By Nate Ritchey

nritchey@altoonamirror.com

PORTAGE — When it comes to high school basketball and two competitively equal teams, there’s always going to be ebbs and flows that each team goes through.

The highs and lows can begin and end at any moment, and usually it’s the team that handles them the best that ultimately comes out on top.

On a rare Sunday afternoon gameday that featured the Penn Cambria and Southern Huntingdon girls, both schools weathered respective storms.

Fortunately, for the Lady Panthers, they ended on the climb as PC withstood everything the Lady Rockets had and came away victorious with a 66-61 championship win in the 30th edition of the Arthur Burkett Memorial Basketball Tournament at Portage’s Len Chappell Gymnasium.

“That’s high school basketball — it’s the game of highs and lows,” Penn Cambria coach Josh Himmer said. “We’ve been preaching for the last three or four weeks — about (how) we’re going to ride that rollercoaster. … We know we’ve got great, mentally tough kids up on the mountain.”

Penn Cambria buried five of its nine 3-pointers in the opening quarter, including three by Avery Lemaster, but Southern Huntingdon stayed tight as PC led 23-18 after one.

“We talked about it (shooting) because yesterday we were 1-for-6. We take a lot of pride shooting the 3,” Himmer said. “So we talked about that in pregame and we wanted to make sure we got a dribble drive and kick. We did and we shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter.”

A deep shot from the Rockets’ Elayna Thomas, an all-tournament selection, 25 seconds into the second stanza pulled her team within 23-21 before the two teams traded points to make it 25-23 at 6:36.

The Lady Panthers responded with an 8-0 run on two free throws by all-tourney member Makenna McCoy, a trey and layup by tournament MVP Addie Hite, and then a 1-for-2 showing from the foul line by Rachel Fisher to put PC up 10 (33-23) with 3:42 left before the half.

Thomas’ second of three trifecta’s in the stanza kickstarted a 14-0 burst by Southern to close out the first half.

“We started working the ball better, we started playing team basketball there,” Southern Huntingdon coach Craig Sellers said. “We were making the extra pass and we were getting open shots. We got some shooters, we just got to find them.”

When Thomas nailed her third triple to make the score 34-33 with 1:57 remaining, it was Southern Huntingdon’s first lead since they held a 7-6 advantage early on.

A press-breaking layup by Ella Young, an all-tournament selection for the Rockets, gave her team a 37-33 edge heading into the locker room.

“We knew they (Penn Cambria) would come out strong like that, and we just had to withstand that in the first period — which we did,” Sellers said. “We fought back there and took the lead at halftime.”

During the spurt, SH finally found a way to break whenever press Penn Cambria threw its way.

Southern Huntingdon held the lead and got up by as many as six on three occasions (43-37, 45-39 and 49-43) while the Lady Panthers could only get as close as two (37-35, 39-37 and 45-43).

“We had to adjust and go with it,” Hite said about overcoming the highs and lows throughout.

With the Rockets up, 49-43, on a Thomas fastbreak layup, PC’s Sophia Beard delivered a 3-pointer with 0.6 ticks left in the third to cut the deficit in half.

Beard came up big, pulling down five rebounds with five points, had a steal, deflected a few others and turned up her aggressive play on the defensive end.

The final quarter had one tie and six lead changes with Southern getting up by as much as three points (52-49 and 54-51) while the final margin of five was the biggest for the Panthers in the fourth.

Southern Huntingdon’s last lead came when Haley Ross knocked down a pair of foul shots with 51.2 to go to make it 61-60.

Fisher made two free throws with 34.9 showing to give PC the lead for good before the freshman hit another two seven seconds later following a McCoy steal in the backcourt.

Beard and Avery Lemaster both went 1-for-2 from the line to set the final.

“We had to stay tough and keep our heads up no matter what happened,” Hite said. “Just play the game.”

Hite posted a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds. McCoy fronted Penn Cambria with 16 points, including eight in the third, and nine boards, while Avery Lemaster finished with 12 points.

Thomas posted 16 points to pace Southern Huntingdon, while Young and Ross recorded 12 apiece, and Chloe Brown pulled down nine rebounds.

“I want to say thank you so much to Portage and both coaches from Southern Huntingdon and Central Cambria. Our boys (football team) played Friday night (in the PIAA state semifinals), and they moved this tournament for us,” Himmer said. “It was a class act (move) by all of them.”

Other members of the all-tournament team were Portage’s Payton Noll and Central Cambria’s Katie George.

George scored 14 points for Central Cambria in its 57-21 win over Portage in the consolation game on Sunday. Noll led the Lady Mustangs with seven points.

In first round games held Saturday, Penn Cambria knocked off rival Central Cambria, 56-47, and Southern Huntingdon topped Portage, 68-56.

