is so tightly bonded is easy to explain. "We always have so much fun," said Doty, 15, a sophomore who attends Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa. "We're always working hard, but we always have smiles on our faces. Like, Shannon (Ferguson) is always picking everybody up. Elena always makes sure we're focused, but having fun and loving the game." "It is a lot of fun," said Ferguson, 16, a junior at Upper Dublin High in Fort Washington. "It's been a lot of work, because we do a lot of traveling. We've been to Virginia, Oregon and Chicago. It's tiring, but I love it because it's always fun. I love all the girls on this team. We always just have a good time, even while we are playing." Admittedly, it does help to have an athlete like Donne on the team. The 6-foot-5 sophomore, who goes to Ursuline Academy in Wilmington, Del., is fully aware all eyes are on her when she steps on the court. In Fencor's win on Friday, in which Donne led all scores with 22 points - most of which came in the first half - college coaches from Tennessee, Duke, Temple, Stanford, Virginia and a host of others were there to see her. But Donne doesn't sweat the pressure. "It doesn't really bother me," the 15-year-old said. "I just play my game. I don't really even think of them being there while I'm playing. I see them when I walk in and when I leave. But while I'm playing, I don't even know they are there." And, sorry, coaches - so far, Donne hasn't decided where she wants to attend college. "I have no idea," she said. Really and truly, Donne is just as focused on making sure Fencor wins as the rest of her teammates are. Mainly, because it's a family affair. "We're like nine sisters," Donne said. "It's not really like a team. Most of us have been together since we were 10 years old. It's just great that we're that close, because some teams have their ups and downs. But we never have to worry about that. We always have a great time together." However, while Fencor is a tightly knit group, the team has only one accomplishment in mind. "We're here to put all our hard work into the game and regain our title," Doty said. Fencor knows it won't be easy, especially since it walks in with the notoriety that comes with winning the 14U championship last year. "That actually makes it harder, because you see other teams when you walk in and they're like, `Oh, that's Fencor,'" Ferguson said. "You just know everyone sees you as the team they want to beat. And they are going to play against us as hard as they can, because they know we've won before. And they know we are coming back to win again." But clearly, the two-fold bottom line for Fencor is ... "We're here to win a championship," Donne said. "But we can still have fun doing it. But once it's game time, we're focused on winning because that's always been our goal."

By JAMES D. HORNE, 07/28/05 The Leaf-Chronicle Top-seeded Fencor (Pa.) left little doubt who was the best team at this year's AAU 15U Girls National Basketball Championships. It wasn't easy, but Fencor got it done by topping the third-seeded Fairfax (Va.) Stars 78-67 in the championship game at the Dunn Center on Wednesday afternoon. The win marks Fencor's second consecutive national championship and third overall — Fencor won the 12U title in 2002 — and its fourth straight trip to an AAU final. Fencor played the Stars in the 13U championship game, which the Stars won in 2003. "It's really a special moment for these girls," Fencor coach Veronica Algeo said. "No core group of girls have ever won three national titles, and we're going to try to make history by winning three. They challenged themselves a lot to get better the whole tournament. Really, anything less than winning a national title was going to be a failure." And it certainly helps to have an athlete like Fencor's Elena Delle Donne leading the way. The No. 1-ranked player in her age group showed why she's received such billing by dropping a game-high 40 points. Caroline Doty added 14 points and Lindsay Kimmel had 12. "It's a great feeling," Delle Donne said. "Each win felt great, and none was better than the other. It feels amazing to repeat also." Delle Donne's worth was really displayed as she scored 18 of Fencor's last 28 points. "I just did what I had to do," Delle Donne said. "That's pretty much it. When my team needs me, I want to step up for them, and thank God I was able to." But Delle Donne wasn't the only scorcher on the court. Fairfax's Jasmine Thomas, who was the 2005 Virginia high school basketball player of the year as a sophomore, did what she could for the Stars with her team-high 29 points. Chalysa Shegog had 16 points for the Stars and Taneisha Harrison chipped in eight. Thomas scored 21 of the Stars' final 31 points, including a pair of 3-pointers at the end of the game. "We came in with a game plan, but they were too tough," Thomas said. "We tried to bring our A-game. We both had two games before this, so there were some tired legs. But we're a good team and we'll be back." Both coaches enjoyed watching the show Delle Donne and Thomas put on. "It was a lot of fun," Fairfax coach Aggie McCormick-Dix said. "They're two completely different players, too. The kids and players who were watching in the stands got to see the best. If you are trying to reach a goal or have a dream, you have to understand this just doesn't happen. These girls have been playing since they were 9 years old, and their work paid off here." "I'm sure ESPN was sorry they weren't here to see that," Algeo said. "Really, when you think about it, you have two great teams going against each other. And each team has two girls who were selected in the top 20 in the nation by Nike for all high school players in the nation. So there are the marquee names for each side. And then you step up and each team is playing great and each marquee player is playing well, it's great for the fans and players to watch." Fencor took control of the game with a 16-4 run in the second half, that put Fencor up 68-52 on Shannon Ferguson's putback with 3:56 to play. James D. Hornecovers prep sports for The Leaf-Chronicle and can be reached by e-mail at jameshorne@theleafchroincle.com.

