State College girls’ basketball remains hopeful after District 6 title loss to Altoona
The State College girls’ basketball team couldn’t avenge last year’s loss to Altoona Friday night and failed to take home a district title for the second year in a row. The Lady Little Lions fell to the Mountain Lions, 52-33.
The pace of the game played to the Mountain Lions’ advantage in the game and it didn’t allow State College to play like it wanted to from the opening tip.
“We wanted a much faster pace to the game,” State High head coach Chris Leazier said. “I thought the pace was not where we wanted it from the beginning. We just really couldn’t get out in transition, which we think is a strength of ours. Credit to Altoona, I think they really focused on getting back … It seemed like they were maybe conceding some offensive rebounding opportunities to get us out of transition. I think it’s a good game plan against us We just weren’t generating enough turnovers to get out in transition.”
Both teams got off to a slow start offensively. They combined for 14 points through the game’s first eight minutes with neither team generating many open looks. The Little Lions were entirely reliant on senior Maya Bokunewicz for their scoring in the quarter. She scored all six points and looked for her own looks as the quarter progressed after deferring more early in the game’s opening minutes.
The second quarter was largely much of the same for both teams. On the rare occasions they found openings in the opposing defenses, they struggled to convert. The pace of the game slowed to a crawl and led to even less scoring. The Mountain Lions led 13-12 with 16 minutes of action left.
The game’s tempo picked up in a big way in the third quarter. Altoona outscored their entire first half in the quarter while State College matched their performance from the first half. The Mountain Lions were led by senior Caranda Perea, who scored seven of the team’s 17 points in the quarter. Bokunewicz matched her first quarter performance with another six for State College as she tried to help the Little Lions keep pace.
The Altoona lead grew to 11 early in the fourth quarter when the Mountain Lions had a quick 5-0 run punctuated by freshman Brooklyn Barron’s 3-pointer.
State College tried to claw back into the game with a press on defense and on the back of Bokunewicz on offense, who scored six of the team’s final nine points to close the game.
But the Little Lions’ effort proved to be too little too late.
“We tied the game at 23 with two minutes to go in the third quarter,” Leazier said. “At that point we got outscored 29-10 so that’s the game ... When you’re really struggling to get going offensively you just put so much pressure on your defense. I actually didn’t think our defense was that bad up until that point. When you just can’t score it puts so much pressure on your defense.”
The loss doesn’t eliminate State College from postseason play, but the Lady Little Lions will need another win to advance. They’ll have to win next weekend’s consolation game against either Taylor Allderdice or the winner of a matchup between Erie and Erie McDowell to make it to states.
Losing districts but still having a chance to make it to states is a familiar position for State College, which was able to win that consolation game the past three years..
“This will now be the third time in my four years that we’ve done this,” Leazier. “That’s the game where if you lose you go home and if you win you advance to the state playoffs, which is something that is very, very important to us. We’ve done that three years in a row and we’d like to do it again.”
Altoona 52, State College 33
(Friday at Cresson)
Altoona 8 5 17 22 — 52
State College 6 6 12 9 — 33
Altoona (13-10)
Adalynn Cherry 3 7-8 13, Stevie Webber 0 (4) 1-3 13, Caranda Perea 4 3-3 11, Adaliz Corbin 3 4-4 10, Brooklyn Barron 0 (1) 0-0 3, Brooklynn Rupert 1 0-0 2.
State College (12-6)
Bokunewicz 10 0-0 20, Jada Coleman 3 0-4 6, Isabelle Leazier 0 (1) 1-2 4, Rylie Gregg 1 1-1 3.
This story was originally published February 21, 2020 at 10:10 PM.
