Lady Mounts top Bears

In absolute crunch time, with the game — and sole possession of first place — hanging in the balance, Ephrata’s girls basketball team needed a run.

The Mountaineers got it.

Elizabethtown’s Elise Hassinger hit a free throw with 7:20 to play, and the Bears sliced Ephrata’s lead to 37-36. The Mounts responded with a punishing, gamechanging, 9-0 blitz, and Ephrata went on to top Elizabethtown 56-45 in a Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Two first-place showdown game Friday night in Ephrata.

The Mounts (6-2 L-L, 12-4 overall) maintained their grip on the section lead, as Elizabethtown (4-4, 10-5) slipped into third place behind Warwick (5-4, 7-7), which topped Penn Manor 3531 in a crossover game on Friday.

“It’s great to be in first place, but it’s going to be tough to beat these teams the second time around,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo said. “We have to go to Elizabethtown and we have to go to Warwick, and they’re going to be ready to play us. We have a lot of work to do, but we’ll put the work in. Hopefully it puts us in a good place in a couple of weeks.”

Ephrata, which won its seventh game in a row, is now two games clear in the race, thanks that dominating fourthquarter spree. Gabbie Gerola-Hill, who scored a game-high 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds, was instrumental in the run; she got it started with a pair of free throws, and her 3-pointer stretched the Mounts’ lead to 42-36.

Later, Jasmine Griffin, who chipped in with 16 points, had a steal and layup, and Gerola-Hill capped the run with a jumper and Ephrata led 46-36 with 4:52 to play.

Jocelyn Umana, who had 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Mounts, added a three-point play, and Griffin had two more fourth-quarter baskets, including a game-icing three-point play of her own with 2:02 to go, giving Ephrata a 54-41 lead.

And that was that.

“We had a really big start, and that’s what got us going,” Gerola-Hill said. “And we responded really well. We were calm and we were able to force some turnovers. We didn’t rush things. We just kept running our offense and we got open looks. The energy came from the crowd and the people supporting us. That kept us going. We kept our heads up and we kept going.”

Ephrata came flying out of the gates Friday, sailing to a 9-0 lead on Gerola-Hill’s 3-pointer, and it was 11-2 on Umana’s driving layup. Undaunted, Elizabethtown battled all the way back and took an 1816 lead on Hassinger’s hoop, which capped a 16-5 run for the Bears.

Ephrata took the lead for good, 19-18, on Gerola-Hill’s basket. The Mounts clung to a 27-24 lead at the half, and they were up 37-33 heading into the fourth.

“I’m proud of how we responded,” Elizabethtown coach John Myers said. “We came back and we played with a second-quarter lead. And we had it to 37-36 in the fourth. To their credit, Ephrata played really well. Gerola-Hill and Griffin both did what they were supposed to, and they were able to get some stops and finish when they needed to.”

Jade Love-Morris (11 points) and Ainsley Raybold (10 points) paced the Bears.