Mounts Pull Away from Warriors

Warwick was back on the basketball court for the first time since Jan. 11 on Friday night at Ephrata, where the host Mountaineers were in action for the first time since Jan. 21.

This has not been a good stretch for some Lancaster-Lebanon League girls basketball teams, as squads across the area have been forced to shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After the Warriors and the Mountaineers kicked off some rust, it was Ephrata that got the final run and won it. Jasmine Griffin poured in 17 points, and Olivia Fedorshak, the Mounts’ lone 12th-grader, chipped in with nine points in the paint on Senior Night as Ephrata KO’d Warwick 37-25 in a Section Two clash.

Ephrata led by as many as 10 points in the first half, and then found another gear to fend off Warwick’s late rally.

“Every time we play Warwick it’s a slugfest,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo said, “so to have an early lead really builds your confidence. It helped us settle into the game and calm down. To have that early lead and then to fight through their pressure in the second half was big. We were able to get over that hump.”

Ephrata (3-1 league, 4-2 overall) remains in the lead pack; Elizabethtown and Conestoga Valley are both 2-0 and share the Section Two lead. The Mounts are the defending champs, and aren’t quite ready to relinquish the crown just yet.

Friday, Ephrata never trailed, bolting to an 8-2 first-quarter lead, and the Mounts stretched it out to 15-5 on Griffin’s translation layup with 4:44 to go in the first half.

Warwick had 10 first-quarter turnovers and trailed 17-7 at the break before the Warriors finally found their legs. Elise Balmer scored eight of her 10 points in the third quarter for Warwick; her wing 3-pointer sliced Ephrata’s lead to 23-18 with 1:26 to go in the third, and Balmer’s pull-up jumper cut the Mounts’ cushion to 26-20 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Warriors (0-3, 1-3) were within 28-22 on Hailey Delgiacco’s post bucket midway through the fourth quarter when Ephrata finally seized control for good. First, Fedorshak converted a pretty backdoor feed by Griffin into a layup for a 30-22 lead, and Mallory Kline delivered the dagger, kissing in a transition layup for a 32-22 lead with 4:33 to go.

“That run felt good,” Fedorshak said. “It was a big boost and a great run. It felt good to get off to a great start; we were locked in. Warwick really put up a great fight, and they didn’t give up. They kept answering.”

Ephrata got the final punch, as Griffin went 4 for 4 from the line in the waning seconds to ice it for the Mounts. Meanwhile, Warwick will try and kick off more rust moving forward after its schoolimposed shutdown.

“We’re four games in and it’s almost February, so that’s an interesting dynamic,” Warwick coach Danny Cieniewicz said. “Other schools and other teams are dealing with this. These last three weeks, we’ve only been able to do things that have been under our control. We’re still trying to find our rhythm. It’s just not there yet.

“Until you deal with this, you just don’t know what to prepare for. We’re in it now, and this could be a valuable life lesson. We have to deal with the circumstances we have. They’re tough circumstances, but we have to be tough within those circumstances. That’s where we’re at.”

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