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IMG_5826BY JEFF FALK

LITITZ -Not sure the better team won. But certainly on this night, the team that played better – with more determination, more focus and more heart – did.

Without leaving any doubt.

On Thursday night, in the opener of a girls’-boys’ doubleheader to decide the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s Section One basketball championships, McCaskey out played, out hustled and out worked Cedar Crest for an emphatic 58-47 victory. The Red Tornado seemingly came up with every loose ball, consistently beat their CC defenders off the dribble, took advantage of some cold Falcon shooting and outscored Crest 34-25 in the second half.

IMG_5805The result snapped a 14-game winning streak that Cedar Crest had used to create a tie atop the Section One standings. Now 18-4 overall, Cedar Crest will enter Tuesday’s first round of the Lancaster-Lebanon League playoffs at Section Four champ Lancaster Catholic as Section One’s runner-up.

Last night’s one-game playoff served as the rubber match between the two powers, after the Red Tornado had scored a 49-48 home triumph on Dec. 19 and the Falcons had beaten McCaskey 51-34 at ‘The Cage’ on Jan. 20. McCaskey, which received a monster 30 points from forward Ahnera Parker, will carry a 17-6 overall mark into a Tuesday meeting with Section Four runner-up Lebanon Catholic.

“They out played us. That’s pretty simple,” said Cedar Crest head coach Jim Donmoyer of the Red Tornado. “First of all, I want to congratulate them. They played hard. They took it to us. It was combination of their effort and a lack of our’s.

IMG_5820“They shot 30 foul shots. We shot six,” continued Donmoyer. “They played harder than we did. They wanted it more than us. They killed us on the offensive boards. They killed us on drives.”

Nursing a two-point halftime edge, McCaskey began the third period with nine straight, decisive points, to open a 33-22 margin. Feasting on sloppy Cedar Crest turnovers, the Red Tornado held the Falcons scoreless for a 3:55 span, until sophomore forward Alyssa Austin broke the spell with a lay-in.

Then, McCaskey tallied the last seven points of the third quarter to extend its lead to 40-28.

“They started out in man (-to-man) and we got the lead,” said Donmoyer. “They went 1-3-1 zone and we got tentative. Normally, 47 points will win a game like this. Fifty-six points is awful. Our defense was the issue.

IMG_5741“We were on a 14-game win streak and we laid an egg,” Donmoyer added. “We’ve been in bigger games that this.”

The Falcons were much more competitive in a first half which went back and forth.

Thanks to buckets from Austin and Alex Rich, Cedar Crest led 4-0, 6-2 and 8-4 early – and that would prove to be the biggest lead by either side during the first 16 minutes of play. But McCaskey reeled off the final six points of the opening stanza to assume a 10-8 advantage.

IMG_5866A back door cut from sophomore guard Ariel Jones put the Falcons ahead 13-12, 5:31 before the break, and that would prove to be Cedar Crest’s last lead of the evening. After Austin tied the score at 18 and 20 on inside hoops, McCaskey carried a 24-22 edge to intermission, thanks in part to 16 first-half points by Parker.

“She killed us,” said Donmoyer of Parker. “Everybody saw that. It goes back to effort. She had more than half of their points. We didn’t give up the ‘three’, but they don’t shoot the ‘three’. We got killed inside.

“When people don’t come to play and they pout and they don’t play hard, that’s what happens,” added Donmoyer. “We lost the game inside, on the offensive side and on the defensive side.”

Parker notched her 30 on 12 field goals and six-for-11 foul shooting. McCaskey’s 12-for-36 shooting from the stripe served to keep the Falcons in the game longer.

Sophomores Jones and Austin pumped in 17 and 16 points, respectively. Cedar Crest’s other 14 points were scored by seniors.

IMG_5766“Ariel is a very aggressive player, and so is Alyssa,” said Donmoyer. “There’s no divide in there. We’re pretty balanced.

“We’ve been in a one-game playoff since we were 3-2 in the section,” continued Donmoyer. “They (his players) did that for 14 games, and they did it when they had to. This isn’t over yet. If you’re looking for a consolation prize, these kids played well, even tonight.”

Another 7-0 McCaskey run early in the fourth quarter pushed its advantage to 47-30. The Falcons did manage a 7-0 spurt of their own – courtesy of a Jones trey, two charity tosses by Nikki Wagner and Jones’ conversion of a steal into a lay-up – but that only got them to within 51-43, with 1:55 remaining.

IMG_5858“We never thought we were going to go undefeated, but the section was a goal,” said Donmoyer. “We have leagues in front of us. We have districts in front of us. The positive is it isn’t our last game. We just didn’t do it on the defensive end.

“Sure, we can get to next Saturday (the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship game), one at a time,” Donmoyer continued. “Lancaster Catholic is a good team. I think we’re a good team. We just laid an egg.”

