Photo by Nate Ritchey Penn Cambria's Rachel Fisher (31) and Reagan Ronan trap Delone Catholic's Grace McCleary in the third quarter.

CHAMBERSBURG — Many times in basketball each team must ride the ups and downs throughout a game.

Every now and then, you get a contest where it’s a tale of two halves where everything goes right from one squad in the first while nothing seems to go the way for the other. Then things completely flip in the second half.

On Wednesday night at Chambersburg Area High School, there wasn’t much to be excited about for Penn Cambria in the opening half as it entered the locker room down 14 points.

However, a 3-point barrage from sophomore Rachel Fisher pulled the Lady Panthers back and ahead of Delone Catholic, the second seed from District 3.

Penn Cambria, the District 6 champ, was able to grab the advantage, overcome missed free throws down the stretch to complete the comeback with a 38-32 victory over the Squirettes in PIAA Class 4A second-round action.

“I’ve talked to the girls since day one way back in November something that basketball is a roller coaster,” Penn Cambria coach Josh Himmer said. “In the first half, we had three field goals — we had one 3 and two 2s. I told the girls, ‘you are taking great shots, but they just weren’t falling. … We’re going to go out there and try our best in the second half.’ We found shots that fell for us in the second half.”

Penn Cambria advanced to the quarterfinals on Saturday against District 7 champion Oakland Catholic, a 63-36 winner over Slippery Rock, at a place and time to be determined.

Trailing 24-10 at halftime, Fisher drilled her first of five straight shots from downtown just nine seconds into the second half. Fisher hit two more to close the PC gap to five at the 5:10 mark.

Amelia Joyce momentarily stopped the run as the sophomore grabbed her own shot and stuck it back in to make the score 26-19.

The Lady Panthers responded immediately as Fisher buried two more from deep to get her team within one at 26-25.

“Honestly, a little bit,” Fisher said when asked if she was surprised that she was wide open. “My team did a great job at drawing the defense in and then kicking out the ball for me to those. So, that’s kudos to them. I’m just the one who shot it — they did everything else.”

Fisher’s only points of the night came in the third as she led all scorers with 15 points.

“I don’t know what to say to that other than we have that ‘Mountain Mentality,’ and she (Fisher) is the microcosm of that mentality,” Himmer said when asked about his sophomore hitting five 3-pointers on five straight attempts.

Back-to-back blocks by Makenna McCoy and Fisher turned away the Squirettes before Sophia Bears tied the contest with a free throw.

Much like they had in the first half, Delone got loose for a backdoor layup as Zoe Gregg put her team back up 28-26.

McCoy joined the 3-point parade with one of her own that put the Panthers ahead with 22 ticks left in the third.

Gregg, who paced Delone Catholic with 10 points, got a layup to go at 7:11 of the fourth to flip the scoreboard back to DC.

However, Beard pulled a rebound away from a Squirette and put it back in to give Penn Cambria the lead for good with 6:30 remaining.

They (Penn Cambria) started off (the second half) with the 3-point barrage which excited them,” Delone Catholic coach Gerry Eckenrode said. “We might have dropped our heads a little bit when that was going on. … We didn’t react well to it.”

The stolen rebound was a theme in the second half for the Lady Panthers as several times Delone Catholic had control of the ball only to turn and have it taken away by a PC player.

Ten times in the second half the Squirettes gave the ball up in one form or another. The Delone players began to rush themselves due to the PC half-court pressure, and sometimes it resulted in unforced turnovers.

“Let’s be honest, they (Delone Catholic) have seen us do it the whole year,” Himmer said regarding DC scouting prior games. “As a coach, it’s my job to make adjustments. … We stayed in a zone and that 2-3 (zone defense), we really haven’t played it all that much.”

Reagan Ronan and Avayah LeMaster came through with a trey and layup, respectively, to put PC up 36-30 with a little more than four minutes to go.

Delone’s Reece Meckley, who came in averaging nearly 20 points per game, was held to just nine, including a pair of foul shots with 2:16 showing that proved to be the final Squirette points.

Following a rebound by Gregg, Avayah LeMaster stole the ball on the turn, and the sophomore put it up and in to set the final with 1:33 to play.

“So, I’m really not supposed to be up there when they get the rebound because we have a habit of reaching,” Avayah LeMaster said. “… When I reached in there, I thought it was going to be a foul at first, but they let the game play. Then you just have to have confidence in yourself. Once you have that ball, you have to know that shot is going in.”

With plenty of time left on the clock for DC, the Lady Panthers couldn’t increase its lead as they missed all six foul shots in the last minute.

Fortunately, the inexperience of Delone Catholic hurt as it had one ball slip right through Gregg’s fingers and go out of bounds, while three rushed 3-point attempts never had a chance.

“I can’t tell you how many dropped passes we had or balls going out of bounds,” Eckenrode said. “Our youth showed up there a little bit. And we didn’t shoot the ball well either (in the second half). That’s the other side of the coin.”

In the first half, DC used a half-court mix of 2-3, 3-2 and man-to-man defenses to throw off any chance PC had of finding a rhythm.

Penn Cambria turned the ball over 15 times in the opening half, while the shooting — both inside and outside — didn’t help its chances.

Following a layup from Gregg, Ronan gave PC its only lead of the opening half when she drilled a 3-pointer to put her team up 3-2 at the 6:36 mark.

The Squirettes reeled off 13 straight points to take a 15-3 edge on another inside bucket from Gregg.

Meanwhile, during the five-minute span, Penn Cambria gave the ball away six times while missing many shots from inside the paint.

Trailing 15-4 after the first eight minutes of play, the two teams were sloppy with the ball as PC had nine miscues and DC tallied eight.

The first points of the quarter came on two Meghan Andersen foul shots with 5:55 on the clock, while the first made field goal came from Delone’s Grace McCleary on a layup at 4:48 that made the score 17-6.

Beard scored the other four points for the Lady Panthers, while Joyce delivered five and Meckley had two to put the score up to 24-10 at the half.

Penn Cambria owned a 32-24 advantage in rebounds as Beard collected nine and McCoy totaled seven.

“It’s amazing especially since we’ve worked so hard to be in this moment,” Fisher said. “Every practice we have worked hard, and every game led us to this moment.”

PENN CAMBRIA (38): Ronan 2 0-2 6, Beard 3 1-4 7, Ava. LeMaster 2 0-2 4, McCoy 1 0-0 3, Fisher 5 0-0 15, Andersen 0 3-4 3, Ave. LeMaster 0 0-0 0, Rabatin 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 4-12 38.

DELONE CATHOLIC (32): McCleary 1 0-0 2, Robinson 0 2-2 2, Meckley 3 2-3 9, Joyce 4 0-0 9, Gregg 5 0-0 10, Vitale 0 0-0 0, McMaster 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 4-5 32.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penn Cambria 4 6 19 9 — 38

Delone Catholic 15 9 4 8 — 32

3-point field goals: Penn Cambria 8 (Fisher 5, Ronan 2, McCoy); Delone Catholic 2 (Meckley, Joyce).

Records: Penn Cambria (21-5); Delone Catholic (23-6).