JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
I was in Ephrata on Thursday night for the first round of the Ephrata Holiday Tournament. L-S survived McCaskey’s wild comeback in the opener, and Ephrata kept on chugging in the nightcap, setting up a Mountaineers-Pioneers (that’s a lot of eers) final on Friday. Here is my story from Friday’s New Era:
They are two of the hottest teams in the Lancaster-Lebanon League.
But tonight, when Ephrata hosts Lampeter-Strasburg in the Ephrata Holiday Tournament title game, only one of them will walk away with the gold trophy.
Thursday night, L-S, the Section 3 co-leader, withstood McCaskey’s wild fourth-quarter comeback on the way to a 50-46 win over the Red Tornado as the Pioneers improved to 10-1 overall.
And in the nightcap, host Ephrata won its third game in a row, racing past Elco 54-36, setting up tonight’s finale between the Mountaineers and the Pioneers at 8 back in Ephrata.
“L-S is very athletic, and they’ll come after you the whole game,” Ephrata coach Mike Garman said. “If we can find a way to hang around, you never know what can happen.”
That was the case in Thursday’s opener, when McCaskey – playing without standout senior point guard Teasia Myers, who missed her third game in a row while nursing a right ankle sprain – stormed from behind after L-S built a seemingly safe 37-23 lead with 11.2 seconds to go in the third quarter.
McCaskey (6-4) opened the fourth on a 15-6 tear, capped by Jassinya Alvarado-Padilla’s 3-pointer, which sliced the Pioneers lead to 43-40 with 3:10 to play. And the Tornado whittled the lead down to 48-46 with 36.8 seconds to go when Janaya Brown converted a three-point play.
But the Pioneers’ Danielle Rittenhouse, who scored 15 points, hit two foul shots with 11.3 seconds to go to ice it.
“McCaskey didn’t give up; they didn’t quit,” said Rittenhouse, who hit 13-of-18 free throws. “I think we thought we had them, but they definitely woke us up – and made us play right up until the end.”
Renee Fritz added 10 points, five boards and blocked three shots for the Pioneers, who were outrebounded 47-36, but forced 23 turnovers.
“We didn’t take care of the ball down the stretch,” L-S coach Matt Wieand said. “But thankfully we hit a couple of big shots late. I thought we would need 50 points to win, and we got 50 – and had to squeak it out.”
McCaskey trailed 17-6 after the first quarter, 26-14 at the half and 37-25 heading into the fourth before turning on the jets. Danee Simms scored nine of her 15 points in the fourth quarter to spark the rally, which included Simms’ 3-pointer to kickstart the run.
“I’m proud of how we played in the second half,” McCaskey coach Brian McCloud said. “We got it down to two points, and it was anybody’s game. That’s all I could have asked for.”
Ephrata, meanwhile, shook off some early shooting woes and breezed past Elco, which slipped to 4-5 overall.
The Mountaineers (5-6) shot just 2-for-14 from the floor in the first quarter, but broke the game open in the third quarter when Aly Goodman hit a jumper and scored on a pretty baseline move, Mel Andrew scored in transition, and Brynn Lyons drilled a 3-pointer as Ephrata took a commanding 40-27 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Goodman scored a season-high 12 points and Andrew matched her career-high with 10 points for the Mounts, who were picked to finish near the bottom of the pack in Section 2.
“A lot of people doubted us, and we’re using that as an edge,” said Ephrata senior Leah Sipe, who scored a career-high 13 points.
“Nobody expects us to win, so we’re trying to show everyone differently.”
Ephrata topped reigning Section 2 champ Conestoga Valley and Solanco last week, and remained hot against Elco.
“Our kids are beginning to believe in themselves,” Garman said. “Our kids want to be successful.”
A win over L-S would keep Ephrata headed in the right direction.
