BY JEFF FALK

ASSUMPTION HILL – Here’s the thing about learning and being young and improving: It’s a process, a long, hard process. And you’re never quite sure where you are, in relation to the process.

And things can change from day to day.

On Friday night, a very young Lebanon Catholic girls’ basketball team was beaten by an even younger Elco club, 45-42 in overtime. By holding the Beavers scoreless for a critical 6:51 stretch during the end of regulation and into overtime, the Raiders ripped off 11 consecutive points at the most opportune time.

After regulation had ended in a 38-all draw, Elco outscored Lebanon Catholic 7-4 in the four-minute, extra session. The Raiders notched the first seven points of overtime, on a stick-back from Chandelle Keller, two in-close moves by freshman Ryelle Shuey and a free throw from Shuey, to open a 45-38 margin, with 36 seconds left in the frame.

Actually, neither squad scored over the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, as Lebanon Catholic misfired on a driving lay-up attempt and Elco missed a couple of short opportunities in regulation’s final ten ticks.

The Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three-Four crossover contest served as the league opener for both schools. Elco is now a surprising 2-0, while Lebanon Catholic slipped to 1-1 overall.

“Even though they’re extremely young, they’re fierce,” said Elco head coach Ashli Shay of her charges. “At the end of the game, they pulled it out. They just showed guts. I thought, ‘What’s going to happen here?’ We tried to keep them together and we tried to keep them upbeat. But there’s not much more you can say.

“It was a tremendous experience, especially starting two freshmen and a sophomore,” continued Shay. “For young kids to experience this now, it’s important. They all made big plays. It’s a great team win.”

“We executed poorly,” said Lebanon Catholic head coach Patti Hower. “We took bad shots. We had some chances and threw them away. We didn’t execute anything, offensively or defensively. And fouls killed us.

“It was frustrating because we didn’t execute,” Hower continued. “We practice things, and it looks like we didn’t. We forced some shots, even when we had an eight-point lead.”

After trailing most of the evening, Elco scored seven straight Taylor Bossert points to open the final quarter, and took its first lead of the contest, 33-32, 2:05 into the frame. After the Beavers countered with six unanswered on the strength of four points from Allison Warren and a pair from Celine Mars, Elco tied it at 38 on baskets from Keller and Shuey.

Lebanon Catholic sophomore point guard Mariah Sholly fouled out with 4:52 left in regulation.

“When your best ball handler comes out, it’s difficult,” said Shay of Sholly. “It would be like us losing Taylor Bossert. That hurts. But one of our goals was to get their starters into foul trouble.

“At about the first minute of that overtime it was like, ‘OK, now we’re starting to move a little bit’,” added Shay. “It was an up-and-down, roller coaster of a game.”

Courtesy of a Warren three-pointer and a Pierre free throw, Lebanon Catholic notched the first four points of the second half to extend a six-point halftime margin to 28-18. But the Raiders responded with a lay-in from freshman Julia Nelson, Alexis Thomas’ jumper and a stop-and-pop from Bossert to make it a 28-24 game.

“I don’t think anything has changed,” said Shay. “I knew how athletic we were. We have really good athletes, who are competitors and want to win. They’re playing for each other. No one’s playing for themselves.

“I think some of them are soccer players first,” Shay continued. “But they have a great affection for basketball. Taylor Bossert loves the game. She’s a basketball player, and no one works harder at the game than she does. Chandelle is a special athlete. She can do anything.”

“At this point, I don’t want to use that as an excuse,” said Hower of her side’s youth. “We are young and we are learning. But I thought we were better than what we gave tonight.

“We’ve got to learn from it,” continued Hower. “We’ve got to talk about what we did. We’ve got to keep plugging away. It was disappointing. It was a game we could’ve won.”

With Keller, a senior, striking for 14 points, Bossert, a sophomore, pumping in a dozen and Shuey, a freshman, tallying 11, Elco’s scoring was balanced. Warren, a senior transfer, connected on five three-point field goal attempts and finished with a game-high 21 points.

Despite making only nine of their 20 free throw attempts, the Raiders outscored Lebanon Catholic by six points at the charity stripe.

“She can shoot the lights out, and we knew that,” said Shay of Warren. “You can not leave her. They’re (the Beavers) so darn athletic. Pierre gets her hands all over everything. And Sholly does a great job of running the offense. She’s the catalyst.”

“She’s an excellent shooter,” said Hower of Warren. “She’s certainly a great addition to our team. She’s definitely going to have a great year for us.”

Warren was on fire at the start. She notched 11 first-quarter points, including a trio of three-pointers, as Lebanon Catholic enjoyed early leads of 5-1, 9-2 and 15-6.

“I thought our defense was better in the second half,” said Shay. “We were leaving Warren open too much in the first half. But I thought the best part of our game was our rebounding. We came up with some huge rebounds at key moments.”

“Mariah is an excellent point guard,” said Hower. “She does a great job of running our offense. With her out of the game, we were just a little out of sync. She has to learn how to stay in the game. Her fouls are not good fouls.”

Lebanon Catholic’s lead reached 20-10, on a driving lay-up by Mars, 3:35 into the second quarter. But the Raiders scored the next six points, thanks to a ‘trey’ from Bossert and a lay-in from Keller, and pulled to within 20-16, on a charity toss by Shuey, 1:03 before the break.

“I think this was a learning experience,” said Shay. “I hope so. They (her players) were really excited after the game. It was a mentally draining game. This should be a confidence booster, finishing the way we did against a very good team. That’s a really good basketball team over there.”

“We just didn’t play smart,” said Hower. “We didn’t understand the game. We made dumb plays. They’ve (the Raiders) got a nice team. They play good defense.”

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to see more go to www.http://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/gallery-ten/.

 

 

 

 

2015-15 Elco Girls’ Basketball Schedule

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
12/09	@Conestoga Valley	7:30 PM	W 50-34
12/11 *	@Lebanon Catholic	7:30 PM	W 45-42

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2015-16 Lebanon Catholic Girls’ Basketball Schedule

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
12/05	Steel-High	2:30 PM	—
12/09	Harrisburg Academy	6:00 PM	W 55-33
12/11 *	Elco	7:30 PM	L 42-45

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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