Lady Mounts Section Champs!
- 05 February 2009
Make some room on the gymnasium wall, Ephrata.You have a new purple-and-gold banner coming.
The Mountaineers held off Conestoga Valley 40-38 at the wire Wednesday night to clinch the L-L League Section 2 championship.
It was Ephrata’s first section championship since the Mounts won Section 2 in the 1990-91 season.
The seniors on this year’s team were born during that season.
Solanco, which plays Garden Spot on Thursday, needed Ephrata to lose and to beat the Spartans to force a one-game playoff for the crown.
Instead, Ephrata took care of business at home – with a handful of Solanco players on hand to watch – and the Golden Mares locked up sole possession of second place when Elizabethtown fell to Lebanon 49-40 on Wednesday.
Solanco owned the tiebreaker over E-town, so the Mares would have gained the L-L League playoff spot, even if they would have tied for second with E-town.
Ephrata will take on Section 3 runner-up Northern Lebanon in an L-L League quarterfinal game on Tuesday at a site and time to be announced Thursday morning.
Mel Andrew scored 16 points and Aly Goodman chipped in with 12 points to pace Ephrata’s scoring attack against CV, which led 37-35 with 1:53 to go when Jess Martin followed up her own miss.
The final two minutes, in fact, were a blur, with a couple of lead changes, some clutch foul shots and two key defensive plays by Ephrata’s Kristy Liebl, who forced steals on back-to-back CV possessions to thwart the Bucks.
“Huge steals,” Ephrata coach Mike Garman said of Liebl’s fancy pilfering. “Just two huge, huge steals.”
Ephrata, which finished the regular season 10-6 in league games and 13-9 overall, took the lead for good, 40-38, when Andrew coaxed in a pair of free throws with 47 seconds to go.
Liebl made steals on CV’s next two trips, and when the Bucks’ Rachel Hess and Martin each misfired in the final 9 seconds, Ephrata had the win – and the outright section championship.
“This is sweet,” Garman said. “To watch these kids get to celebrate … when’s the last time we go to see something like that here? It’s been a while, so this is great. Our kids bring everything they have, and they play with a lot of effort and heart and desire.”
We here at www.ephratamounts.com are proud sponsors of the Dodgeball for Diabetes tournament.