Knier Rescues Barons

Exhale, Baron Nation.

Manheim Central nearly had its nine-game winning streak snapped by rival Ephrata on Tuesday night.

Maddie Knier to the rescue. The Barons’ senior standout coaxed in a fadeaway jumper near the foul line at the fourth-quarter buzzer to force overtime and Central went on to top the Mountaineers 53-49 in a real barnburner to clinch at least a tie for the Lancaster-Lebanon League girls basketball Section Two title.

“We gave Maddie the option and she did her thing,” Central coach Michael Smith said. “When the shot went up, it felt like it was in the air for 30 seconds.”

“I needed to get something up,” Knier said. “When it left my hands, it felt short. Then it went in and I was able to breathe.”

And both teams shuffled off to OT, where the Barons outscored the Mounts 7-3 to win it.

Central (10-0 league, 16-3 overall) can clinch the crown outright with a victory Friday at Solanco.

The Barons had to scratch and claw to knock off Ephrata. The Mounts had a 46-41 lead on Marie McCracken’s transition layup with 5:27 to go in regulation.

But Ephrata didn’t score again in the fourth quarter. Knier, who scored 25 points, whittled Ephrata’s lead down to 46-44 with a top-of-the-key 3-pointer with 1:44 to go.

The Mounts couldn’t slam the door, and Central got the ball back and called timeout with 10.7 seconds showing. Off the inbound, Knier took a feed at the top of the key and Ephrata’s Jasmine Griffin – who was superb with 26 points for the Mounts – poked the ball away from Knier, who had to chase it down beyond the 3-point arc.

Once Knier corralled the ball, she made a beeline to the basket, pulled up near the foul line and arched in a fallaway jumper over Griffin and McCracken at the horn for a 46-46 tie and OT.

“I wasn’t even thinking about it because you don’t have enough time to think about it,” Knier said. “You have to rely on what you’ve done 100 times before. And I’ve taken that shot a million times.”

“Unbelievable,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo said. “Maddie made a heck of a shot and she’s a heck of a player. She always makes tough shots. We had some really great opportunities, so this one will probably hurt for a little bit.”

In OT, Ephrata drew first blood on Griffin’s free throw, but Central got a conventional three-point play from Kaylie Kroll (14 points) to take the lead for good, Payton Snyder rattled in a baseline jumper for a four-point edge and Knier’s foul shot iced it.

“If we panic there, bad things will happen,” Smith said. “So we kept taking about one possession at a time. Our girls were resilient. It’s been a while since we’ve played in this kind of a game, so for them to step up in such a big game like this is great.”

While Central can clinch the outright section title on Friday, Ephrata (7-2, 13-5) must fend off Warwick (6-3, 9-10) down the stretch for second place and an L-L League playoff spot. The Mounts host Conestoga Valley on Friday and then finish up next week at Warwick and at Elizabethtown.

Ephrata is also fighting for a District Three Class 6A playoff berth. The Mounts are No. 13 in the power ratings and the top 12 finishers qualify. So they have some work to do down the stretch.