BY JEFF FALK
ELIZABETHTOWN – The Cedar Crest girls’ basketball team missed 13 foul shots. The Falcons didn’t need to make them all, they just needed to make one more.
But that wasn’t the only mistake they were guilty of during crunch time.
On Tuesday night at Elizabethtown High School, Cedar Crest collapsed down the stretch and lost to the hometown Bears 52-47 in overtime of a game it absolutely had to have. After Elizabethtown senior Amber Orban tied the game at 45 with two fouls shots with four seconds remaining in regulation, the Bears outscored the Falcons 6-2 in the four-minute extra session.
Protecting a 45-43 edge with five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Cedar Crest misfired on two charity tosses and then fouled on the ensuing rebound, sending Orban to the stripe for a one-and-one. The Falcons went six-for-16 at the foul line, after Hannah Woelfling had given them their biggest lead of the game – 39-32 – on a three-point play with 3:08 to go.
Over the final minutes of regulation, Elizabethtown outscored Cedar Crest 13-6.
The loss was especially disheartening for the Falcons in that it cost them a shot at their third straight Lancaster-Lebanon Section One championship. A Cedar Crest win would’ve forced a one-game playoff with Manheim Township for the section crown.
Now, as the third-place team from Section One, Cedar Crest, 14-7 overall and 11-3 in the section, will take on the third-place finisher from Section Two in a play-in game to the L-L playoffs, later in the week. Elizabethtown, which scored a 37-27 victory over the Falcons at ‘The Cage’ back on January 12th, moved to 17-5 on the winter and 11-3 in the circuit.
“With five seconds to go, we’re running a girl, who’s 90 feet from the basket, into the corner,” said Cedar Crest head coach Jim Donmoyer. “It is what it is. It’s tough. But we should’ve responded. They’re (the Bears) the only team who beat us twice.
“We still had to respond to that (in overtime),” continued Donmoyer. “Maybe our kids thought the game should’ve been over. That’s our fault.”
Following a nip-and-tuck first half, Cedar Crest grabbed a 23-19 lead on back-to-back drives from Raven Morgan and Molly Bucher, 4:34 into the third quarter. Then 1:19 before the end of the third period, Falcon Rachel Witherite nailed a trey that put her side up 30-24.
“We had it for 30 minutes,” said Donmoyer. “We were up seven late. At some point, we’ve got to make foul shots. We won the Manheim Township game because of foul shots and we lost this game because of foul shots.
“We played well,” added Donmoyer. “We were right there.”
Elizabethtown connected on 15 of its 24 free throw attempts and outscored the Falcons by six points there. For the season, Cedar Crest is making 59 percent of its foul shots.
Morgan paced the Falcon attack with 15 points, and Woelfling dropped in 14.
“The kids who missed tonight don’t normally miss foul shots,” said Donmoyer. “They were getting a lot better with their foul shots.”
Over the first 19 minutes of action, the score was tied nine different times – six of which came in the first half.
An early three-pointer from Gracen Donmoyer had given the Falcons a modest 5-2 lead.
“We’re probably looking at four more games,” said Donmoyer. “That’s on them, not on me. We do what we do. Tonight we executed for 31 minutes, and fell apart.”
Elizabethtown assumed a 13-11 edge early in the second stanza. But the Falcons held the Bears without a point over the final 4:53 of the first half.
“You’ve got to go,” said Donmoyer. “The next game is the next game. You can cry about this all you want, but you’ve got to get over it. It’s disappointing this game had to end the way it did. I’m hoping we can rebound.”
The Falcons were situated ninth in the latest District Three Class AAAAAA power rankings.
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2017-18 Cedar Crest Girls’ Basketball Results
Date | Teams | Results | |
12/08 6:00 pm |
East Pennsboro Cedar Crest at Cedar Cliff Tournament |
34 59 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
12/09 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest Cedar Cliff at Cedar Cliff Tournament |
42 47 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
12/12 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Wilson |
32 45 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
12/14 7:30 pm |
McCaskey at Cedar Crest |
36 65 |
Boxscore League |
12/18 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Warwick |
49 26 |
Boxscore League |
12/20 7:30 pm |
Conestoga Valley at Cedar Crest |
40 49 |
Boxscore League |
12/22 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Manheim Township |
42 58 |
Boxscore League |
12/27 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest York Suburban at York Suburban Tournament |
44 51 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
12/28 6:00 pm |
Manheim Central Cedar Crest at York Suburban Tournament |
32 46 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
1/05 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Hempfield |
49 21 |
Boxscore League |
1/09 7:30 pm |
Penn Manor at Cedar Crest |
35 53 |
Boxscore League |
1/10 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Lebanon |
48 21 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
1/12 7:30 pm |
Elizabethtown at Cedar Crest |
37 27 |
Boxscore League |
1/18 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at McCaskey |
45 41 |
Boxscore League |
1/19 7:30 pm |
Warwick at Cedar Crest |
25 45 |
Boxscore League |
1/20 7:30 pm |
Palmyra at Cedar Crest |
43 34 |
Boxscore Nonleague |
1/23 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Conestoga Valley |
37 28 |
Boxscore League |
1/26 7:30 pm |
Manheim Township at Cedar Crest |
43 46 |
Boxscore League |
1/30 7:30 pm |
Hempfield at Cedar Crest |
29 32 |
Boxscore League |
2/02 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Penn Manor |
56 46 |
Boxscore League |
2/06 7:30 pm |
Cedar Crest at Elizabethtown |
||
2/07 7:30 pm |
Cocalico at Cedar Crest |
|
Lancaster-Lebanon League
Section One Standings
League | Overall | |||||||||
W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | PF | PA | |||
Manheim Township | 12 | 2 | 85.71 | 18 | 4 | 81.82 | 1163 | 843 | ||
Elizabethtown | 11 | 3 | 78.57 | 17 | 5 | 77.27 | 1049 | 787 | ||
Cedar Crest | 11 | 3 | 78.57 | 14 | 7 | 66.67 | 947 | 790 | ||
Penn Manor | 8 | 6 | 57.14 | 14 | 8 | 63.64 | 1067 | 990 | ||
Conestoga Valley | 6 | 8 | 42.86 | 10 | 11 | 47.62 | 934 | 850 | ||
Hempfield | 3 | 11 | 21.43 | 5 | 17 | 22.73 | 670 | 921 | ||
Warwick | 3 | 11 | 21.43 | 4 | 17 | 19.05 | 666 | 947 | ||
McCaskey | 2 | 12 | 14.29 | 5 | 16 | 23.81 | 820 | 1119 |