Cedar Crest Consumed By Red Tornado

9 years ago
Cedar Crest Consumed By Red Tornado

Feb 5, 2015
Jeff Falk
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BY 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.

The 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.

“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.

“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.

A 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.

“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.

“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

McCaskey (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

Team	1	2	3	4	Final
Cedar Crest	8	14	6	19	47
McCaskey	10	14	16	18	58

Lancaster-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