Lady Little Lions persevere in extra frame against Wildcats

BELLEFONTE — The State College girls’ basketball team was not shooting well, but still the team persevered.
 

Even their free throws were not falling, one of their strengths, but still they persevered.

The lead disappeared in the final seconds of regulation to force overtime, but still they persevered.

The Lady Little Lions overcame their struggles against Central Mountain on Saturday
afternoon in the District 6 Class AAAA semifinals at Bellefonte Area High School, finally prevailing 46-39 in extra time.

“It was just such a crazy game,” senior guard Tara Branigan said. “We wanted it so bad and we felt like we weren’t playing our game. We got together in overtime and we knew exactly what we had to do. We had to play our game.”

Their next game is the district championship Wednesday, at a site and time to be determined, against Altoona (8-16). The Lady Mountain Lions rallied from an 11-point third-quarter deficit to upset Hollidaysburg 41-38 behind 12 points from Jackie Reilly and 11 from Sara Reimer.

“It’s nice that we’ve beaten Altoona twice in a row,” said Branigan, who had four assists. “We hadn’t beaten them in a really long time. It would be nice to beat them again in a district championship.”

Chrissy Cooper scored all of her points in the second half and overtime for a game-high 14 points along with six rebounds for State College (20-4), which posted the eighth 20-win season in program history and first since 2003, when the team last won the district title.

Emily Suhey and Kelsey Guth each added 13 points, with 12 rebounds and five blocks for Suhey and nine rebounds and six steals for Guth.

Mallory Moore’s 12 points led Central Mountain (22-3), which closed its season with three straight losses. Lauren Dwyer added eight points and Courtney Walsh netted eight points, including a 3-pointer to force overtime.

With State College up 34-32 and just over a minute remaining in regulation, the teams traded missed free throws before Cooper drained one of two with 25 seconds left. Lady Wildcats coach Mike Gentzel called a timeout seconds later, getting the team organized for the last play, which resulted in Walsh grabbing a pass on the left wing, hesitating to set her feet and drilling the tying bucket with six seconds to go.

“What I told them was, ‘All five of you can shoot the three,’” Gentzel said. “I said, ‘The first person that gets a good look, take it.’”

The Lady Little Lions had to shake off losing the lead so late and get ready for more basketball.

“That brought us together even more,” Cooper said. “We just want to win so bad and we’re going to do anything. We work together so well and that’s going pull off like it did tonight.”

It did not take long to refocus.

Guth put back a Suhey miss 10 seconds into overtime and the Lady Little Lions never again lost the lead. Following some more free throws, State College was ahead 40-36. Coach Bethany Irwin wanted the team to work the ball inside on two Wildcats with four fouls, but Cooper found herself open for a three right in front of the Lady Little Lion bench, drilling the shot with 53 seconds left for a safe margin.

“This game is always hard mentally because it’s do-or-die,” Irwin said. “A lot of times you go in there, you want to win, both teams want to win, and it’s going to be a battle. No one wants to stop and not have practice any more.”

Cooper had another big 3- pointer to end the third quarter. Emily Williams made the second of two free throws with 1.6 seconds left, but Branigan quickly got the ball into Cooper, who turned and fired the ball at midcourt to beat the buzzer for a 30-25 lead.

“That was humongous,” Branigan said. “I passed it to her and she was wide open. I thought, ‘Chrissy, just shoot it.’ It was going to go in, I just knew it.”

Central Mountain went without a field goal in the second quarter, missing all eight shots, but only trailed 17-14 at halftime.

State College entered the game averaging 61 points a night and Central Mountain was nearly equal at 59, but both struggled with their shots all day. The Lady Little Lions hit 31 percent of their shots (15-for-48) and the Lady Wildcats made 32 percent (13-for-41).

State College also hit 14-of-22 free throws, including 6-of-8 in overtime, and Central Mountain was 9-of-18.

“All week long all I heard how hard the rims were,” Irwin said. “I said, ‘It’s going to be hard for both of us. We both have to shoot at them.’ Both teams had great looks.”

Especially struggling was Suhey, who entered the game averaging 18.7 points a game and scored 34 points when the teams met eight days earlier in the State College gym. She had just one point in the game’s final 12 minutes.

“She’s used to that kind of game and we’re not expecting Emily to be the only scorer on the floor,” Irwin said. “The girls know that. She shot extremely well against them last time. Would it have been nice? Yes. But we weren’t expecting it.”