BY JEFF FALK

SOUTH LEBANON – The Cedar Crest girls’ basketball team has got two major things going on right now. One of which the Falcons are willing to talk about, and another that they’re not.

Well, there was this third thing. But last night they put it behind them so they could concentrate on the first two.

On Tuesday night at the Falcon Cage, Cedar Crest’s 2016-17 campaign got a little more splendid with a key and emphatic 62-42 triumph over McCaskey. Using various contributions from multiple sources, a tight man-to-man defense and a fast start, Cedar Crest more or less led wire-to-wire.

With the victory, the Falcons remained unbeaten, untied and unchallenged. At 14-0 and 8-0, the Falcons now have a two-game lead over the Red Tornado and the rest of the field, in the race for the Lancaster-Lebanon Section One championship.

McCaskey, which endured a similar 63-47 setback at the hands of Cedar Crest in Lancaster on December 12th, fell to 10-5 overall and 6-2 in the league. All of the Falcons’ wins this season have been by 12 points or more.

If that wasn’t enough, Cedar Crest senior guard Ariel Jones netted the 1,000th-point of her career during the contest. Needing 16 points coming in, Jones reached the milestone 55 seconds into the second half, on a three-pointer from the top of the circle.

“The way we do it is one game at a time,” said Cedar Crest head coach Jim Donmoyer. “We expect to win every game. We’ve won 14 one-game seasons. We’re going for 15 on Friday. We’re not looking past the next game. We don’t talk about it (being undefeated).

“All year, we start out slow,” continued Donmoyer. “We were up 30-17 at halftime, and that was good. But we’ve been consistent all year. They (his players) play awesome defense. They buy in. What we do, we do as a team. They’re unselfish, and it shows. This is what we practice for.”

The Falcons overcame a somewhat sluggish offensive start, and two fouls each for starters Alyssa Austin and Raven Morgan in the first three minutes, with defense and fundamentals.

Behind scoring contributions from Gracen Donmoyer and Kelsey Guth, Cedar Crest tallied five of the game’s first six points. Then the Falcons hit the Red Tornado with the knock-out blow – an 18-2 burst that pushed their lead to 19 points.

It began as a Jones floater in the middle of the opening quarter and ended as an Austin three-pointer that gave the Falcons a 24-5 advantage a minute into the second stanza. Along the way, Jones nailed a couple of ‘threes’ – including a highlight reel four-point play – Austin scored twice on offensive rebounds and Guth drained a jumper.

“It’s about those kids in there,” said Donmoyer. “I’m happy with the win, most importantly. With Ariel, I was happy to see her get it (the 1000th point) in a big game, at home.

“We’re two games up on everybody,” added Donmoyer. “They (the rest of the section) need to come and get us. Defensively, we held them to 42 points. They were averaging 72 over the last couple of games coming in.”

“We just came out and got out today,” said Jones. “We didn’t want it to be close. That way, it’s not a physical game.

“We just need to keep playing the way we do,” Jones added. “Each game is just a game.”

McCaskey did shave the Cedar Crest lead to 27-17 late in the second quarter. But a Jones trey seemed to right the Falcon ship, and created momentum that spilled over into the second half.

“Ariel carried us there,” said Donmoyer. “We had some role players step in. But it was more of a team win than ever. It was the little things. They (his players) stuck in there.

“We keep getting better,” Donmoyer continued. “Some kids are stepping up and doing things. Ariel is good. The role players are getting a lot better. They’ve definitely improved.”

“I think we’re a very close team,” said Jones. “We count on each person. It’s not one person or two people.”

Jones finished with a game-high 28 points, on six deuces, four treys and four-for-four free throwing. Austin and Donmoyer contributed ten points apiece to the Cedar Crest cause.

The Falcons outscored the Red Tornado 21-0 from beyond the arc.

“I only started playing her in the seventh game of her sophomore season,” said Donmoyer of Jones. “She got a thousand points pretty quick. Sixty-six games is how long it took. You do the math. Each year she’s averaged nearly 20 points a game.

“It means the world,” continued Donmoyer. “She’s a great kid. A super kid. I have two (and Austin) thousand-point scorers. Those kids I’m proud of. They stuck with me, and I stuck with them.”

“I did kind of want to get it over with,” said Jones. “So we could concentrate on the game, concentrate on the win.”

