Wednesday afternoon was a strange day in Swanson Gymnasium.

Despite the palpable excitement in the air for the girls’ basketball season opener, something felt amiss. For anyone who has been around the program for the last six years, the reason was obvious: Niamh Scanlon was not on the court.

The last time our girls’ basketball team took the floor without Scanlon on the squad was February 11, 2017. In the 2,468 days that transpired between that day and Wednesday, Niamh was a six-year varsity starter, became the seventh 1,000-point scorer in team history, won a pair of PSAA MVP awards, and led the Bears to three regular season titles and a tournament championship. She graduated in May and is attending Loyola Marymount University. So the Swanson faithful were missing #12 on Wednesday night, but a strong performance from a revamped squad helped buoy the hearts of Bear Nation.

The Bears opened their PSAA title defense by hosting Solomon Schechter and took control from the outset in a 74-35 win. Senior transfer Meaghan Doherty made the most of her first minutes in a Bears uniform by scoring a pair of layups and draining a 3-pointer to stake the Bears to an early 7-0 lead. Fellow transfer Cassandra Rohan scored the next four points before another transfer, 8th-grader Abby Smith, stole the ball and dropped in a layup to prompt a Lions timeout with the Bears ahead 13-0.

Doherty continued to pour it on in the opening frame as she converted a fastbreak layup before canning a deep 3-pointer to push the Bears lead to 18-1. Soraya Carrano’s foul line jumper preceded a baseline jumper and putback from Rohan as the Bears ended the first quarter with a 24-3 advantage.

Doherty opened the second period with a jumper and a steal and layup to up her total to 16 points and the Bears’ margin to 28-3. An in-bound layup for Rohan, a Jocelyn McCrain floater, a Quinn Davey layup, and a pair of layups from McCrain and Rohan capped a 20-0 run and buried the Lions in a 3-38 deficit. Rohan capped the first half scoring with a layup to give The Brook a 43-8 lead at the half.

In the second half the Bears outscored the visitors 31-27 to cruise to the season opening win. Rohan led all scorers with 28 points and 14 rebounds in her first game as a Bear. Doherty also turned in a double-double in her first time wearing the blue and white with 24 points and 10 assists. McCrain (7 pts, 8 reb), Smith (6 pts), Carrano (2 pts, 4 reb), Payton Martin (3 pts, 4 reb), Scarlett Davey (2 pts, 2 reb), and Quinn Davey (2 pts, 2 reb) rounded out the scoring for the Bears.

The Bears return to action after Thanksgiving with a home PSAA match-up vs. Waldorf on November 27.

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