Westtown girls rout Friends’ Central, 76-24, for third straight PAISAA championship

Savannah Curry enjoys lighting up the nets on Division I courts.

The Westtown senior guard has played in two games at St. Joseph’s Hagan Arena — both state championships — as well as one at La Salle. Those are gyms the Temple recruit will see over the next few years — and if her performances to date are any indication, the Hawks and Explorers better watch out.

Curry scored 15 points Sunday evening at Hagan Arena, leading Westtown to a 76-24 win over Friends’ Central in the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association girls’ championship game.

Westtown won its third straight PAISAA title in dominant fashion. The Moose scored the game’s first 17 points, were up 27-3 before Friends’ Central scored its first field goal, and had a 41-8 lead at halftime.

It was 58-11 after three quarters when Moose coach Fran Burbidge let his bench finish out the game.

“I think from the beginning of the year, we were really just like, this was our expectation,” Burbidge said. “We hold ourselves to a very high standard, and at the end of the day we’re still looking to get better. I hope this isn’t our last, final thing, but it feels great to be back here.”

The result was no surprise. The Moose is among the nation’s top girls’ programs and represented an overpowering matchup for a Friends’ Central squad that has three Division I prospects of its own but without Westtown’s overall depth. Everybody in Burbidge’s top seven will be playing D-I ball, and the eighth-graders deep on his bench are on that track as well.

“[The] kids are really good,” Burbidge said in perhaps the understatement of the season. “They’re a very talented group, but they have worked so hard at practice, in games. And when you see a talented group like that — that takes defending the basketball as individuals and as a team, as seriously as they do — as a coach and as a staff, we’re blessed.”

Curry, a 5-foot-11 sharpshooting wing, checked out for what could be the final time in her high school career with 2 minutes, 40 seconds left in the third quarter, Westtown’s lead at 53-8. She finished with three rebounds, two assists, and two steals in addition to her scoring total, knocking down a pair of three-pointers along the way.

Whether this was indeed the end for Westtown’s season depends on whether it gets an invitation to the national semifinals. Last year, the Moose played in the event now called the Chipotle Nationals. It will be held at Brownsburg (Ind.) High School from April 4-6.

There’s no doubt that if Westtown is invited, the Moose’s season will continue.

“We’re really happy as a staff that they would want to keep playing and keep wanting to be with each other,” Burbidge said. “To us as a staff, that makes us feel really good that the culture and the enjoyment is what it’s been and is what it is. For them to have that desire to want to continue to do some things, that’s great, that’s great. We’ll go along for the ride with them.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.