Penns Valley comeback falls short in consolation match

After a heartbreaking 34-33 loss to West Branch on Tuesday, the No. 3 Penns Valley girls’ basketball team was looking for a win to continue the season in the PIAA AA State Tournament.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

Penns Valley was edged out of victory once more, this time in a 46-40 loss to No. 4 Central Cambria on Thursday in the District 6 AA consolation match at the Bald Eagle Area gymnasium.

The Lady Rams fought to overcome a 12-point deficit at the half. Junior Kourtney Beamesderfer started some momentum with a jumper to open the third quarter. Moments later, Mackenzie Ironside forced a big block which landed in Karli Ripka’s hands. Ripka found Beamesderfer for an open layup to bring the game within nine.

Seconds later, the team forced a Lady Red Devil turnover and Ripka hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to four points by the start of the final quarter.

“Karli Ripka came out in the second half. We challenged her in the locker room at halftime and said she’s got one of the best outside shots and I asked her how many she had taken from the outside and she said ‘zero,’ and I said ‘exactly, we’re not going to get back into this if we keep trying to pound it inside,’” Penns Valley coach Karen McCaffrey said.

The motivation worked as Ripka, a senior, finished with a game-high 16 points.

Ripka continued her dominant night by opening up the Lady Rams fourth quarter scoring with another 3-pointer to bring her team within three points.

On the next play, Beamesderfer scored to tie the game 40-40 — but the Lady Rams were held scoreless for the rest of the game.

Penn Valley hoped to force a late turnover when Central Cambria inbounded the ball in at half court, but failed to execute and Michelle Hildebrand found herself wide open for a layup.

“We have a play for that type of situation and I was hoping that my girls would recognize it,” Lady Devil coach Brittany Sedlock said.

With only 35 seconds left, Penns Valley was forced to foul. Boring added two more foul shots to seal the game with a 46-40 Central Cambria victory.

The action-packed second half gave the Lady Rams some hope after a sloppy first two periods.

“The first half, we were still reliving our last game. That game was heartbreaking and I thought it was going to a challenge for us to get back up. We were still hurting and the first half, we were still struggling for energy and fouling in our man defense,” McCaffrey said.

In second quarter, the Lady Rams were outscored 17 to nine. Eleven of the Lady Red Devil’s points came from the foul line.

“It takes a lot of energy to comeback from a 12 point deficit,” she added.

Penns Valley didn’t get the finish it wanted, but McCaffrey said there’s reason to be positive.

“I came back last year and we finished 13-10, hovering around .500, and this year we were co-Mountain League champions, made it to the semi’s with a 19-6 record. So we made big gains over two years,” McCaffrey said.

And with the loss of two seniors after this season, the head coach is looking to the future.

“The two seniors that we’re losing (Ripka and Ironside) are four-year starters, and they’re going to be hard to replace, but we play a lot of kids all year. Our freshmen played a lot all year, and while they looked a little like freshmen tonight, they've played and contributed in a lot of big games too. So of the 12 kids we have in there, with the two we’re losing, we still play 10 of them. So we’ve still got a nice core coming back.”

This story was originally published February 25, 2016 at 10:22 PM with the headline "Penns Valley comeback falls short in consolation match."