PHOENIXVILLE — Phoenixville’s Kayden Baratta knows a little something about having a bull’s eye on her back.
As the PAC’s leading scorer over the past two years, Baratta spent her sophomore and junior years lighting up scoreboards despite increasing attention from local defenses.
In Monday night’s second half, Baratta showed the full range of her abilities, taking over as the primary defender against Owen J. Roberts star freshman Maggie Thompson – her likely successor as PAC scoring champion – in Phoenixville’s 55-43 win over OJR.
Despite a school record-setting 38-point performance by Thompson, it was Phoenixville who improved to 6-3 on the season (3-2 PAC).
“Coming into the season, I knew teams wouldn’t allow me to get as many shots off,” said Baratta. “But I knew I had teammates who could step up and carry that scoring load.”
It’s not as if the Wesleyan-bound senior was shut out Monday night, finishing with 16 points. But it was sophomore teammate Charlie Campbell who led the Phantoms on the scoreboard, piling up 21 points and 17 rebounds and dominating on the interior alongside seniors Riley Ford-Bey and Taylor Schneider.
“(Controlling the boards) not only limits their offensive opportunities, but it also gets us some extra chances for easy baskets,” said Campbell, who scored four of her eight field goals on putbacks.
Limiting opportunities was paramount for Phoenixville, as OJR’s Thompson certainly made the most of her chances.
Thompson, who set an OJR school record with 34 points in a two-point win over Methacton two weeks ago, appeared poised to shatter that record Monday. Unstoppable before halftime, Thompson knocked down five 3-pointers and made 17 of her 19 free throws as Owen J. took a 32-28 advantage into the break despite playing without a couple of starters due to injury.
“Obviously, the goal was to get the win,” lamented Thompson.
But less than a dozen games into her high school career, Thompson picks up a new lesson each time out. Monday night was about staying composed through the ups, the downs and the mental and physical fatigue of a 32-minute game.
“Getting my teammates involved, recognizing the plays that are available – I’m enjoying (high school ball),” she said.
She also broke her own school record in the process, though the Phantoms’ physicality and relentlessness on defense made her work for every point, especially after halftime.
Thompson ended the first half with 29 points, but Phoenixville decided to make Baratta her primary defender after halftime. And while the Phantoms were quick to double the ball, rarely leaving any one player to guard Thompson, the strategy paid clear dividends with OJR amassing only 11 points after the break.
“If I’m not shooting well, my focus changes to making the difference on the defensive end,” said Baratta.
“It’s obviously tiring, playing the whole game, but that’s where our training pays off.”
Both high scorers were on in the early going, Thompson hitting a pair of 3s and an old-fashioned three-point play en route to a 13-point opening stanza.
Baratta responded with a breakaway layup, a deep 3 and a few midrange shots. The difference early was the inside play of Phoenixville’s Campbell and Ford-Bey, each of whom recorded early putbacks as the Phantoms controlled the boards.
With her team outmanned on the boards, Thompson attempted to take matters into her own hands, canning her third 3 and willing herself to the foul line on three consecutive possessions. Perhaps more importantly, she sank all six foul shots as OJR gained a narrow 25-23 advantage three minutes before the half.
Baratta’s fourth steal of the half (seven for the game) turned into a Campbell layup to put the Phantoms back ahead, but an individual 5-0 run from Thompson sent OJR into the break with a four-point advantage.
The third quarter saw OJR manage only four points as the Phantoms attached Baratta to Thompson at every turn, but they were unable to truly capitalize offensively with some cold shooting of their own. Campbell had six points in the quarter, however, and the Phantoms regained a two-point advantage.
After a pair of early fourth-quarter free throws from Thompson, the freshman sensation picked up her fourth foul on an offensive charge call. Foul trouble did little to curtail her aggression, however, with four more trips to the foul line keeping the Wildcats close until Phoenixville’s trio of Ford-Bey, Campbell and Baratta sandwiched baskets of their own around two clutch field goals from junior Olivia Clark as the Phantoms pulled away.
Recent PAC girls’ basketball history has seen the top of the Liberty Division — and the league as a whole — dominated by two schools.
Spring-Ford and Perkiomen Valley have taken turns at the top of the conference — not to mention the district and state — for much of the past decade. And while the two schools are again atop the charts early in 2025-2026 (PV at 4-0, the Rams at 4-1), Phoenixville’s victory moved them into third place and established the Phantoms as a legitimate threat to make some noise in the division this season.
The Phantoms hosted the defending PIAA 6A champs from Perkiomen Valley last week, and a narrow seven-point margin of defeat left the team with confidence about not only the return matchup on Jan. 22, but also their prospects for league contention.
“We need to get better at coming out strong from the start,” said Baratta. “You look at teams like Perk Valley, Spring-Ford – they’re on from the beginning of the game, and they maintain that tempo throughout. By the time we see them again, we’ll make those adjustments.”
Neither squad figures to get rusty over the upcoming holiday break, with Owen J. Roberts (5-4, 2-3 PAC) competing in league rival Upper Merion’s holiday tournament and Phoenixville making the trip to Avon Grove for a pair of contests early next week.
“We just want to get better,” Baratta concluded. “The goal is to use these games to do just that and hopefully bring home some hardware in the process.”
