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Win gets Dragons a No. 3 seed

By Jon Fleck

For the Mirror

HOLLIDAYSBURG — Central led Tyrone by eight at halftime in the District 6 3A girls semifinals Tuesday and were 16 minutes from advancing to the championship game.

Tyrone came back, however, and won by two, ending Central’s dream of a district championship.

The shoe was on the other foot for the Lady Dragons Thursday in the consolation game for third and fourth place against Everett.

The Lady Warriors ripped off a 15-0 run in the first half and led by 12 points at halftime.

“That was the biggest thing for me. I knew Tyrone came back on us for that win. I was like ‘I want to do that, too,'” Central’s Hannah Johnston said. “We came out got some confidence, made some big shots and that just everyone going. It was a team effort.”

Central roared back to tie the game at 40 by the final minute of the third quarter and went on to a 52-48 win at the HAHS gym.

“It’s hard when you lose the game to go to the district championship. What are you going to find to motivate yourself. That’s what we’ve been talking about the last two days,” Central coach Rob Mock said. “After the loss the other night, I didn’t know what kind of team I was going to have. We came out flat to start. At halftime I told them ‘We were ahead eight against Tyrone and they came back to win. We can turn 12 around.'”

With the win, Central enters the state playoffs as the third place team out of District 6. Everett’s the fourth place team.

The 3A state playoffs start a week from Saturday with the Lady Dragons taking on the loser of Saturday’s WPIAL 3A championship game between Bishop Canevin and Neshannock.

Everett gets the winner of the East Allegheny/Carlynton consolation game.

Central trailed Everett 39-29 midway through the third quarter before going on an 11-1 run that the game, 40-40.

Cassie Mock started the run with an 18-foot jump shot, and Maddi Metzler putback a Johnston miss on the fast break off an Everett turnover.

Mock and Erin Brumbaugh scored back-to-back buckets driving to the rim on the break to make it a three-point game, and a Johnston 3-pointer from the top of the key tied it with 42 seconds remaining in the quarter.

Everett’s Sydney Reffner scored on a runner just before the buzzer to put the Lady Warriors up 42-40 heading to the fourth quarter.

“Basketball’s a game of runs. Every team has one. We just made ours in the first half. They made theirs kind of in the middle game towards the end,” Everett coach Keith Moyer said. “It would have been nice to maintain the lead. Coming out of the locker room, we gave up 17 points in the third quarter. In playoff basketball at this level, you can’t give up 17 points in a quarter and beat anybody.”

Kaitlyn Maxwell gave Everett a four-point lead with a pair of foul shots in the opening minute of the fourth, but Mock and Metzler sank back-to-back 3-pointers midway through the quarter to give Central the lead for good.

Twice Mock made it a two possession game. First, the junior point guard sank a jump shot from the foul line with 1:52 remaining then converted two foul shots with 22 seconds. Johnston sealed the win with two more foul shots after that.

“They had some kids step up and hit some 3s typically they don’t knock down. We didn’t defend the drive which led to having to help which led to open 3s on the perimeter,” Moyer said.

Johnston led Central with a game-high 22 points, Mock scored 13 and Lauren Kensinger added six points. Tierney Fernandes grabbed 10 rebounds, most of which came in the second half during the team’s comeback.

“They predominantly play six kids. We needed to push the ball more,” Rob Mock said. “We stepped up a little better on defense the second half, but just the pushing the ball put them on their heels a little more. I think that’s what helped us.”

Kristen Mills led Everett with 15 points, 13 of which came in the first half. Cammie Jenkins scored 12 points, 10 in the first half.

“We’ve had strong leadership from our seniors all season. They played well again [Thursday]. Came up a little short,” Moyer said. “We didn’t defend very well coming out of the locker room and ran out of gas in the second half.”

EVERETT (48): Mills 6 0-1 15, Reffner 2 3-4 7, Maxwell 0 4-4 4, Prather 2 2-2 6, Jenkins 5 2-6 12, Hicks 2 0-0 4, Colledge 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 11-17 48.

CENTRAL (52): Negley 0 0-0 0, Johnston 9 2-2 22, Mock 5 2-2 13, Kensinger 3 0-0 6, Fernandes 1 0-0 2, Metzler 2 0-0 4, Brumbaugh 2 0-0 5, Metzger 0 0-0 0. Totals — 22 4-4 52.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Everett 14 21 7 6 — 48

Central 8 15 17 12 — 52

3-point goals: Everett 3 (Mills 3); Central 4 (Johnston 2, Mock, Brumbaugh).

Records: Everett (20-7); Central (19-6).

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