CHAMPIONSHIP

PENN CAMBRIA (66): Ronan 2 0-0 4, Saleme 2 0-0 5, Hite 4 2-4 12, Ave. Lemaster 4 1-2 12, McCoy 6 2-2 16, Fisher 2 5-8 9, Beard 2 3-4 8, McConnell 0 0-0 0, Ava. Lemaster 0 0-0 0, Baney 0 0-0 0, Eckenrode 0 0-0 0, Rabatin 0 0-0 0. Totals–22 13-20 66.

SOUTHERN HUNTINGDON (61): Irvin 3 0-0 7, Young 4 4-4 12, Brown 1 0-0 2, Ross 4 3-6 12, Hull 1 2-3 4, Thomas 6 0-0 16, Clark 3 1-1 8. Totals–22 10-14 61.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penn Cambria 23 10 13 20 — 66

Southern Huntingdon 18 19 12 12 — 61

3-point goals: Penn Cambria 9 (Ave. Lemaster 3, McCoy 2, Hite 2, Saleme, Beard); Southern Huntingdon 7 (Thomas 4, Irvin, Ross, Clark).

Records: Penn Cambria (2-0); Southern Huntingdon (1-1).

CONSOLATION

CENTRAL CAMBRIA (57): Al. Sheehan 2 0-0 6, Ab. Sheehan 1 0-0 2, Barra 2 0-0 5, A. Ruddek 6 0-0 12, Long 2 2-3 6, Link 2 2-5 6, George 5 2-4 14, R. Ruddek 1 0-0 3, Matlin 0 0-0 0, Alexander 0 0-2 0, Hite 1 0-2 2, Anderson 0 0-0 0, Grimaldi 0 1-2 1. Totals — 22 7-18 57.

PORTAGE (21): Noll 2 2-3 7, C. Burkett 1 2-6 4, Bagby 1 1-1 3, Bednarski 2 1-2 5, B. Burkett 1 0-0 2, Stancovich 0 0-0 0, Irvin 0 0-0 0, Krestar 0 0-0 0, Burda 0 0-2 0, Noel 0 0-0 0, Myers 0 0-0 0, Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals — 7 6-14 21.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central Cambria 16 24 10 7 — 57

Portage 5 9 5 2 — 21

3-point goals: Central Cambria 6 (Al. Sheehan 2, George 2, Barra, R. Ruddek); Portage 1 (Noll).

Records: Central Cambria (1-1); Portage (0-2).

SATURDAY

CENTRAL CAMBRIA (47): Al. Sheehan 2 0-0 6, Ab. Sheehan 1 1-2 4, A. Ruddek 3 2-3 8, Long 4 1-2 10, Link 2 2-6 6, Barra 1 1-2 3, George 3 1-4 8, R. Ruddek 0 2-2 2. Totals–16 10-21 47.

PENN CAMBRIA (56): McCoy 1 3-4 5, Ronan 1 0-0 2, Saleme 0 2-2 2, McConnell 1 2-2 4, Baney 1 0-0 2, LeMaster 0 5-6 5, A. Hite 4 3-6 12, Fisher 3 4-8 10, LeMaster 2 1-2 4, Beard 3 3-4 9. Totals–16 23-34 56.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central Cambria 14 16 13 4 — 47

Penn Cambria 10 13 16 1 — 56

3-point goals: Central Cambria 5 (Al. Sheehan 2, Ab. Sheehan, Long, George); Penn Cambria 1 (Hite).

SATURDAY

SOUTHERN HUNTINGDON (68): Irvin 1 3-4 5, Young 4 3-4 13, Brown 0 6-6 6, Ross 3 7-10 13, Hull 3 0-0 7, Thomas 3 1-2 9, Clark 2 0-0 6, Price 2 0-0 5, Peterson 0 1-2 1, Young 0 3-4 3, Price 0 0-0 0, Whitsey 0 0-0 0, Walters 0 0-0 0, Erwin 0 0-0 0, Cowan 0 0-0 0. Totals–18 24-32 68.

PORTAGE (56): Noll 3 5-7 11, C. Burkett 3 3-8 9, Bagby 1 4-6 6, Bednarski 5 3-4 13, Irvin 1 0-0 3, Krestar 1 0-0 2, Burda 1 2-4 4, Noel 0 0-0 0, Myers 2 2-2 6, Smith 0 0-0 0, Offman 1 0-0 2. Totals–18 19-31 56.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Southern Huntingdon 15 24 13 16 — 68

Portage 12 10 8 26 — 56

3-point goals: Southern Huntingdon 8 (Clark 2, E. Thomas 2, Young 2, Hull, Price); Portage 1 (Irvin).