Here’s my story from Tuesday’s New Era about McCaskey-Cedar Crest V (this time with a trip to States on the line), plus some info on Hempfield winning (and earning a trip to States) …
ENOLA – Different venue.
Different circumstances.
Same result.
McCaskey’s girls’ basketball team lost to Cedar Crest for the fifth agonizing time this season Monday night, and this time, it sent the Red Tornado home for good.
Shannon Stokes scored 11 of her game-high 14 points in the third quarter and Niagara University recruit Allison Smith scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half to lead Lancaster-Lebanon League champ Cedar Crest to a 51-33 win over league runner-up McCaskey in a District 3 Quad-A consolation game at East Pennsboro High School.
The loss knocked McCaskey, the No. 3 seed, out of the bracket. The Tornado, which did not defend its district title, finished the season 23-7 overall, with five of those seven losses to Cedar Crest.
“Hey,” Cedar Crest coach Gretchen Hall said with a smile, “at least there won’t be a Cedar Crest-McCaskey VI (six).”
Cedar Crest, which defeated McCaskey twice during the regular season, again in a one-game playoff for the Section 1 title, and in the league championship game, improved to 26-4 and advanced to Thursday’s Quad-A fifth-place game against Hempfield, which topped Central York 44-34 in another consolation game Monday.
Cedar Crest, the No. 2 seed, and Hempfield, the No. 4 seed, earned a trip to States, and Thursday’s game – the Falcons’ and Black Knights’ third meeting this season – will be a seeding game for the PIAA playoffs, which begin in Quad-A on March 9.
“We wanted to win to get to States,” Hall said, “but the kids didn’t want to lose to McCaskey because they’d beaten them the last four times.”
Make it five.
McCaskey coach Brian McCloud could only shrug his shoulders.
“It would have been nice to beat Cedar Crest once, but they’re a tough matchup for us,” he said. “If a team beats you five times in a row in the same season, they’re just better than you. That’s the bottom line.”
Cedar Crest had two key runs Monday, the first coming just before the half when the Falcons’ Nicole Jordan hit a jumper to slice McCaskey’s lead to 15-14 with 39 seconds to go in the half, and then she split the middle and hit a pretty scoop shot just before the horn to give Cedar Crest a 16-15 lead at the break.
“We were in a drought,” Hall noted, “and Nicole sparked us there.”
McCaskey’s Ciara Pagan hit a 3-pointer to knot the game at 18 with 7:15 to go in the third, but Cedar Crest seized control with an 8-0 blitz, which included Smith’s three-point conversion and Stokes’ 3-pointer from the top of the key.
Stokes and Smith combined to score all 18 of Cedar Crest’s third-quarter points.
McCaskey’s Sasha Williams converted a three-point play to make it 32-24 with 1:31 to go in the third, but Smith beat the buzzer with a runner in the lane and the Falcons led 34-24 heading into the fourth.
Aubrey Hoover helped ice the game for Cedar Crest, scoring on back-to-back trips and hitting a foul shot as the Falcons went ahead 41-27 with 4:39 to play.
“I thought we had to play a clean game to win,” McCloud said. “But we didn’t put enough pressure on them,”
Teasia Myers scored 12 points for McCaskey, and she’ll head into her senior season with 930 career points.
Williams added 11 points in her final game in a Tornado uniform, and she finished her career with 1,027 points. She and fellow seniors Cinthia Vazquez and Tyeshia Brooks helped McCaskey win the district title last year, as McCloud was quick to point out.
“I can’t complain,” McCaskey’s coach said. “We were in the league finals and we got to Districts and we got all the way to this game. We had a shot to make States. I wish our seniors would have gone out differently, but we just didn’t get over the hump this season.
“But it’s hard to complain because we had our shots.”
Five of them alone against Cedar Crest, but the Tornado didn’t win any of them, and as a result finished second in Section 1, second in the league and on the outside looking in at the state playoffs.
Also Monday:
Hempfield 44, Central York 34
At Governor Mifflin Intermediate School in Shillington, Steph Graver scored nine points and Ellie Steward and Analicia Evans chipped in with eight points apiece for the Black Knights, who outscored the eighth-seeded Panthers 20-8 in the second quarter to grab a 10-point halftime lead and advance to the fifth-place game opposite Cedar Crest.
Hempfield (21-5) split its season series with Cedar Crest, losing 49-27 on Jan. 16 in South Lebanon, and beating the Falcons 35-34 on Feb. 2 in Landisville.
BARLETT OUT AT NORTHERN LEBANON: Ken Barlett has resigned his post as head coach at Northern Lebanon, which finished 0-16 in league games and 0-23 overall this season.
The Vikings went 8-69 under Barlett in his three seasons coaching the team.
JEFFREY REINHART
