BY JEFF FALK

 SOUTH LEBANON – When the chips are down and teams need a play, they turn to their seniors. The Cedar Crest girls’ basketball did so last night, just like it will as the rest of the season unfolds.

 On Wednesday night at the Falcon Cage, Cedar Crest seniors Raven Morgan and Hannah Woelfling led a key third-quarter charge that propelled the Falcons to a 37-27 non-league triumph over Wyomissing. Morgan and Woelfling, a couple of seasoned Cedar Crest seniors, combined to score their team’s first 14 points of the second half, while the Falcons were gaining command of the result.

 It was another productive early-season outcome for the Blue and Gray. The victory lifted Cedar Crest to 3-1 on the season, in front of the opening of Lancaster-Lebanon League play on Friday.

 “They’re both seniors,” said Cedar Crest head coach Jim Donmoyer of his leaders. “Last year, they were our two leading scorers. They’re our leading rebounders. Our posts need touches. If they can get off a shot, that’s fine. And if they can’t, they can kick the ball back out to the guards.

 ‘We ran our zone offense,” continued Donmoyer. “We skipped the ball. We hit the post. I thought the bigger lineup worked out pretty good. Sometimes it’s nice to go big, especially when you have the size to begin with.”

Following a defensive struggle of a first half, Morgan and Woelfling got it going for the Falcons early in the third period.

 With the score knotted at 16, Cedar Crest embarked on a Morgan-Woelfling-led 12-1 journey that concluded 37 seconds into the final period, with a steal-and-lay-in from Morgn that put the Falcons up 28-17. Two of Cedar Crest’s six 12th-graders, Woelfling and Morgan combined for all of the Falcons’ 11 third-quarter points.

  “We missed a lot of peeps and we didn’t shoot fouls well,” said Donmoyer. “But we only gave up 27 points. That’s a great defensive effort. Coming into tonight, we were giving up like 34 points a game. We gave up less than that. If we can play defense, we can be in every game. But defensively, we can’t take a break. We’ve got to show up every single night.”

 The Spartans were still hanging around, down 28-20, until Cedar Crest put them away with a 9-2 spurt in the middle of the final quarter. Reese Glover netted four Falcon points during the stretch, while Morgan had three more and Kaitlin Kline converted a deuce.

 “At this stage, a win’s a win,” said Donmoyer. “We’re off to a great start, 3-1. I’m not complaining at all about 3-1. And we’ve played some good teams.

 “But we didn’t play well,” Donmoyer continued. “We didn’t play hard, and we can’t afford to not play hard for four quarters. You’ve got to put forth the effort. Talent doesn’t win. That’ll catch up with you. We played Wilson last night (Tuesday) and maybe that had something to do with it. We played in spurts.”

 Morgan registered all of her team-high 12 points in the second half. Cedar Crest held Wyomissing to just four two-point field goals all evening long.

 The Falcons went seven-for-17 at the charity stripe and did not connect on a three-pointer.

 “We didn’t shoot well,” said Donmoyer. “I don’t think we made a ‘three’. They (the Spartans) started in a zone defense, and we had some good looks. But the shots didn’t fall. They (the Spartans) didn’t do anything special.”

 Neither side scored a point of any kind over the contest’s first 6:19, and the opening period ended with Wyomissing up 4-2.

 Then in the second quarter, the Falcons’ offense caught up with their defense. An 8-1 Crest run – which included four points from Sarah Laney and stick-backs by Glover and Kline – turned an 8-6 deficit into a 14-9 lead.

 “We have a strong senior class, and most of them have been around, at some level, for a while,” said Donmoyer. “And I think we have a pretty talented sophomore class. We’ve done some good things over the last five years. Our goals are always the same – section (One of the Lancaster-Lebanon League) champs, league champs, districts and states. That’s the standard. That’s what I expect. It’s what the kids expect.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2018-19 Cedar Crest Girls’ Basketball Schedule