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Saving her best for last

McClain’s foul shots at crunch time lead Blair to win

03/29/19 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Blair County's Bridgid Fox (53) and Sierra McClain hug after the girls game.

By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

Hollidaysburg’s Sierra McClain of the Blair County team hadn’t scored all game.

When she got her chance late in the contest at the free throw line, the Lady Tiger knocked down 3-of-4.

Altoona’s Olivia Hudson came up with a block on Kate Yahner of Bishop Carroll with seven seconds left to preserve the win as Blair County held off the Central PA All-Stars, 76-74, on Friday night at the 14th Annual Altoona Mirror Basketball Classic at Penn State Altoona’s Adler Arena.

“I said at the beginning of the game to the girls to go out, have fun but win this,” Blair County coach Jess Veverka of Claysburg-Kimmel said. “It was nice to see they wanted this and had that competitiveness. It was awesome.”

With the win, the Blair County squad brought the series lead to 8-6 in favor of the Central PA stars.

“These girls gave 100 percent the whole game. It was an honor to be able to coach them,” Central PA coach Brittany Sedlock of Central Cambria said. “You don’t need offenses, because they can create on their own … I thought they did a really good job with team chemistry.”

An uncontested layup from Autumn Fennell of Penns Manor with 1:34 left tied the game at 72-72 for the first time since early in the second quarter.

Claysburg-Kimmel’s Emily Claar hit 1-of-2 from the line just eight seconds later to put Blair back up for good.

Sedlock called the first timeout of the game with 51.9 ticks to go and told her team to foul.

At that point, Veverka believed that Central PA would look to Philipsburg-Osceola’s Halle Herrington for points, and inserted McClain in the lineup to play defense on her.

“Sierra has such quick hands, and I said we needed her in the game against her (Herrington),” Veverka said. “She’s going to play the toughest defense on her.”

The move paid off as Sedlock’s team was forced to foul to put Blair County in the 1-and-1 bonus situation.

McClain’s knocked down a pair with 40 seconds remaining to put her team up 75-72 before Herrington, who was named the Central PA MVP, converted two of her own after being fouled at the other end with 31.3 left to make it a one point game.

“It was probably about halfway,” Herrington said of the point she began to try to win. “The first half it was like I’ll have some fun, but then we wanted to win.”

With Central PA in a full-court press, Blair was headed for a 10-second violation before Veverka called a timeout.

McClain was again fouled with 22.2 to go, and she made the first of two from the line to set the eventual final score.

“It was definitely nerve-wracking because I knew we were tied at this point,” McClain said. “I knew that I needed those free throws … (Making the first two), gave me a lot of confidence. I was more confident the second time even though I missed the last one.”

Yahner got the ball on the wing, saw an opening and drove down the lane for a shot where Hudson was waiting to block the shot.

“I was thinking, ‘don’t foul, don’t foul. Stay straight up’,” Hudson said. “Then I saw the block opportunity, so I was like I was just going to take it.”

Hudson grabbed her own block and raced down the court for a layup, but a challenge by Herrington caused her AAU teammate to miss the shot.

At that point, the miss didn’t matter as time had run out with the ball still loose on the rebound.

The two teams came out flat as the first points didn’t come until Hollidaysburg’s Janessa Goins hit a baseline jumper at the 7:35 mark of the opening quarter.

Central Cambria’s Jenna Bauer responded with a hook shot to knot the score just 21 ticks later.

“I think we came out ready to go. We were excited,” Hudson said. “We just came out to have fun. I think that without the nerves, we played a lot better.”

Goins answered right back with another jumper at 6:55 to put Blair County up 4-2 — a lead that would only be tied late in the contest, but never overtaken.

Hudson and Altoona teammate Bridgid Fox, who shared MVP honors for the Blair team, never saw the court together in the first half, but took turns taking control during their time of the floor.

Fox led the way for Blair with 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Hudson tallied 13 as the lone double figure scorers.

“We really wanted to have fun, but we also wanted to win,” Fox said. “It got really competitive too toward the end. So, we just kinda felt like we needed to step it up.”

Central PA tied the score at 20-20 when Herrington hit back-to-back 3-pointers with the second coming at 8:56 in the second stanza.

Riley D’Angelo of Bellwood-Antis wasted no time giving Blair the lead back a she drilled her first of two triples just 20 seconds later.

Blair County led by as many as 12 points on two occasions (43-31 and 45-33) with Fox providing a trey and a layup just minutes into the second half.

“They got competitive and they started coming back,” Fox said. “At the end, it was all just about trying to win there.”

Central PA fought back to within three points (46-43), courtesy of a 10-1 run keyed by eight straight points from Yahner, who finished with 10, and capped off by a basket from Abby Tomayko of Penns Manor.

“I was just having fun with that,” Yahner said. “We were down, so I just started taking it.”

Just as they had done many other times that Central PA tried to make a comeback, Blair always had an answer as Sydney Shaw of Tyrone delivered a trifecta to stop the run.

Fox converted a layup to start the final quarter to give her team its largest of the quarter at 10 (60-50) before Central PA worked its way back to tie the game with a 22-12 spurt capped off when Fennell, who finished with 10 points, tied the score at 72-72.

All 11 players scored for Central PA, while Hannah Snyder of Hollidaysburg was the only Blair County player to not register points.

“Blair County was killing us on the boards in the first half,” Sedlock said. “We were battling and I thought we did a better job in the second half rebounding. we closed the gap a little bit, and I think that made a difference in the game.”

CENTRAL PA (74): Herrington 6 2-2 18, Kitko 1 0-0 2, Widmar 0 1-2 1, Fennell 4 1-2 10, Yahner 3 4-6 10, McCully 2 0-0 5, Bauer 4 0-0 8, Tomayko 2 0-0 4, Stigers 4 0-0 10, Haigh 1 2-2 4, Clapper 1 0-0 2. Totals: 28 10-14 74.

BLAIR COUNTY (76): Snyder 0 0-0 0, Locke 1 0-0 2, D’Angelo 3 1-1 9, Krug 0 1-2 1, Goins 4 0-0 8, McMonagle 3 2-2 8, Hudson 4 5-8 13, Claar 3 1-4 8, Shaw 2 1-2 7, McClain 0 3-4 3, Fox 6 3-3 17. Totals: 26 18-26 76.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central PA 12 19 19 24 — 74

Blair County 18 19 21 18 — 76

3-point field goals: Central PA 8 (Herrington 4, Fennell 1, McCully 1, Stigers 2); Blair County 7 (D’Angelo 2, Shaw 2, Fox 2, Claar 1).

Officials: Joe Bilka, Clark Adelman, Jerry Kauffman.

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