It is easy to be cynical about the state of the Upper Perk girls basketball team, now 0-9 after a 50-20 loss to Phoenixville at home on Tuesday night.

        But to watch the girls hustle up and down the floor and watch them diving for loose balls and watch their coach still instructing them in the late stages of a blowout tells a different story than what the scoreboard does.

        Hey, it's not like they are tanking the season on purpose.

        There were some bright spots in the game on Tuesday night, most notably sophomore Sierra Kelly's double-double. Her 12 points and 15 rebounds were both season-highs.

        The Indians played the game against the Phantoms without senior Gabi Marinelli, who was sidelined with a leg injury.

        "It was tough," said first-year coach Greg Swavely. "When you don't have your leader, your person that pretty much does it all, it's tough.

        "I challenged the girls before the game to have everybody step up and try and make up for what we were missing, but, in reality, how can you really replace a person like Gabi?"

        The leadership vacuum showed on the court. The Tribe was bedeviled by the Phantoms full court press and committed 25 turnovers in the first half alone, 47 for the game.

        Fortunately for the Tribe, Phoenixville had a horrendous shooting half and Upper Perk trailed just 14-5 at intermission.

        The third quarter was a different story though.

        Two quick lay-ups by the Phantoms' Julia Brown launched an 8-0 run broken by Valerie Janton's basket with 3:38 left in the third to make it 22-7. Janton's bucket would be the Tribe's only points of the quarter.

        But Brown (team-high 10 points) and fellow guard Ruth Doberenz sparked a 15-0 stretch to close out the third stanza with the Tribe trailing 37-7.

        Led by Kelly, the Indians continued to play hard and gained a modicum of respect by playing the Phantoms to a 13-13 tie in the final quarter.

        Tired of the Phantoms rough play throughout the game, the Tribe went on the offensive.

        "We got more aggressive, and that's what our team needs more," Kelly said. "For the fourth quarter, we just put it up a notch."

        The sophomore center, listed at 6', scored most of her points in the paint and battled under the basket all night.

        "The sky's the limit for Sierra," offered coach Swavely. "Sometimes she gets in her own way, but when she learns to really do something with the ball, get her footwork down, she's going to be as good an inside person as there will be by the time she's a senior."

        For Kelly, who has only been playing basketball since eighth grade and just got "a taste" of varsity as a freshman last year, the fourth quarter was a confidence booster.

        "It shows that I'm ready to handle what's coming in the next two years for me."

After the loss, Swavely was upbeat about the progress of the rest of the team also.

        "I feel positive about the direction that we are taking it. We're not getting the immediate results that we want, but if I were to measure how much they've learned from day one until today, its been tremendous learning and growing.

        "So, I feel positive about the future. Just in the meantime, we've got to take our lumps and just get through it."

        Kelly agrees with her coach's assessment.

        "I think this team is frustrated that we don't quite have all the skills that we should have.

        We go over a lot of stuff in practice, and we're learning slowly to put them into the games."