Penns Valley girls basketball first-year, senior duo power team over Philipsburg-Osceola
Friday night’s game at Penns Valley saw a sizable crowd on-hand to watch the home team’s matchup with Philipsburg-Osceola.
The Lady Rams put on a show for their fans with senior forward Ann-Marie McMurtrie and first-year guard Ellie Dinges each scoring 12 points in the 49-22 victory over the Lady Mounties.
Starting off the season at 7-3, Penns Valley head coach Terrance Green sees the fruits of his team’s effort during the offseason to improve.
“This season, we’ve got a group that plays together,” Green said. “Number one, they share the ball. We talk about unselfishness at the beginning of the season and being unselfish and playing team basketball. We’ve got a group that really gels. You can really see it on the court — how they share the ball, how they pass it, how they just play team basketball. That’s been the biggest difference — understanding that it’s not always about getting yours. Everyone needs to eat. That’s what we talk about, and that’s what we do on the court.”
This is nothing new for the senior McMurtrie. She entered the game averaging 16.6 points per game, shooting 46% from the field. None of her shots were forced on Friday night. She found open areas to run to and put the ball in the hoop, whether it was by a layup, jump shot or free throws.
“(The success comes from) working as a team and making sure that our defense and talking was really the success for tonight,” McMurtrie said. “ And just playing our game and not stooping down to their level — playing the way that we have been for the past few weeks.”
Penns Valley opened with a big lead with McMurtrie scoring eight points in the first quarter to lead all scorers. Scotty Dinges scored four points and Avery Dinges scored three for the Lady Rams. Khendyl Sharrer and Regan Thorp scored two points a piece for Philipsburg-Osceola to trail 15-4 at the end of the first.
The Lady Rams took a 26-6 lead into halftime with McMurtrie adding two more points, along with Ellie Dinges scoring five, Haddley Stover with three and Julia Emel sinking a free throw. Thorp scored the Lady Mounties’ lone two points in the second quarter.
Penns Valley continued to add to its scoring total in the third quarter, beginning with another scoring flurry from Ellie Dinges with four more points. The freshman sank a shot and drew a foul and made two straight free throws. Her sister, Scotty, followed up with three additional points of her own and Emel knocked down a 3-point field goal and made a shot to score five more for the 40-12 lead at the end of three quarters.
Sharrer had two more points and the Lady Mounties finally received scoring help in the third from Camden Potter and Lily Warlow, who each scored two points.
The Lady Rams coasted the rest of the way for the victory.
Philipsburg-Osceola head coach Brandon Myers understands that his team is a work in-progress. The team started 2-0 on the year and is still fairly young.
“We’ve run into a rough patch here in the last four games,” Myers said. “We’re finally starting to take the next step forward. I think that we showed that in the first couple of minutes of the first quarter. Our biggest problem now is finding 32 minutes to put together, but our girls work hard, they never quit and I can’t ask for anything else from them.”
Penns Valley is set to take on Hollidaysburg on the road on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Philipsburg-Osceola has its second straight away game against Harmony Area on Monday at 7:15 p.m.
Penns Valley 49, Philipsburg-Osceola 22
PV (7-3): McMurtrie 12, Ellie Dinges 12, Scotty Dinges 7, Emel 6, Stover 5, Fleshman 4, Avery Dinges 3
P-O (2-5): Sharrer 6, Thorp 4, Potter 4, Malinich 4, Warlow 2, Minarchick 2
This story was originally published January 6, 2023 at 10:50 PM.
