Mounts Set Nets on Fire

As the third quarter at Elizabethtown was coming to a close Friday night, Ephrata’s Dilyn Becker buried a 3-pointer. On the Bears’ ensuing inbound pass, Zachary McGillan stole the ball and nailed another trey as the buzzer sounded.

Those six points in the final four seconds of the quarter were a microcosm of how the Section Two opener went for the two squads.

Elizabethtown couldn’t find the basket and the Mountaineers couldn’t miss as Ephrata rolled to an impressive 63-39 road victory.

Even Mountaineers coach Charlie Fisher had to laugh when asked about the end of the third quarter, in which his team had opened a 59-24 lead.

“That was just one of those things,” he said.

Turning point: Ephrata trailed 9-8 late in the first quarter until Becker’s first triple of the game with eight seconds left made it 11-9.

The Mounts opened the second quarter with seven straight points, but really go hot after that, going on a 31-4 run in which they hit of 14of-17 shots.

Ahead 22-12, Ephrata scored on eight straight possessions, with 11 of the Mounts points coming from Brendan Holbritter, who knocked down two of his four 3-pointers during the blitz.

“He’s a shooter,” Fisher said of Holbritter. “Our shooting percentage has not been good to this point. We’ve been waiting.

“We moved the ball, got into a rhythm and when you are playing with a little bit of confidence that 3-pointer goes down a little easier and that is definitely what happened tonight.”

Leading scorers: Holbritter finished with 14 points and Becker added 12, but sophomore guard Xavian Rodriguez led all scorers with 15 — 13 of which came in the first half — helping Ephrata to a 32-13 lead at the break.

“We had the ball moving. Everybody was hitting everything. We played hard,” Rodriguez said. “Once we get hot we get that confidence and everything starts to go our way.”

Micah Garber scored 12 to lead Elizabethtown (1-3).

Building block: After improving to 4-1, Fisher hoped that opening section play with a one-sided win gives his team something to build upon.

“The biggest thing for us and this goes back to last year is confidence and learning how to win games,” he said. “It is still a work in progress. But it’s one of those things that we are doing everything as a team now and we are playing to our strengths.”

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