ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON CITYOFBASKETBALLLOVE.COM ON OCT. 23, 2024 | BY JOSEPH SANTOLIQUITO

Excuse Gabby Bowes and Jessica Kolecki for having a great disdain for sharing when it comes to some instances. Eight months ago, the Germantown Academy senior starters are still haunted by “sharing.” They had it right there in their hands, and it sifted out like sand through their fingers. Bowes’ and Kolecki’s dream of an outright Inter-Academic League title was spoiled in a blowout loss mid-February to Inter-Ac rival Notre Dame Academy. 

Instead, the Patriots had to “share” the Inter-Ac championship with Penn Charter and Notre Dame, which was Germantown Academy’s first Inter-Ac championship since 2020.

This season, Bowes and Kolecki have no plans on sharing.

They want to own the whole thing.

“I do remember that (Notre Dame) game (a 60-39 loss) as if it happened yesterday,” said Bowes, a 5-foot-10 shooting guard headed to Millersville. “It is still a game that I replay back in my head because I don’t want it to happen again. We can do something about it this year. We had just beaten Penn Charter and we were on a high from that game. We didn’t come into the (Notre Dame) game with the right mentality, and I think that is what bothers me the most. We did not play the way we were capable of playing. Credit to Notre Dame. They are a great team with great players. We just weren’t at our best.”

This is a mission season for the Patriots, who were very good in head coach Lauren Power’s first season last year, when Germantown Academy finished 24-6 overall and 10-2 in the Inter-Ac. The Patriots reached the Pennsylvania Independent School Athletic Association (PISAA), where they lost to Friends Central in the semifinals.

Power, Bowes and Kolecki, a 5-8 three-year starting guard, have a team capable of winning the Inter-Ac—outright—with a deep, talented squad that will pressure opponents.

Bowes and Kolecki are Power’s only two returning starters, but the Patriots will have a wealth of talent in 5-foot-9 junior forward Anna Weber, 5-4 junior guard Jennifer Fox and 5-11 junior forward Sylvie Harrington, along with 6-foot sophomore forward Jo Owens, 5-10 sophomore forward Claire McKee and a host of highly talented freshmen in 5-11 forward Taylor Williams, 5-4 guard Molly Beggs, 5-8 forward Julianna Rush, and 5-6 guard Luccia Bibro. Perhaps the biggest impact of all the newcomers will be 5-foot-5 guard Azzure O’Connor, an eighth grader able to play varsity per Inter-Ac rules.

Kolecki, like Bowes, still lugs the Notre Dame loss in the Inter-Ac season finale.

“I definitely think about that game, too,” said Kolecki, who is debating whether this will be her last year playing organized basketball and intends to follow the path set by her parents in pursuing a medical career as a doctor. “We were coming off the PC loss and it sticks with me and Gabby the most, because we know we could have won the Inter-Ac title outright. We will look very different this year. We will have a ton more energy. I think chemistry will take a little bit of time, and we are still learning each other, but it will come quickly. This is a hungry team for the kind of season we had last year.”

The biggest concern is age and experience. Both Notre Dame and Penn Charter come back with some experience. Power will enter this season with possibly the deepest team she has ever had, even after spending five years at Notre Dame before coming to GA. Though her team will be young, Power has loaded her schedule up by playing the likes of Audenried, Conestoga, Lansdale Catholic, Neumann-Goretti and more.

She will find out quickly where her team is and where they need to be.

O’Connor, who at times looked brilliant this summer, will be someone opposing teams will find out about fast.

“Azzure has more confidence in the tip of her pinky than any middle schooler I have ever met in my life,” Power said. “She is unbelievable. She competed in varsity cross-country as an eighth grader this fall [to get in shape for basketball]. She is a stud athlete who has an unbelievable mindset already as an eighth grader. She is our future. She will play the '1' and the '2' for us.”

Power will put O’Connor, whose father is former St. Joe's standout Marvin O'Connor, under the wing of Kolecki, an all-Inter-Ac point guard and interchange the two. O’Connor possesses a court vision that belies her age.

She is ready to step in.

“I’m looking to make an impact as an eighth grader,” O’Connor said. “I have been playing up my whole life, so this is nothing new to me. The speed (of the varsity level) is not too fast for me. I know they will be depending on me a lot. I ran cross-country (this fall) for basketball conditioning. My confidence comes from playing in the inner city. I’m getting more acclimated to my teammates and I think they are getting used to me."

Power could go nine or 10 deep with this team. With the athleticism available on this roster, she may have the luxury of pressing teams from start to finish.

Owens has made a big leap from last year. She is altering shots and grabbing rebounds, making a difference inside defensively. She has also added a new dimension, the 12-to-18-foot mid-range jumper to her arsenal and stretched her shooting to three-point range. Fox has always been a shooter, but she has worked on her handle and passing over the summer. Her confidence, according to Power, has made a jump. She adds a gritty intangible to the Patriots. McKee could be the most athletic player Power has. She is a natural scorer who is coming off a confidence-boosting summer.

“I love our leadership, I can’t say enough about the job Jess and Gabby have done in getting our younger players up to speed,” Power said. “We have two of the best young players in the entire area in Azzure and Taylor Williams. We can come at people in waves. We are deeper this year than we were last year. It allows us to be more versatile. We will definitely run more this year. We have a tough schedule and do not have a ton of experience back, but we fully expect to compete for an Inter-Ac championship.”

This time without sharing.