If any doubt remained about the outcome, Cedar Crest removed it in the first 3:52 of the second half, when it held the Red Tornado without a score of any kind. On the offensive end, Jones was hitting her milestone ‘three’, Morgan was scoring twice inside, Rachel Witherite was converting a nifty reverse lay-in and Austin was drilling the three-pointer that made it 42-17.

“It would’ve kind of been a downer,” said Donmoyer of the other, unthinkable, outcome. “That would’ve been hard to take. We don’t have to worry about that. They (his players) came out and played. They’ve been doing it all year.

“The point guard (Jones) and the post  player (Austin) might be the two best players I’ve ever coached,” Donmoyer added. “And this might be the best team I’ve ever coached. Everybody picks and chooses (when to contribute) a little bit.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to www.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DATE	OPPONENT	TIME	RESULT
12/09 #	@East Pennsboro	6:00 PM	W 61-44
12/10 #	@Cedar Cliff	7:30 PM	W 55-43
12/13	Wilson West Lawn	7:30 PM	W 66-48
12/16 *	@McCaskey	7:30 PM	W 63-47
12/19 *	Warwick	7:30 PM	W 65-47
12/21 *	@Conestoga Valley	7:30 PM	W 41-27
12/28 #	@South Western	6:00 PM	W 52-34
12/29 #	@York Suburban	7:30 PM	W 42-26
01/03 *	Manheim Twp.	7:30 PM	W 66-47
01/06 *	Hempfield	7:30 PM	W 54-40
01/09	Lebanon	7:30 PM	W 55-21
01/10 *	@Penn Manor	7:30 PM	W 69-44
01/13 *	@Elizabethtown	7:30 PM	W 59-33

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PIAA District Three

 Class AAAAAA Power Rankings

 

AAAAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP
1	Cumberland Valley	10-	0-	0	0.872450	1.000000	0.716555
2	Cedar Crest	13-	0-	0	0.815492	1.000000	0.589981
3	Central Dauphin	10-	2-	0	0.790616	0.885714	0.674385
4	Central Dauphin East	9-	3-	0	0.761369	0.824627	0.684054
5	Central York	13-	2-	0	0.756849	0.906706	0.573690
6	Governor Mifflin	11-	2-	0	0.746545	0.897611	0.561910
7	J P McCaskey	10-	4-	0	0.714265	0.784810	0.628044
8	Cedar Cliff	10-	4-	0	0.705612	0.773973	0.622061
9	Manheim Township	8-	5-	0	0.690062	0.723247	0.649502
10	HEMPFIELD	8-	5-	0	0.685341	0.714801	0.649333
11	Dallastown Area	7-	7-	0	0.634250	0.600719	0.675233
12	Carlisle	6-	7-	0	0.613580	0.557769	0.681794
13	Wilson (3)	6-	6-	0	0.610943	0.608333	0.614133
14	Waynesboro Area	8-	4-	0	0.609719	0.715447	0.480496
15	Red Lion Area	7-	7-	0	0.602595	0.599265	0.606666
16	Elizabethtown Area	6-	7-	0	0.590419	0.556017	0.632467
17	Conestoga Valley	6-	7-	0	0.583753	0.551724	0.622899
18	Penn Manor	5-	9-	0	0.532486	0.457031	0.624708
19	Warwick	4-	9-	0	0.517224	0.408511	0.650096
20	Reading	3-	11-	0	0.471281	0.296748	0.684600
21	Exeter Township	4-	10-	0	0.462908	0.341270	0.611578
22	Chambersburg Area	3-	11-	0	0.455649	0.266949	0.686282
23	Ephrata Area	4-	11-	0	0.437961	0.346863	0.549303
24	William Penn	2-	11-	0	0.411014	0.215247	0.650284
25	York Country Day School	2-	8-	0	0.273315	0.150000	0.424032

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lancaster-Lebanon League

Section One Standings

 

League			Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	PS	PA
Cedar Crest	8	0	100.00	14	0	100.00	810	543
McCaskey	6	2	75.00	10	5	66.67	848	747
Hempfield	6	2	75.00	9	5	64.29	658	578
Manheim Township	5	3	62.50	9	5	64.29	744	637
Conestoga Valley	3	5	37.50	6	8	42.86	595	589
Elizabethtown	2	6	25.00	6	8	42.86	600	672
Penn Manor	1	7	12.50	6	9	40.00	706	693
Warwick	1	7	12.50	4	10	28.57	582	634