City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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HATBORO >> It’s the 30th  anniversary for the Philadelphia/Suburban Women’s Summer Basketball League, the long-running league offering current non-Division I college players and alumni of any level a competitive setting to fill the summer.

This year’s league features 10 teams, six of them composed mainly of a D-II or D-III roster (Arcadia, Chestnut Hill College, Goldey-Beacom, Holy Family, Jefferson and West Chester), two alumni teams and the final two squads drafted together from the remaining players. The league runs with games on Tuesday and Thursdays at Kelly Bolish Gym (save for a bye week for the 4th of July holiday), all teams then qualifying for a league playoff.

From incoming freshmen getting a first look at their new teams to some local legends still lacing up the sneakers for the fun of it, the league lives by its mantra that all players should be given the opportunity to hone their skills for the upcoming collegiate season, have fun and stay fit.

Here are a few notes from the week of June 20: 

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Anna McTamney (Sr | West Chester)

The role has reversed for Anna McTamney.

Two years ago, the Plymouth Whitemarsh alum was part of a large influx of players coming into West Chester as the Golden Rams reshaped their roster with plenty of new faces. While she hadn’t planned on playing for the PSAC program, McTamney fit right in at her new home.

Now she’s a vet and an established presence as the Rams prepare for another facelift.

“It’s crazy thinking I’m going into my last year,” McTamney said after her West Chester-led team’s comeback win Tuesday night. “It’s a little sad but I’m also looking forward to it.

“We had eight people graduate, there’s only seven of us returning with only me and Mia Kozicki as starters, so we’ll need a lot of people to step up.”

McTamney played her freshman year at USciences but not intending to be a part of the final team in the university’s history. When USciences announced it would be merging with St. Joe’s following the 21-22 academic year in February of 2021 - her senior year at PW - McTamney decided to stick it out for a year and was a valuable bench contributor on the Devils’ CACC championship team.

The next year, she was in purple and gold and one of three transfers who fit right into the starting lineup. Primarily a post player at PW and USciences, the Rams moved McTamney to guard and all she’s done the last two years is turn in back-to-back Second Team All-PSAC East performances.

“Throughout high school, I never shot threes, I never did any mid-range jumpers, I felt like it was all in the paint,” McTamney, a 1,000-point scorer and all-state selection as a senior at PW, said. “It was the same in college freshman year, I was a post player then I moved to guard. I just had to get comfortable being on the outside, I know for sure my game has changed but I also feel more comfortable.”

Among the departures from last season were the Rams’ top two scorers in Emily McAteer and Leah Johnson, both 1,000 point scorers. Johnson is still playing in the league, having moved on to one of the to alumni rosters but the PSAC East Player of the Year and McAteer have left McTamney and Kozicki as the top returning scorers.

Rising senior guard Rachel Conran is also back, the Springfield-Delco alum appearing in 23 games but no starts last year but by and large, the Rams will be asking a lot of their returning underclassmen and incoming freshmen.

“It puts me in a position where I have to look to take more control,” McTamney said. “Maybe last season, I was able to sit back and let my teammates go to work. I let them run with and was right there with them but this year it’s going to be completely different.”

It’s not completely foreign territory for McTamney. As a freshman at PW, she stepped into a starting role alongside a fantastic senior class of Taylor O’Brien, Lauren Fortescue and Ali Diamond. She transitioned into a leading role as Kaitlyn Flanagan, Jordyn Thomas and Lainey Allen arrived the next year with Erin Daley and Abby Sharpe following the season after, that group going 34-0 and winning a state title during the 2021-22 season.

When McTamney transferred to West Chester with a group that included Kozicki and McAteer, while the roster was reforming in a major way, they all had some measure of college experience. The now rising senior noted this year will be a little different with the incoming group not having that experience to fall back on. At the same time, McTamney isn’t looking at it as a negative either.

“I think it will be a lot harder for teams to guard us, it’s always hard to get a scout on someone you haven’t seen before so I think that could be beneficial for us,” McTamney said. “If the younger girls come in and are getting a lot of minutes, nobody knows what to expect. For instance, when I played a little bit my year at USci, nobody really knew what I could do and I’d go out there and have 14 (points) in 16 minutes or something like that.”

She started playing at eight years old and with just one season of college ball guaranteed left, McTamney admitted she’s started to think about what’s beyond. She’d potentially like to keep playing if the right opportunity arose and she’ll graduate with a business management degree, with an interest in getting into pharmaceutical or medical sales.

For the short term, she wants to stay healthy this summer and see what her currently 4-0 team can do in the league. Last year, a bad ankle sprain ended up costing her four-and-a-half months which included all of West Chester’s preseason and she isn’t aiming on repeating that experience.