Nation's top player scores 22 points; Net Force play well during first half By JAMES D. HORNE 07/23/05 The Leaf-Chronicle Mookie Jackson and the rest of the Clarksville Net Force are happy they got their opening game of pool play in the AAU 15U Girls National Basketball Tournament out of the way. It's just because of the luck of the draw, or lack thereof, that the host-qualifying team had to take on top-seeded Fencor (Pa.), which took a 72-40 victory at the Dunn Center on Thursday. "I think we had a lot of confidence in the beginning of the game," said Jackson, a sophomore Northeast transfer. "As they took off and the score got higher, we hung our heads down and started to give up a little. If we would have kept our heads in the game, I think we could have won." But the Net Force (0-1, Pool A) gained some insight about how to play from here on out. "We learned a lot from the game," Jackson said. "We learned what the team can do and what we can't do. We just have to give it our all. We've got to go out and play hard every game. Now that we've gotten a hard team out of the way, we can pick it up." Jackson and Clarksville High junior Valerie Bronson led the Net Force with 10 points each, followed by Dickson County junior Brittney Stanford with eight points and Todd County (Ky.) Central junior Millie Deason's six. Fencor's (1-0, Pool A) talented sophomore Elena Delle Donne — ranked the nation's top player in her class by USA Today — led all scorers with 22 points. Lindsay Kimmel chipped in 18 points and Christine Matera added nine. And for a while there, the Net Force gave Fencor all they could handle. "Defensively to start, we were flat," Fencor coach Veronica Algeo said. "... To the credit of the Clarksville Net Force, they made us pay. They really executed well. But once we buckled down ... everything else kind of took care of itself." That point came when Fencor blew open a 27-20 game with 4:35 left in the first half, and ended the half on a 15-2 run to take a 42-22 halftime lead. "We came out and played hard the first 14-15 minutes," Net Force and Rossview boys coach Fred Harper said. "We were still in it when it was 27-20. But they went on that run. I thought we missed some bunnies and didn't use the glass on some putbacks. Those might not have made a difference in the outcome, but it would have helped in the spread of the game."

By MATTHEW KOEWLER, 07/28/05 The Leaf-Chronicle -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fencor (Pa.) defeated the Dayton Lady Hoopstars 59-35 Wednesday afternoon to advance to the finals of the AAU National Championship game. The Hoopstars started the game with a 10-0 run in the first two minutes that was capped off by a 3-pointer from Stephanie Bambeuger and then another 3-pointer by Carlee Roethlisberger. After Fencor head coach Veronica Algeo called a timeout, Fencor responded with a 13-0 run and they never looked back. Caroline Doty said the message during the timeout was simple, but it worked. "Pick our heads up. Play defense and just play our game," Doty said of the message during the timeout. "We came into the game happy that we won our first game this morning; we knew we had to wake up. It was like a wake-up call." Doty was able to go the length of the court with 8.6 seconds left before halftime to take a 29-20 lead into the break. The Hoopstars' Sarah Schulze helped cut the lead to four as she got five of her team-high 13 points on consecutive trips down the court. Fencor, though, wouldn't have a second-half letdown and was led by Elena Delle Donne's 26 points despite Roethlisberger's strong defense. "I was going to do what it took to win," Delle Donne said. Algeo knew Doty and Delle Donne would come up with big performances for their team. "The bigger the stakes, the bigger they play," Algeo said. "They are just tremendous basketball players and are terrific teammates as well. They are great to coach and are just wonderful kids." Hoopstars coach Jerry Rex knew his team was up against a tough team and wants his girls to remember playing a team of their talent. "It's nice that they got to play a team of that caliber, it's something they will remember for a lifetime," Rex said.