Lady Mounts stop Eagles

Ephrata’s girls basketball team remained unscathed Thursday night.

But the Mountaineers had to scratch and claw to improve to 6-0.

Jasmine Griffin scored 17 points, Ephrata forced 16 turnovers and the Mounts fended off backyard rival Cocalico 32-19 in a non-league clash in Denver.

“It really means a lot to start out this well, because last season we got off to a slow start with our record,” Ephrata senior Cara Tiesi said. “Those games we lost early on last year really set us back for districts. But we’ve started out strong this season and now we hope to keep it going.”

“We have to keep improving, and we have to keep getting better and clean up our mistakes,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo added. “I think we did a better job limiting turnovers here tonight. So, we’re learning, like when to attack and when to move the ball.”

After making a spirited charge to the Lancaster-Lebanon League title game last February, where Ephrata fell to Lancaster Catholic, the Mounts didn’t cash in with a District Three playoff invite.

Fast forward to this season and Ephrata hit the holiday break with nary a loss. Despite a 13-point advantage Thursday, the Mounts had to pull plenty of teeth against the Eagles, who will be without leading scorer and top sniper Kiersten Shipton, out indefinitely with a back injury she suffered earlier this week in a game at Lancaster Catholic.

Shipton, who has 600-plus points and 100-plus 3-pointers in her career, missed her first game Thursday, and it took Cocalico a while to get its offense going. Ephrata had an early 8-0 lead and the Eagles didn’t score until Danika Sauder beat the first-quarter horn with a pull-up jumper.

Ephrata pulled away in the second quarter; Tiesi drilled a wing 3-pointer, Barbara Price had a bucket and Griffin scored in transition for a 15-4 cushion.

Ephrata’s onslaught continued into the third quarter. Kyrielle Wieand scored in the post for a 20-6 edge, and when Griffin knocked down a 3-pointer, the Mounts had a seemingly safe 23-6 lead with 4:43 to go in the third quarter.

And then the entire complexion of the game changed. Abby Waas scored in the paint and Sauder hit a 3-pointer as Cocalico (2-6) pulled to within 23-12 by the end of the third quarter.

Teagan Sahm’s stick-back early in the fourth made it 23-14. Later, Erin Henry scored in the paint to cap Cocalico’s blistering 13-0 blitz, and it was a 23-19 game with 4:01 to go in regulation.

Griffin finally restored order for Ephrata. Her conventional three-point play snapped Cocalico’s run and gave the Mounts a 26-19 lead with 3:28 to play. Griffin and Marie McCracken combined to go 6-for-6 from the foul line over the final 1:42 to ice it.

“I thought our girls did a really nice job of battling through some adversity and keeping that next-play mentality,” Cocalico coach Andrew Garrett said. “No matter what was happening, we kept going to the next play and the next play. Things did snowball in our favor for a little while. But they’re a good team and they did a good job closing out.”

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