BY JEFF FALK

 WITMER – The Cedar Crest girls’ basketball team seems to know how good it can be. What the Falcons don’t know is how good they really are right now.

 It may be the simple act of extending their defense that will allow them to realize their true potential.

 On Thursday night, Cedar Crest unveiled a little full-court, man-to-man pressure defense and it worked to a tee, as the Falcons overwhelmed Conestoga Valley for a 60-29 Lancaster-Lebanon Section One-Two crossover victory. Long and athletic, the Cedar Crest press caused Buckskin turnovers, created easy transition baskets and effectively set the stage for the blowout.

 With the road triumph, Cedar Crest improved to 9-3 overall and retained sole possession of first-place in Section One, with a 5-0 mark. The result made Conestoga Valley 3-8 on the season and 1-4 in Section Two.

 “(Seniors) Raven (Morgan) and Hannah (Woelfling) are as athletic as anybody,” said Cedar Crest head coach Jim Donmoyer. “All of my first five can move, and four of those kids are 5-10, 5-11 and above. So we can press with them. Our long kids can move and that allows us to press other teams.

 “We’ve used a zone press before, but that was the first time this year we went full-court, man-to-man,” continued Donmoyer. “And we only pressed in the first half. We’re only giving up 30 points a game. We’ve played good man-to-man half-court. And if we can do it half-court, we can do it full-court.”

 The Falcon full-court pressure was so effective that Conestoga Valley encountered major difficulties even getting off early shots – much less scoring. Cedar Crest held the Buckskins without a point over the game’s initial 7:04, all the while the Falcons were turning defense into offense.

 The resulting 16-0 start featured six points from Morgan, four points by Sarah Laney and three-pointers from Reese Glover and Morgan Thomson. The Falcon lead never dipped near single-digits the rest of the evening.

 “The defense was what set everything up,” said Donmoyer. “We played well defensively, and we got some points off of it.

 “We were turning them over and getting easy baskets,” Donmoyer continued. “I looked up and it was 12-0 or 13-0, and that was the best start to a game we had in a long time. Playing defense and making shots are the keys to getting off to fast starts.”

 Feasting off the energy created by its press, Cedar Crest also pieced together a 12-4 run to end the half.  Guard Molly Bucher accounted for five of those points, Thomson drilled another three-pointer, Laney converted a couple of foul shots and Glover pumped in a stick-back, as the Falcons carried a 34-13 bulge to the break.

 “Honestly, I thought we played pretty well,” said Donmoyer. “There’s always things you can do better. But we haven’t played a full game in a long time. To play four solid quarters, it’s something we haven’t done.

 “We have good habits,” added Donmoyer. “How good are we? I’m not sure. But we’re playing good. We’re playing who’s on our schedule.”

 Glover recorded 11 points to pace the Cedar Crest attack, and the rest of the Falcons’ 49 was split fairly evenly between nine other players. The Falcons connected on six three-pointers and held the Buckskins to just 11 total field goals.

 “I’m pleased because we’re going game to game,” said Donmoyer. “One of the good things we’ve been able to do is get some of these kids playing time. We’re getting these kids experience. I have eight or nine players who play every game. I think that’ll be very important down the road.”

 The Falcons’ advantage reached 47-20, courtesy of a Morgan put-back, a Madison Rambler bucket and a Glover charity toss near the end of the third quarter. And when Meghan Sholley scored a driving lay-in and Kaitlin Kline converted an offensive rebound to open the fourth, the Falcons were up 51-23.

 “We need to limit our turnovers,” said Donmoyer. “We need to make our lay-ups. We need to get to the foul line. If we don’t shoot 10-15 foul shots in a game, we’re not aggressive enough. If we clean those three things up, we’ll be fine.”

 And quite possibly better than fine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 PIAA District Three

 Class AAAAAA Power Rankings

AAAAAA School  W  L  T  Rating  TWP  OWP  TWPW  OWPW  TWPL  OWPL 1 Cumberland Valley 7- 0- 0  0.813702  1.000000  0.586005  8.6  95.1  0.0  67.2 2 Central Dauphin 8- 2- 0  0.739896  0.868421  0.582811  9.9  111.6  1.5  79.9 3 Dallastown 7- 2- 0  0.730054  0.832512  0.604827  8.5  120.3  1.7  78.6 4 Cedar Cliff 6- 3- 0  0.712507  0.738462  0.680784  7.2  130.2  2.6  61.1 5 Wilson 5- 3- 0  0.677513  0.718391  0.627551  6.3  110.7  2.5  65.7 6 Governor Mifflin 6- 3- 0  0.677163  0.741117  0.598997  7.3  95.6  2.6  64.0 7 Reading 6- 2- 0  0.671182  0.811111  0.500158  7.3  79.0  1.7  79.0 8 Cedar Crest 8- 3- 0  0.668301  0.796680  0.511392  9.6  101.0  2.5  96.5 9 Manheim Township 6- 3- 0  0.640004  0.748718  0.507130  7.3  101.4  2.5  98.5 10 Central York 5- 4- 0  0.628684  0.626943  0.630812  6.1  123.5  3.6  72.3 11 Harrisburg 4- 4- 0  0.618085  0.604938  0.634153  4.9  110.9  3.2  64.0 12 Red Lion 4- 5- 0  0.588827  0.531792  0.658537  4.6  131.0  4.1  67.9 13 Exeter Township 3- 3- 0  0.568851  0.580357  0.554788  3.3  88.4  2.4  70.9 14 Central Dauphin East 3- 7- 0  0.530684  0.394737  0.696842  3.8  140.1  5.8  61.0 15 Warwick 4- 5- 0  0.526901  0.536313  0.515397  4.8  98.8  4.2  92.9 16 Penn Manor 3- 6- 0  0.492266  0.433526  0.564059  3.8  115.4  4.9  89.2 17 HEMPFIELD 3- 7- 0  0.485498  0.398936  0.591296  3.8  121.6  5.7  84.1 18 Chambersburg Area 2- 6- 0  0.465974  0.333333  0.628090  2.3  119.4  4.6  70.7 19 Carlisle 3- 7- 0  0.457262  0.358824  0.577575  3.1  110.8  5.5  81.0 20 Conestoga Valley 3- 7- 0  0.446686  0.389535  0.516538  3.4  103.9  5.3  97.2 21 Lebanon 2- 7- 0  0.401524  0.295858  0.530671  2.5  101.7  6.0  89.9 22 Ephrata Area 2- 8- 0  0.379465  0.269663  0.513668  2.4  98.7  6.5  93.4 23 York Country Day School 2- 3- 0  0.353774  0.315789  0.400199  1.5  40.2  3.3  60.3 24 William Penn 0- 9- 0  0.284499  0.000000  0.632220  0.0  122.1  7.9  71.0 25 J P McCaskey 0- 10- 0  0.254725  0.000000  0.566056  0.0  114.4  8.0  87.7 26 York County School Of Technology 0- 0- 0  0.000000  0.000000  0.000000  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0