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Lady Titans find way to move on

JOHNSTOWN — Leading by 12 points early in the third quarter, Tussey Mountain had a chance to put Elk County Catholic away.

However, between the Lady Titans going cold from the floor and several ill-advised turnovers, the Lady Crusaders climbed all the way back to within two points early in the fourth.

That’s when Tussey’s Sophie Brumbaugh literally stole the game back as TM was able to close out Elk County to capture the 41-32 victory in PIAA Class 1A first-round round playoff action on Saturday at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown’s Sports Center.

“Well, I guess at this point, you just want to win,” Tussey Mountain coach Todd Gates said. “It wasn’t the prettiest, but we did what we needed to do. (We) held on and moved on. That’s all you can hope for right now.”

Tussey Mountain, the second seed out of District 5, came out firing on all cylinders in the opening half as Brumbaugh and Meghan Molosky led the way with 10 points apiece, including two each from 3-point range to stake their team to a 24-15 lead at the break.

“I usually don’t shoot out there, but (Gates) tells me to take what’s open,” Brumbaugh said of her two 3-pointers. “So, I was open, I shot them and they didn’t miss.”

A free throw from Keirsten Park and layup by Kailee Leonard gave Tussey its largest lead of the game at 27-15 at the 6:27 mark of the third.

From there, the Titans went cold as they scored just three points the rest of the quarter, while the Lady Crusaders, who turned the ball over three straight trips to open the third, tallied eight points to pull within 30-23 heading to the fourth.

“The fact that we were down nine (at the half) — we knew that we were still in the game,” Elk County Catholic coach Ken Pistner said. “We thought if we played disciplined and fundamental basketball, and if everybody played their role on the team that we were going to chip away. We were confident that we were going to chip away and get back in the game.”

Elk County Catholic, District 9’s third seed, began the final stanza with a 6-2 run, including a 3-pointer from Taylor Newton, who had game-highs of 20 points and nine rebounds, that closed the Lady Titans’ edge to 32-30 with 5:15 to go.

“There were a couple of times I thought we were going to put them (Elk County Catholic) away,” Gates said. “They didn’t quit — they just kept chipping back into it.”

When the next Tussey shot came up empty, ECC’s Brooke Bauer grabbed the defensive rebound, but quickly had it ripped away by Brumbaugh, who proceeded to lay it in to put the Lady Titans up 34-30.

“Just trying to be as aggressive as I could to get every board, fight for everything because we worked hard for this,” Brumbaugh, who finished with a team-high 14 points, said. “… For my last season, I wanted to move on. I didn’t want this to be the last game with my teammates.”

Elk County got within three (35-32) when Newton, who was met with several different Tussey Mountain defenders all game, made a driving layup.

“We ran a couple of different girls on her (Newton), and were hoping to wear her out late in the game,” Gates said. “That’s why we had Meghan on her. We had Keirsten on her, we had Karli on her … We wanted to do one of two things: We wanted to slow her down or let her get her points and shut everybody else out.”

The basket was the last for the Lady Crusaders as the Lady Titans added on a Molosky jumper. She finished with 12 points.

Tussey Mountain, which improved to 20-6, turned the ball over 13 times while forcing ECC into 25 miscues. The Lady Crusaders, which finished with a 16-12 mark, owned a slight advantage on the boards with a 27-23 margin.

“All-in-all, I was happy with how composed we played tonight,” Pistner said. “We didn’t shoot it great, but we played composed and I think that kept us in the basketball game.”

ELK COUNTY CATHOLIC (32): Aikens 2 0-2 4, Newton 7 5-8 20, Geci 0 0-4 0, Fledderman 1 1-2 3, Bauer 1 0-0 3, Hasselman 0 0-0 0, Weisner 1 0-0 2. Totals: 12 6-12 32.

TUSSEY MOUNTAIN (41): Weimert 2 3-4 7, Brumbaugh 6 0-0 14, Leonard 2 0-0 4, Molosky 4 2-3 12, Park 0 1-2 1, Clark 0 3-5 3, Lucko 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 9-14 41.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Elk County Catholic 9 6 8 9 — 32

Tussey Mountain 12 12 6 11 — 41

3-point field goals: Elk County Catholic 2 (Bauer, Newton); Tussey Mountain 4 (Brumbaugh 2, Molosky 2).

Records: Elk County Catholic (16-12); Tussey Mountain (20-6).

Officials: Joe Bilka, Tony Rullo, Ted Oppergard.

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