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Mounts Enjoying Late Surge
- 02 February 2006
By all pre-season accounts, Ephrata was a solid favorite to repeat as
Section Two champions and enjoy another long post-season run through
February and March. For whatever reasons, and there are probably
several, it didn’t happen. Inexplicably, the Mounts hit a mid-season
rut that turned into a gigantic nine-game losing streak that put the
kibosh on any thoughts of section championships or playoff runs.Now, with everything out the window, the Mounts have finally hit their stride. And they are starting to look like the basketball team everyone expected to see when those pre-season predictions went out back in December.
Tuesday night at home, Ephrata won their third-straight game, and did so in impressive fashion.
Seth Zimmerman got the Mounts out early, scoring 12 of his game-high 21 points in the opening quarter to spark the team to a 56-45 victory over Garden Spot.
The Mounts (4-10 section, 6-15 overall) doubled up the Spartans 34-17 in the first half and rode it out for the easy victory.
Todd O’Brien led GS (5-9, 11-9) with 13 points.
Friday night at CV, the Mounts again rode the hot hand of Zimmerman and then went 7-for-9 from the foul line down the stretch to upset the second-place Buckskins, 58-50 in Witmer.
Like Tuesday, Zimmerman came out of the gates smoking, and set the tone for the rest of the game with his 11 first-quarter points. The senior guard finished with a game-high 25 points to go along with nine big boards to give the Mounts their second-straight section win.
“My teammates have played with me for a while now and they know when I’m hot,” Zimmerman said of his first quarter performance. “They are going to get me the ball.”
Ephrata Coach Dave Dubbs said he was particularly pleased with his team’s patience at the offensive end.
“We stepped up tonight,” he said. “We weren’t quick with our shots. I watched the film (from the last game vs. CV) and we had eight one-pass shots in that one. We made a concerted effort tonight not to do that, and to attack the basket. We did a pretty nice job tonight. We got good play out of a lot of people.”
“We were focused coming over here,” he continued. “We wanted to play basketball tonight and I thought we did a very nice job. We got off the bus and we wanted to attack the hole. We weren’t settling for shots and that was the reoccurring theme all night.”
Despite taking an 11-2 lead in the early going, the Mounts had a hard time shaking the Buckskins as CV closed the gap to 19-14 after one.
Ephrata maintained a slim margin for most of the second quarter before the Buckskins took their first lead of the game on a pair of foul shots by Joey Fuller with 1:37 to go in the half. After Ephrata’s Paul McHenry added a deuce to help his team reclaim a one-point lead, CV’s Terence Gochera put the Bucks up 26-25 at the half when he sank a last-second shot in the lane.
But the Mounts, who have blown a number of leads this year, weren’t to be denied on this night.
McHenry led a charge in the third, scoring 10 of his 16 in the period, as the Mounts regained a 39-37 lead heading to the final quarter.
Then in the fourth, Zimmerman and senior reserve Mark Sweigart both came up big at the offensive end, scoring six points apiece as the Mounts pulled away late. Leading 51-48 with 1:59 to go, Ephrata outscored CV 7-2 the rest of the way to secure the big win.
“It feels good to have the whole team play 32 minutes and now we are gaining the confidence that we didn’t have all season,” Zimmerman said. “To play as a team and to pick each other up when we’re down... That’s what we did tonight.”
Trey Keely led the way for the Buckskins, scoring 17 in the loss.
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.