Cedar Crest (47)

PLAYER FGM FTM FTA 3PM PTS_TOT FT%
Alyssa Austin 8 0 0 16 0
Ariel Jones 7 0 0 3 17 0
Rachel Miller 3 0 0 1 7 0
Madison Rakow 1 0 0 2 0
Alex Rich 1 1 2 3 0.5
Makaley Ruhl 0 0 0 0 0
Emmi Wagner 0 0 0 0 0
Nikki Wagner 0 2 4 2 0.5

IMG_5846McCaskey (58)

PLAYER FGM FTM FTA 3PM PTS_TOT FT%
Alize Cherry 0 1 2 1 0.5
Sienne Kemmerer 0 0 2 0 0
Ayanda McGill-Jefferson 3 1 4 7 0.25
Ahnera Parker 12 6 11 30 0.545
Briana Perry 5 0 8 10 0
Jaileen Short 0 0 1 0 0
Brooklyn Smith-Jones 0 0 0 0 0
Paris Todd 3 4 8 10 0.5
  • Team 1 2 3 4 Final
    Cedar Crest
    8 14 6 19 47
    McCaskey
    10 14 16 18 58

  IMG_5747Lancaster-Lebanon League

  Final Section One Standings

 

TEAM LEAGUE OVERALL
McCaskey 14-2 17-6
Cedar Crest 14-2 18-4
Hempfield 12-4 15-7
Manheim Twp. 8-8 10-12
Penn Manor 4-12 7-15
Warwick 3-13 6-16

Cedar Crest 2014-15 Results

DATE OPPONENT TIME RESULT
12/05
Boyertown
7:30 PM L 38-51
12/06
@Muhlenberg
6:00 PM W 55-42
12/12 *
Solanco
7:30 PM W 67-37
12/15 *
@Ephrata
7:30 PM W 55-41
12/17 *
Conestoga Valley
7:30 PM W 45-19
12/19 *
@McCaskey
7:30 PM L 48-49
12/23 *
Hempfield
7:30 PM L 42-45
12/26 #
@Spring Grove
6:00 PM W 67-23
12/27 #
@Conrad Weiser
7:30 PM W 61-57
01/02 *
Manheim Twp.
7:30 PM W 55-32
01/06 *
@Warwick
7:30 PM W 71-50
01/09 *
Penn Manor
7:30 PM W 62-31
01/12 *
@Garden Spot
7:30 PM W 91-36
01/14 *
Elizabethtown
7:30 PM W 61-29
01/16 *
Lebanon
6:00 PM W 41-31
01/20 *
McCaskey
7:30 PM W 51-34
01/22 *
@Hempfield
7:30 PM W 43-28
01/27 *
@Manheim Twp.
7:30 PM W 51-28
01/28
Palmyra
7:30 PM W 65-61
01/30 *
Warwick
7:30 PM W 56-39
02/03 *
@Penn Manor
7:30 PM W 56-25
02/05 *
@McCaskey
6:00 PM L 47-58

IMG_5882District Three

 Class AAAA Power Rankings

  AAAA School W L T Rating

1 Palmyra Area 20- 2- 0 0.824272

2 Cumberland Valley 20- 1- 0 0.803232

3 Central Dauphin East 19- 1- 0 0.79057

4 Cedar Crest 18- 3- 0 0.788694

5 Mechanicsburg Area 20- 2- 0 0.764726

6 Dallastown Area 17- 5- 0 0.757091

IMG_58717 Red Lion Area 15- 6- 0 0.755723

8 Central York 18- 4- 0 0.747154

9 Hempfield 15- 7- 0 0.743924

10 Red Land 17- 5- 0 0.741529

11 Lebanon 16- 5- 0 0.738815

12 J P McCaskey 16- 6- 0 0.73479

13 Governor Mifflin 16- 6- 0 0.730876

14 Ephrata Area 16- 6- 0 0.718902

15 New Oxford 16- 6- 0 0.717816

16 Cocalico 16- 6- 0 0.692852

17 Cedar Cliff 13- 9- 0 0.687308

IMG_583218 Daniel Boone 13- 9- 0 0.676524

19 Harrisburg 11- 9- 0 0.665448

20 Exeter Township 12- 9- 0 0.658847

21 Central Dauphin 9- 11- 0 0.637554

22 Hershey 11- 10- 0 0.633229

23 Manheim Township 10- 12- 0 0.628856

24 Muhlenberg 10- 12- 0 0.610239

25 Lower Dauphin 10- 11- 0 0.609054

26 York Country Day School 15- 5- 0 0.590429

27 South Western 8- 13- 0 0.551174

IMG_575328 Wilson Senior 6- 15- 0 0.537826

29 Elizabethtown Area 8- 14- 0 0.535368

30 Penn Manor 7- 15- 0 0.526712 0

31 William Penn 7- 15- 0 0.520233

32 Warwick 6- 16- 0 0.504218

33 Shippensburg Area 7- 14- 0 0.494842

34 Conestoga Valley 7- 15- 0 0.493153

35 Solanco 5- 17- 0 0.443000

36 Chambersburg Area 3- 19- 0 0.419949

37 Reading 3- 19- 0 0.419352

IMG_581538 Spring Grove Area 2- 20- 0 0.372182

39 Waynesboro Area 3- 15- 0 0.355951

40 Carlisle 0- 21- 0 0.280453

41 Garden Spot 0- 21- 0 0.278239

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