Locked in a shooting slump and narrowly leading a winless team at halftime on a rainy night one week before Christmas, Twin Valley needed a spark.
Good thing the Raiders have Ellie Kaplan.
"She's special," Twin Valley head coach Matt Hahn said. "She's got a motor and is always go, go, go. That's what we love about her."
Kaplan, or 'Kap' as Hahn refers to his junior captain, scored 11 points, gobbled up 11 rebounds, dished out four assists, and swiped four steals to lead the Raiders to a 38-26 non-league victory over Warwick Tuesday night in Elverson.
Kaplan, a Syracuse lacrosse commit, terrorized the Warriors (0-8) defensively at the head of Twin Valley's full-court press and snatched nearly every 50-50 rebound, two pivotal areas to dominate in a game with cold shooting on both ends.
"A lot of the movements in lacrosse are similar to basketball," Kaplan said. "I play my role like that. I'm not a shooter. I'm the one that's going to find the assist, find the rebound. I find my game making athletic plays."
The Raiders (8-1) shot only 27 percent from the field and 1-for-18 from 3, but were able to hold the lead for the entire game by equally limiting Warwick's offense. The Warriors shot 15 percent from the field and 4-for-24 from deep.
Mia Warfel drilled two of those 3s for Warwick in the final minutes of the second quarter to cut Twin Valley's lead to 14-10 at halftime.
Kaplan and the Raiders imposed their physicality in the second half, shifting away from the perimeter game and getting easy points or drawing free throws by getting out in transition after playing stingy full-court D and causing turnovers.
If there was a missed shot, Kaplan was there to secure it and start the break or give Twin Valley a second opportunity at a putback.
"We were in a bit of a shooting slump and not putting up as many points as we like," Kaplan said. "But that just makes rebounding even more important. The shots are going to fall, we just need to keep getting them up."
Twin Valley girls basketball last started 8-1 in 2020-21 with a roster riddled with interchangeable, versatile athletes including Ellie's older sister Anna, who is playing lacrosse at Loyola. These Raiders appear to fit the same mold.
The six-player rotation of sophomore Lauren Williams, senior Delaney Hoover, junior Olivia Schmittinger, Kaplan, freshman Olivia Kilgore, and junior Hailey Kilgore gives Hahn a balanced group to tinker with.
The elder Kilgore leads the team scoring-wise with a 14.8 average and 19 3s, but she was held scoreless in the first half Tuesday. It's a good sign for the Raiders that they found a way to grind out a win.
Twin Valley finished 7-15 last season and 4-18 the year before that, which was the first losing record for the program in eight years and three years after Peyton McDaniel, the James Madison junior who the Raiders went to watch play at Villanova Sunday, left her indelible mark on the program.
These Raiders are getting back to their winning ways.
"We're coming in with a different attitude," Kaplan said. "It's a confidence thing. We came into the season saying we were going to turn this around. A lot of us have been playing together for a while and we've been building chemistry. It's finally starting to click."
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
Twin Valley | 8 | 6 | 10 | 14 | 38 |
Warwick | 2 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 26 |
Raiders (8-1) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Williams | 2-11 | 1-2 | 0-2 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
Hoover | 0-1 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Schmittinger | 3-9 | 2-5 | 0-1 | 1 | 8 | 8 |
Kaplan | 5-5 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 4 | 11 | 11 |
O. Kilgore | 1-8 | 1-2 | 0-4 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
H. Kilgore | 2-15 | 3-4 | 1-10 | 2 | 6 | 8 |
Hahn | 1-2 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
Crisi | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Totals | 14-51 | 9-19 | 1-18 | 8 | 38/44 | 38 |
Warriors (0-8) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
Warfel | 3-13 | 0-0 | 3-11 | 1 | 5 | 9 |
Jeanes | 0-13 | 3-4 | 0-6 | 0 | 10 | 3 |
Dombach | 1-6 | 0-0 | 1-3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
Piefer | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 4 | 0 |
Pusey | 0-5 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Lipisko | 4-9 | 3-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 6 | 11 |
Burr | 0-1 | 0-4 | 0-0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
Landis | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Totals | 8-52 | 6-11 | 4-24 | 2 | 39/45 | 26 |
Turnovers: Twin Valley 17, Warwick 19. Team rebounds: Twin Valley 6, Warwick 6.
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