Penns Valley girls’ basketball falls in district title game — but will be ‘ready’ for states
The Penns Valley girls’ basketball team sat and watched from the bench as Penn Cambria celebrated at midcourt with the District 6 championship trophy in front of their hometown fans.
The third-seeded Lady Panthers erased a two-point halftime deficit by holding the top-seeded Lady Rams to just 22 points in the second half in a convincing 78-63 decision at the Mount Aloysius College Athletic Convocation and Wellness Center in the Class 3A district title game.
Just 364 days prior to Friday night, the Lady Rams were the ones celebrating a district title at midcourt at Mount Aloysius College.
“It was a lot more fun here last year,” Penns Valley head coach Karen McCaffrey cracked after the loss.
Penns Valley (19-6) waited 21 long years to bring home their second District 6 title last season, but they found out defending a district title can be just as difficult.
Penn Cambria (20-6) ended their own long drought without a title, waiting 26 years between district championships.
The Lady Panthers had the pleasure of winning their title in front of a raucous home crowd. They traveled just 2 miles down Admiral Peary Highway in Cresson to play Friday night’s neutral-site tilt while the Lady Rams trekked about 75 miles to play in the district final.
“We’ll congratulate them because we were in the same position last year. It was nice and we know how it feels,” McCaffrey said. “Honestly, to be back here back-to-back (years) is a real credit because triple-A is just loaded.”
The Lady Rams allowed a season-high 78 points in the title game, 13 points more than their previous season high for points allowed against Penns Manor on Dec. 19.
Coming into Friday night, the Lady Rams had given up just 41.0 points per game, but they didn’t have the firepower to slow down a potent Lady Panther attack that came in averaging 63.4 points per game.
The Lady Panthers outscored the Lady Rams 39-22 in the second half thanks to the 1-2 punch of Makalyn Clapper and Emma Harvey, who scored 23 and 18 points, respectively.
“We really got smart during halftime and figured out our gameplan,” Clapper said. “We worked really hard and stopped them on the press and just kept scoring.”
Penn Cambria looked primed to pull away on two separate occasions in the first half, but Penns Valley responded both times in the first and second quarter.
The Lady Rams fell behind 15-8 in the opening four minutes, but Bella Culver, who scored 16 points, spurred a seven-point run to tie the game back up before the end of the first quarter.
The Lady Panthers then raced out to a 33-23 lead in the first five minutes of the second quarter. Lydia Collison and Hannah Montminy, who scored a team-high 18 points, sparked a streak of 10 unanswered points and a 16-4 run overall in the final three minutes to give Penns Valley the lead at the half.
The Lady Panthers once again went on a scoring binge at the start of another quarter to open the second half, but this time, the Lady Rams didn’t have an answer.
“In the third quarter, we never hit that one big shot to give us a spark,” McCaffrey said. “We always think that we’re going to get (that spark), and we just didn’t tonight.”
The Lady Rams will wait a week until they take the court in the opening round of the PIAA championships. They’ll square off against the fourth-seeded team from the WPIAL next Friday at a time and location to be determined.
An experienced Lady Rams squad watched the Lady Panthers celebrate their championship with dry eyes on the bench.
They fell short of the district title aspirations this season, but McCaffrey has no worries about her team being ready to go for the state playoffs after her team took the title game loss in stride.
“Friday night, we’ll be ready to go back out and play,” McCaffrey said. “I’ve got four seniors and my junior point guard on the floor, who have played together for basically four years. They just love playing together, so I know they’ll be ready to see if we can make a run.”