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Central Cambria downs pesky Portage in tourney

12/26/24 Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski / Central Cambria's Abigail Sheehan gets by Portage's Cassidy Burkett.

EBENSBURG — When the Portage and Central Cambria girls basketball teams met opening weekend in the consolation game of the Arthur Burkett Memorial Basketball Tournament it was the Lady Red Devils that jumped out to an 11-point lead after one quarter, 26 at the half and 36 when all was said and done.

Nearly a month later, the young Lady Mustangs showed in the early going of Thursday night’s contest they had grown up a bit by keeping the contest tied after the first stanza.

However, a much more experienced CC squad tightened up the defense and held Portage scoreless for almost seven minutes of the second quarter en route to a 64-35 victory on the first night of the Dodson Electric “Light up the Holidays” Tournament.

“We knew Portage was going to be better than the first time we played them,” Central Cambria coach Brittany Bracken said. “They always have a good program, and they always come in and they’re hustling, they hit their 3s. I thought they did a great job today. I thought we came in a little bit rusty. We just settled down and made some changes to our defense, and then our defense fueled our offense.”

Central Cambria will meet up with Penns Manor, a 56-41 winner over Everett, in tonight’s championship at 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Lady Mustangs and Lady Warriors will face off in the consy scheduled to tip at 6 p.m.

In the first quarter, Portage and Central Cambria went back-and-forth with the lead changing hands six times and it was knotted up twice at 7-7 and the 13-13 score at the end of eight minutes of action.

The Lady Mustangs got layups from Kendall Bednarski and Britton Myher to grab a 4-0 edge, which would be the largest by either team in the stanza.

A Myher 3-pointer put Portage up 13-11 before a bucket from CC’s Alaina Long made 13-13.

An offensive rebound and putback by Lady Red Devil Keira Link not only put her team up 22 seconds into the second quarter, but was also a sign of things to come from the senior.

“Rebounding — many second and third chance opportunities there in the second and third quarters really made them (Central Cambria) extend that lead which is frustrating,” Portage coach Lance Hudak said. “There’s the three parts of rebounding — we say the three F’s: find, fill and fetch. We’re doing some finding and maybe a fill but we don’t fetch. Or we’ll do a find, not a full and try to fetch. We’ve got to put those three together.”

Liana Bagby responded with a trey 14 seconds later to put the Lady Mustangs ahead for the final time on the evening at 16-15.

From that basket at 7:24 until a Brynn Burkett layup with 43 ticks remaining in the opening half, Portage was held scoreless.

CC tightened up its defense as the experienced group put pressure on the younger Mustangs to the tune of nine turnovers in that nearly seven minute span.

“I think our experience is definitely helping us as a lot of these girls have been playing — some of them have been starting for four years,” Bracken said. “They’ve been playing together, and I think it just helps them to not panic as much, to remain calm and to rely on each other.”

When Portage did get a look of any sort, it was unable to capitalize as Link began using her presence inside to affect shots and the quick hands of the CC guards played a big factor as well.

On the offensive side, Link began to assert herself as she used her height difference to her advantage not only scoring the basketball but also pulling down six rebounds in the second stanza.

“We usually don’t have the height but tonight we definitely did,” Link said. “At first, it (using the height advantage) just kind of happened. But then we definitely started trying to work it more inside because we realized how much we could succeed with that.”

Central Cambria went from being down one to up 13 with 14 unanswered points that gave them a 29-16 edge when Ava Barra drilled a shot from beyond the arc.

Brynn Burkett’s hoop sent the two teams into the half with a 29-18 score.

Portage came out of the locker room and put together a quick 7-2 burst that pulled it within six at 31-25 when Myher converted a fastbreak layup at 6:43.

Central Cambria answered the call once again with 18 straight points, including 10 by Link to seize a 49-25 margin when the senior knocked down a pair of foul shots with 52.5 showing on the clock.

A Bednarski layup, foul and converted free throw 20 seconds later ended the run and made the score 49-28 at the end of three quarters.

Link, who recorded 20 points and 19 boards for the game, had 12 total points and six rebounds in the third, while amassing 18 points and 12 caroms in the middle quarters combined.

The final quarter was a formality as Portage got a Brynn Burkett layup to open the stanza to get as close as they would the rest of the way at 19 (49-30).

One thing, Hudak was proud of from his Mustangs was their relentless effort.

“We’re young and we’re learning on the go. We take a step forward, we take a step back but I keep telling the girls ‘let’s keep looking up, keep going forward because it’s a long season’,” Hudak said. “We played really tough there in the first quarter and we were matching them (CC) with baskets but then the second quarter there it was frustrating. But I love our effort — they’re going to put it all out there for us all the time. That makes us so proud and so excited to come back tomorrow.”

Alaina Sheehan also reached double figures scoring for Central Cambria with 10, while Myher and Bednarski fronted Portage with 11 apiece.

CENTRAL CAMBRIA (64): Al. Sheehan 4 0-0 10, Ab. Sheehan 2 2-3 6, Long 3 0-0 7, Link 6 8-11 20, A. Ruddek 4 1-2 9, Barra 2 0-0 5, R. Ruddek 1 0-0 3, Hite 1 0-0 2, Grimaldi 1 0-0 2, Matlin 0 0-0 0, Anderson 0 0-0 0, Alexander 0 0-0 0. Totals — 24 11-16 64.

PORTAGE (35): Bagby 1 0-0 5, Myher 5 0-0 11, Bednarski 4 1-1 11, C. Burkett 0 0-0 0, B. Burkett 2 2-4 6, Krestar 1 0-0 2, Irvin 0 0-0 0, Stancovich 0 0-0 0, Burda 0 0-0 0, Myers 0 0-0 0, Noel 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0, Offman 0 0-0 0. Totals — 13 3-5 35.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central Cambria 13 16 20 15 — 64

Portage 13 5 10 7 — 35

3-point field goals: Central Cambria 5 (Al. Sheehan 2, Long, Barra, R. Ruddek); Portage 4 (Bednarski 2, Bagby, Myher).

Records: Central Cambria (5-2); Portage (4-4).

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