Hun Girls’ Hoops Showing Early Progress As Mullen Provides Leadership by Example
Janelle Mullen felt out of sorts as the Hun School girls’ basketball team hosted Friends Central (Pa.) last Friday.
“I wasn’t ready in the first half, my body just felt really shaky,” said Hun senior star guard Mullen, who had just four free throws as Hun trailed 27-20 at intermission. “During halftime I was shooting around and started feeling OK.”
With Hun trailing 37-33 going into the fourth quarter, Mullen found her shot and helped the Raiders stage a rally. Hitting a key three-pointer, Mullen helped Hun draw even at 43-43 in the waning moments of regulation as she tallied 10 points in the quarter. That was the high water mark for the Raiders, though, as they ran out of gas down the stretch in losing 55-45.
“I thought we had momentum, we just tied the game up,” said Mullen. “We could have won but we just fell short.”
While Hun didn’t close the deal, Mullen saw the effort as progress from the team’s 54-38 defeat to Abington Friends (Pa.) in its opener on December 2.
“In the first game, we didn’t have a lot of overall scoring,” noted Mullen, who ended up with 14 points in the loss to Friends Central. “We scored better as a team and our defense was better in this game than the last game.”
Mullen and classmate Erica Dwyer are dedicated to helping Hun become better this season.
“We are the only two seniors so coming into the season we automatically accepted the leadership roles,” said Mullen, who contributed 22 points, nine rebounds, and five steals on Saturday as Hun topped St. Andrew’s (Del.) 45-28 to earn its first win this season.
“We were like captains before they even mentioned captains. It is directing people, telling them where to go, and cheering them on.”
Having signed a letter of intent to attend St. Peter’s University and play for its women’s basketball program, Mullen has a weight off of her shoulders as she plays her final campaign for Hun.
“I liked the school when I went there and I really liked the coaching staff as well,” said Mullen. “There is no pressure on me this year to try to get a school.”
Hun head coach Bill Holup liked the way his team made strides from its opening day loss.
“We made a lot of progress, we shot much better,” said Holup, who got 20 points from Dwyer in the loss to Friends Central.
“As a team we got tired in the first game. Today the effort was definitely there, not that it wasn’t in the first game. But our legs were better and we were able to drop some shots.”
Holup is looking for Mullen and Dwyer to provide the Raiders with a lot of game this winter.
“Janelle is quiet and lets her actions lead the way; she and Dwyer in the backcourt are a terrific twosome,” asserted Holup, who earned the 275th win of his career with the victory over St. Andrews.
“Their leadership and skill is going to lead us. They are going to progress and they are the two that we are following.”
In Holup’s view, that leadership is already paying dividends. “I think they are starting to trust each other more,” said Holup, whose team plays at the Episcopal Academy (Pa.) on December 11 and at Penn Charter (Pa.) on December 13.
“We have some young kids and some kids who have never played high school basketball before and we have a couple of seniors who are tremendous basketball players. We are trying to jell them all together.”
Mullen, for her part, believes things are going to jell for Hun this winter.
“We just have to put everything together and play really hard and then we can get wins,” said Mullen.