Dallastown eliminates Lady Mounts

About a minute into the second quarter on Monday night, Ephrata looked up at a gargantuan 23-4 deficit against Dallastown.

And then, out of nowhere, the floodgates opened.

The Mountaineers battled back with a 14-0 blitz to end the first half, and Ephrata capped its rally in the third quarter, coming all the way back to take the lead.

But Dallastown, the York/Adams champ, finished fast. D’Shantae Edwards scored 15 points, the visiting Wildcats had a pair of must-have offensive rebounds in the waning seconds, and Dallastown fended off host Ephrata 43-41 in a District Three Class 6A girls basketball firstround game.

“We’re so proud of these girls and the way they fought,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo said. “I mean, it’s 23-4 and we could have folded up and gone home. But they fought and they fought. And that’s what they did for us all season.”

Dallastown, the No. 9 seed, advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals with a trip to top-seeded Central Dauphin. Ephrata, the No. 8 seed and L-L League Section Two champ, ended its season at 17-7 overall. And Mounts senior Gabbie Gerola-Hill ended her career in style.

With Ephrata trailing 43-39 with 0.5 seconds remaining, Gerola-Hill drilled a pull-up jumper in the lane for her 1,000th career point — on her final prep shot attempt. After the game was stopped, Dallastown (19-7) was able to get the ball inbound and run out the clock.

“Survive and advance,” Dallastown coach Jay Rexroth said, exhaling. “We’ll take the win, but give Ephrata a lot of credit. We had them down 23-4 and they go on a 14-0 run and we kind of lost our minds there. They kept making shots. But our thing all season has been believe, believe, believe.”

Once in a 19-point hole, Ephrata came all the way to grab a 27-25 lead on Gerola-Hill’s 3-pointer with 3:25 to go in the third. That bucket capped the Mounts’ 23-2 spree, but Dallastown led 32-29 heading into the fourth.

“Gabbie hitting a few shots sparked us, and we were able to claw our way back into it,” Cerullo said. “We talked all season about being mentally tough, and this was a game where we had to be mentally tough to get back in it.”

Ephrata had one last lead, 37-36 with 6:19 left on Brynn Adams’ wing 3-pointer. Dallastown took the lead for good, 38-37 with 5:51 to play, on Edwards’ driving layup.

Trailing 41-39 with 27 seconds to go, Ephrata called timeout to diagram a potential tying or go-ahead play. But Dallastown poked away a steal with 20 seconds left, and Edwards hit a pair of foul shots.

That set the stage for Gerola-Hill’s 1,000-point jumper. But that was also the final margin, as the Wildcats clawed their way into the quarterfinals.

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