Lite night in the winner’s brackets in the District 3 girls’ basketball playoffs.
Just one set of semifinal games Monday, and I’m happy to report that I completely nailed the Double-A games, going 2-for-2 in my picks.
Of course, I went way out on the limb and picked the two top-ranked Double-A teams in the state to win, but hey …
To recap: I had No. 1 Trinity over No. 4 Bishop McDevitt (61-41, check) and I had No.2 York Catholic over No. 3 Schuylkill Valley (73-38, check).
Wow, Trinity and York Catholic are in the Double-A final? Amazing.
York Catholic, which improved to 29-0, did something no other team has been able to do this season: keep Schuylkill Valley junior guard Corielle Yarde relatively in check.
Yarde shot just 5-for-20 from the floor and scored 16 points – but it was the first time this season she failed to score at least 20 points in a game. What an incredible streak.
I have York Catholic over Trinity in the Double-A finale, which is set for Thursday at 6:15 p.m. in Hershey’s Giant Center.
OH FOR FIVE … Wow, Cedar Crest did it. The Falcons made it 5-for-5 against McCaskey on Monday night, dropping the Red Tornado 51-33 in a Quad-A consolation game at East Pennsboro.
<I was at that game, and you can read my story in Tuesday’s New Era. And I must say, East Pennsboro has a pretty sweet gym, which is heavy on the orange theme.>
So no state playoffs for McCaskey, which saw its season come to a screeching halt.
But Cedar Crest and Hempfield punched their tickets to States with victories on Monday; the Black Knights topped Central York 44-34 in another consolation game, and will now face Cedar Crest in the fifth-place game on Thursday. Site and time TBA (hopefully D3 officials don’t run them back to East Pennsboro; how about Warwick?).
Geez-o, can L-L League Section 1 teams meet anymore?
To recap: Cedar Crest topped McCaskey 69-40 on Jan. 23 in Lancaster; 53-47 on Feb. 8 in South Lebanon; 44-43 in a one-game playoff for the Section 1 title Feb. 9 at Penn Manor; 50-44 in the L-L League championship Feb. 16 in Hershey’s Giant Center; and 51-33 in a District 3 Quad-A consolation game at East Pennsboro on Feb. 26.
Believe it: Five-for-five.
“Still can’t beat us!” Cedar Crest’s fans chanted in the closing seconds Monday.
“I’m sure they were just as sick of playing us as we were sick of playing them,” Cedar Crest coach Gretchen Hall told me after the game. “I mean, it was tough to practice because we already knew what they were going to do … she was going to go this way and she was going to go that way, she’s left-handed and she likes to shoot the 3. It got kind of redundant.”
Just a few numbers for you: McCaskey senior guard Sasha Williams finished her fine career with 1,027 points, and junior guard Teasia Myers will enter her senior season with 930 career points.
A tip of the cap to Williams and fellow seniors Cinthia Vazquez and Tyeshia Brooks, who won’t leave McCaskey empty handed: they helped the Tornado win the Section 1 championship and the district crown a year ago, and McCaskey went 69-20 the last three seasons with those three on board.
Speaking of numbers: Cedar Crest senior guard Allison Smith is up to 1,109 career points, and she’s averaging 13.7 points a game in the Falcons’ six postseason games.
FOR THE RECORD: I correctly picked the boys’ Triple-A semifinal winners on Monday – No. 1 West York over No. 4 James Buchanan and No. 3 Susquehanna Township over No 7 Muhlenberg.
Woo-hoo.
CINDERELLA LIVES: Central Dauphin East did it again. The 17th-seeded Panthers knocked off No. 5 Wilson 50-48 in Quad-A semifinal game Monday night in the Giant Center.
That gives C.D. East wins over the 16th seed (South Western in a pigtail game), No. 1 Red Lion (in the first round), No. 8 (Central York in the quarters) and now the No. 5 seed.
C.D. East is awaiting the winner of Tuesday’s Harrisburg-Central Dauphin semifinal for its finals opponent. The Quad-A title game is set for Friday at 8:30 p.m. in the Giant Center.
THE SCHEDULE: For those of you interested in tracking such things, Tuesday night I’ll be at Cumberland Valley for Lancaster Country Day vs. Scotland in a Single-A girls’ semifinal game. It’ll be my first look at Country Day this season, and I’m anxious to see the Cougars in action. … Wednesday I’ll be in the Giant Center for the girls’ Triple-A semifinal double-dip, featuring Lampeter-Strasburg (my sleeper team, don’t forget) against Eastern York at 4, followed by Lancaster Catholic-Boiling Springs (Bubblers’ Fever … catch it!) at 5:30. … Thursday is still up in the air: if Country Day wins, the Cougars would play in the Single-A finale in the Giant Center at 4:30 p.m. If Country Day is out, I’ll probably check out the Hempfield-Cedar Crest Quad-A fifth-place game. … And if L-S or Catholic survives Wednesday, I’ll be at the Triple-A finale Saturday morning at 11:15 in the Giant Center. Thank goodness for mileage reimbursement. As usual, you can read all of my game stories in the New Era, and I’ll continue to post prediction results and other news and notes here until the end of the season. So don’t miss it.
JEFFREY REINHART
