“We have 17 players, and from one through 17, they have all worked very hard,” Bracken said after watching her District 6 championship team improve to 20-8 on the season with a 56-40 PIAA Class 3A second-round playoff victory over District 9 champion Karns City in a game that was played at the Armstrong Junior-Senior High School gymnasium.

“This feels awesome, because all of the girls have put in so much work, and it’s nice to see the hard work pay off,” added Bracken. “Everybody has worked together — even the players who don’t play as much as the others have been very important to our team’s success, because, in our practices, they’re always pushing the players who do play more. Everybody works together on this team, and I’m very proud of all of them.”

Central Cambria advances to the quarterfinals Friday night and a game with WPIAL No. 3 seed Our Lady of the Sacred Heart at a time and site to be determined. OLSH advanced with a 36-34 second-round win over WPIAL champion Greensburg Central Catholic Tuesday night.

Leading only 13-11 after one quarter, Central Cambria took a 24-15 halftime lead by controlling the second quarter, 11-4. The Lady Red Devils expanded their lead to 12 points, 38-26, after three quarters and withstood a fourth-quarter rally by Karns City with the help of two clutch outside field goals and a layup in succession by sophomore Katie George, who scored a game-high 19 points.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Central Cambria’s Aubrey Ruddek puts up a shot in the paint over Karns City defender Naomi Venesky.

“I’m very proud of how we started this game,” Bracken said. “We knew that Karns City would apply a lot of defensive pressure, but we did a good job of handling that pressure and not panicking. And I thought that our defense played very well.”

Senior guard Alaina Sheehan scored 10 of her 12 points in the first three quarters for Central Cambria, then George put the game on ice for Central Cambria in the fourth quarter.

Karns City, which finished the season with a 23-4 record, used a seven-point run to shave what had been a 15-point (41-26) deficit to just eight points, 41-33, on junior Brooklyn Taylor’s inside bucket with 3:59 left in the game.

Then George took over, draining a big 3-pointer from the left corner, followed by a jumper from the top of the key, and a fast-break layup, to put Central Cambria comfortably ahead, 48-33, with two minutes left.

“We tell our players all the time that basketball is a game of runs,” Bracken said. “They made a little bit of a run, and we needed to respond. Katie responded for us with a 3-pointer and two field goals that took the wind out of their sails. Credit to her for coming through when we needed it.”

George, who comes off the bench early in each game and repeatedly makes huge contributions for Central Cambria, said that her coaches and teammates expect her to shoot the big outside shot.

“(Karns City) left me open, so I shot the ball,” George said. “I knew that we needed a little boost, the players on this team rely on me to shoot the ball, and the coaches give me the green light to shoot.”

Karns City placed three players in double figures, with Taylor scoring 11 points, and senior guard Chloe Fritch and junior forward-guard Naomi Venesky chipping in 10 points apiece. Venesky also grabbed 10 rebounds to tie Central Cambria junior Alaina Long for the game high in that category.

Karns City converted only eight of 25 floor shots in the first half, which Lady Gremlins coach Steve Andreassi felt was a key factor in the outcome of the game.

“I’m so proud of our girls for fighting back the way that they did tonight,” Andreassi said. “We had opportunities on the offensive end, but we just couldn’t finish them. We couldn’t put the ball in the hoop in the first half.

“But our players can hold their heads high — they had a very good season, and we lost to a very good team tonight,” Andreassi added.

Central Cambria reached the 20-win mark for the season and attained another big step in its state playoff journey.

“It’s just amazing,” George said of her team’s berth in the state quarterfinals on Friday night. “It’s an incredible opportunity for all of us, and I’m very excited about it.”

KARNS CITY (40): Fritch 3 4-5 10, Taylor 5 0-0 11, Dailey 0 0-0 0, Venesky 4 2-4 10, Prescott 3 3-6 9, Summerville 0 0-0 0, Pistorious 0 0-0 0. Totals – 15 9-15 40.

CENTRAL CAMBRIA (56): Link 1 0-0 2, A. Ruddek 1 0-0 3, Ab. Sheehan 1 4-4 6, Al. Sheehan 4 2-2 12, Long 3 1-2 7, George 5 7-7 19, R. Ruddek 2 0-0 5, Barra 1 0-0 2. Totals – 18 14-15 56.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Karns City 11 4 9 16 — 40

Central Cambria 13 11 14 18 — 56

3-point goals: Karns City 1 (Taylor); Central Cambria 6 (Al. Sheehan 2, George 2, A. Ruddek, R. Ruddek).

Records: Karns City (23-4); Central Cambria (20-8).

Officials: Tim Lavan, Bobbi Freeman, Scott Walter, Jr.