Panther girls’ basketball earns first victory
By: Bob Nuse
Sue Repko knows that the Princeton Day School girls’ basketball team is a work in progress.
Her players know that as well.
"We have a very young team this year," said Repko, who is in her second year as the Panthers’ head coach. "And we’ve had some injuries and people sick this year. But the girls have worked hard and we’ve been seeing progress, which is the main thing we’re looking for right now."
After opening the season with 10 straight losses, PDS picked up its first win of the season on Tuesday when it topped Timothy Christian, 44-29. The offensive output was the highest of the year for the Panthers, who put together their best game of the season to earn the win.
"This is like a rebuilding year for us," said junior guard Ellen Cook, the Panther player with the most varsity experience coming into the season. "We lost four starters from last year and we’re still getting used to playing together. Most of us have not played together before. We have a freshman point guard. Everyone is getting experience this year."
That experience paid off with a win on Tuesday, as Meg Francfort led the way with 11 points and Keely Langdon added nine.
"We have a lot of kids with a lot of heart, but we don’t have much experience," said Repko, whose team lost to Hightstown, 53-39, on Wednesday to fall to 1-11. "We knew this year was going to be tough in terms of winning. But they’ve worked hard in practice and we keep getting better.
"We played Pennington the other day and the first six or six and a half minutes of the game, the score was 1-0. Our defense was very good in that game. And if we start to see more of that, it’s going to help us down the road."
The Panthers have tried to use every game this season as a learning experience. Earlier in the season they traveled to highly-regarded Morris Catholic and dropped a 72-16 decision. But, Repko and her players all took something out of the game.
"Even though they scored a lot against us, it was good for the kids to see that kind of a program, with the spirit of their team and the way they take care of business," said Repko, whose team will play at Blair on Saturday. "It was a good experience for us. The kids got a chance to see the way a great program conducts themselves and I think that was important for us."
"I don’t think we’ll face a 1-3-1 defense better than that again," Cook said. "So the next time we come out and play a team that uses that kind of pressure, we’ll be more prepared. Even after that game, we looked to come to the next practice and work hard and get better.
"Our team is young. We have no seniors and only three juniors. Last year we had a lot of experience."
This year, Cook is as experienced as it gets. She’s the team’s leading returning scorer averaging 2.5 points a game. And she has to take on more of a leadership role this year.
"Last year we had three seniors who took the leadership role," Cook said." And we had Lexi (Cheshier) who was a strong player and then she moved to California. This year we’ve had different people step up. Kelly had played well and so has Meg. We’ve got four freshmen playing for us this year. We’re improving and hopefully the wins will come for us."
The first one came Tuesday, with Cook helping out with more than just the six points she scored.
"There were some key points in the game where we started to lose our composure and she would make a basket or stepped in on defense and made a big play," Repko said. "She has the most experience on our team and that showed.
"Meg is coming along as an inside player. Kathryn Batchelor was home for break recently and she came and noticed that Meg has really improved. Meg took quite a beating from Kathryn in practices last year and it has paid off this year."
For the Panthers, that’s the way this season will be measured. Not in terms of wins and losses, but rather how they come along as players. Of course, a win like Tuesday’s doesn’t hurt either.