McTamney also isn’t hiding from the fact she’s returning for senior year with a high bar set. The Rams reached the PSAC semifinals and the NCAA tournament each of the last two seasons, making it to the Atlantic Region final in 2022-23.

Last year, the Rams had to adapt to playing with a target on their back but they grew into it and put together a 16-game win streak before the PSAC semifinal loss. The PSAC is always tough, team rosters change every year but good players always seem to fill in whatever holes are opened across the league.

That doesn’t mean Anna McTamney is lowering her expectations for her final year.

“We have to continue to play that role,” McTamney said. “I don’t like to lose. Every game, my mentality is to win and play as hard as you can. I’m not scared of anything last year, things can change. I’m looking forward to it.”

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Delaney Finn & Ava Gumienny (Fr. | Arcadia)

Delaney Finn and Ava Gumienny both found the right place to keep playing basketball in college, which just happened to be at the same place.

They may have played at different high schools, Finn at Archbishop Ryan and Guminenny at Villa Joseph Marie, but they’ve been teammates in some capacity for a long time including eight years with the Mid-Atlantic Magic. They’ll be sharing the same roster again this coming year as freshmen at Arcadia, part of Jackie Hartzell’s first full recruiting class since taking over the program two years ago.

The two guards are getting a head start as Knights and a few final matchups with some old Magic teammates this summer.

“We’re both really excited,” Gumienny said after Thursday’s game. “It’s a really cool experience, we’ve been together since fourth grade and now we get four more years together.”

Gumienny had her best season as a senior, earning First Team All-AACA honors while helping the Jems win the District I 4A title and their first round PIAA game. Caroline Grey took over at VJM before her junior year, giving Gumienny a chance to thrive as an upperclassman. 

After making the PIAA 5A tournament as a junior, Finn’s senior year at Ryan was challenging, a coaching change and departures from the roster late in preseason meant struggles in the always difficult PCL. However, the sharpshooting guard still earned second team All-PCL honors for a second straight year.

The fact they’re similar players - Finn and Gumienny are both 5-foot-6, they’re both excellent shooters and both get after it defensively - didn’t lead to them getting in each other’s way playing with the Magic under John Gallagher.

“We’ve always gotten along really well,” Finn said. “I want her to do well when she’s in and she’s the same for me.”

“I think playing the same position, we’re always there to help each other out,” Gumienny added. “She goes in for me, I go in for her, we want to pick each other up.”

It also didn’t deter Arcadia from recruiting both of them. They were both local, they played for a good club team, faced good competition with their high school teams and clearly showed they played well together.

In fitting fashion, they both announced their decision within a couple days of each other.

“As soon as we realized the coaches were talking to both of us, we said ‘let’s go there,’” Finn said. “We both fell in love with the school right away and once I found out she was interested, it was like, ‘there’s my roommate.’”

The Knights have made huge strides in just two years under Hartzell. Arcadia went 22-5 last year, reaching the MAC Freedom title game for the first time in program history while also setting program records for single season wins and conference wins.

“It’s very similar to our AAU team,” Gumienny said. “They run similar plays, the organization was very familiar so I thought it would be easy to fit in and roll right into it.”

“I really liked the coaches and the team,” Finn said. “It felt like it would be really easy to fit in with them and that helped.” 

Arcadia returns its top three scorers from last year in Hanna Rhoades, Delaney Bell and Scarlett Glasser-Nehls. This summer, Finn and Gumienny are using their time in the league to get to know their new teammates, including the other incoming freshmen Taylor Koenig and Hannah Barry and build some on-court continuity with them.

They’re also glad to be in the same colors again and for the near future.

“We’re just really excited we get to play the next four years together,” Gumienny said.

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Quick Hits

— Through two weeks, the league was down to a pair of unbeaten teams. West Chester’s squad - supplanted by a few non-Golden Rams - and the defending champion alumni team are both 4-0 thanks to a couple big performances. USciences alum Taylor Hamm had 37 for the alums on Tuesday while Kutztown grad Rylee Derr had 29 on Thursday in a 2-0 week while the West Chester crew was sparked by Rachel Conran’s hot shooting, the Springfield-Delco alum going for 25 in Tuesday’s comeback win and 14 on Thursday to supplant 18 from incoming freshman Aaliyah Solliday.

Goldey-Beacom is the newest (relatively) local program to field a mostly complete roster in the league while Kutztown doesn’t have the majority of its roster in the league for the first time in a few years. Rising sophomore Katie Yoder, a Pennridge alum, has a pair of 20-plus point outings already but the Golden Eagles-led squad is still searching for its first win. Holy Family (3-1), Chestnut Hill College (2-2) and Jefferson (2-2) round out a CACC-heavy flavor to the 10-team league, plus the various CHC and USciences alums on the league’s two alumni-led rosters.