Basketball

Lady Tigers’ homecourt streak ends

By Ron Musselman

For The Mirror

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Hollidaysburg's inaugural Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference girls basketball semifinal game Thursday night didn't turn out the way the Lady Tigers had hoped.

LHAC West Division runner-up Forest Hills hit eight 3-pointers in the first half and then held on for a stunning 46-44 victory against East champion Hollidaysburg on its home court.

The Lady Rangers (20-3) won despite scoring only 10 second-half points and making just 4 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.

"The difference was them hitting 8 3s in the first half," Hollidaysburg coach Deanna Jubeck said. "The hoop was as large as a lake for them. I think every shot they took was a swish.

"You can't come out of the gate like we did tonight. We have to come out with a lot more energy and get off at a faster pace than what we did tonight."

Hollidaysburg, which had its 26-game home unbeaten streak snapped, trailed by 16 points at halftime, 36-20, but managed to tie the game at 42-all with 4:09 left on Bella Vent's 10-foot jumper.

A few minutes later, Alexis Henderson made the front end of a two-shot foul for Forest Hills with 1:33 left, and the Lady Rangers never trailed again in extending their winning streak to 12 consecutive games.

They also avenged their last loss, a 62-41 setback to Hollidaysburg on Jan. 5 in Sidman.

"I have a lot of respect for their program and coach Jubeck," Lady Rangers coach Carol Cecere said. "It's a really nice win here. They're such a good team. They were 75-6 (since Feb 25, 2021) before tonight.

"It was nice to avenge that earlier loss when we weren't playing our best basketball."

Alexis Henderson hit three 3s for the Lady Rangers in the first half, when she scored 17 of her game-high 19 points. Arissa Britt also connected on two 3s and finished with 11.

Vent, the Lady Tigers' leading scorer, didn't score her first basket until hitting a short jumper at the 1:52 mark of the second quarter. But she scored 16 of her 18 points in the second half to single handedly get Hollidaysburg back into the game.

She made all eight of her free throws and the Lady Tigers converted all 14 of their attempts as a team. Makenna Weimert also contributed nine points.

"We couldn't get that upper edge at any point and time, but it's tough," Jubeck said. "You get down by what we did at halftime and you try to fight back. We just had to expend too much to try to come back in the final 16 minutes.

"Bella played well. She's tough to guard for anyone. But Forest Hills is a good team and they just had more firepower than we did."

One thing the Lady Rangers didn't do well was shoot foul shots. They were just 8 of 22 from the free throw line.

"We came out in that first half and our shooting percentage was good and our defense was intense, and it was exactly what we wanted," Cecere said. "Everything was going our way.

"The second half, our point guard (Britt) gets in foul trouble and our post players get in trouble and all of a sudden they're at the foul line and making it a close game.

"We made just enough foul shots to hang on for the win."

Forest Hills advances to the LHAC championship game Saturday, where it will meet East runner-up Bishop Guilfoyle at the Penn State Altoona gym. The Marauders dispatched unbeaten West champ Bishop McCort Catholic 65-58 in Thursday's other semifinal.

Hollidaysburg, which has battled injuries down the stretch, has dropped three of its past six games after winning its first 17. The Lady Tigers (20-3) will open PIAA Class 5A play Tuesday with a home game against Selinsgrove.

"The end of the season, we got beat up pretty good," Jubeck said. "Today was the first time we had our full squad back since the end of January. We just have to keep going and not hang our heads."

FOREST HILLS (46): Britt 4 1-6 11, Burkey 0 2-4 2, Henderson 6 4-6 19, Schirato 2 0-2 4, McLeary 2 1-2 7, Maul 1 0-0 3, Gdula 0 0-0 0, Spangler 0 0-2 0. Totals -- 15 8-22 48.

HOLLIDAYSBURG (44): DiPangrazio 0 0-0 0, Shoemaker 2 2-2 6, Yohn 0 2-2 2, Stevenson 3 0-0 7, Vent 5 8-8 18, Padamonsky 1 0-0 2, Sidney 0 0-0 0, Weimert 3 2-2 9. Totals -- 14 14-14 44.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Forest Hills 15 21 4 6 -- 46

Hollidaysburg 12 8 14 10 -- 44

3-point goals: Forest Hills 8 (Henderson 3, Britt 2, McLeary 2, Maul), Hollidaysburg 2 (Stevenson, Weimert).

Records: Forest Hills (20-3), Hollidaysburg (20-3).

Officials: Dave Blair, Dave Reimer, Sarah Fye.