Kirsch, along with several of her Lady Highlanders teammates, plays the sport the entire year around, and she brings a lot to the table as a young first-year starter for Heights.

“She scores points, she’s scrappy on defense, and she gets a lot of rebounds,” Heights girls basketball coach Eric Thomas said of Kirsch. “She does a lot of good things for us.”

Kirsch scored a game-high 16 points, including four 3-point field goals, and helped Heights gain separation in the third quarter Wednesday night as the third-seeded Lady Highlanders topped sixth-seeded Central, 40-31 in a District 6 Class 3A quarterfinal-round playoff game at the Cambria Heights High School gymnasium.

The victory advances Heights into the tournament’s semifinal round on Monday night, when the Lady Highlanders will travel to second-seeded Marion Center. Marion Center advanced with a 48-31 quarterfinal-round win over West Shamokin Wednesday night.

Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski Central's Addison Long is pressured by Cambria Heights' Kinley Rogal (left) and Markie Bender.

Kirsch made a big difference for Heights Wednesday with her shooting in the third quarter, when she accounted for nine points on three 3-point shots.

“She plays basketball during the offseason, and as a freshman, she had a big game for us tonight,” Thomas said of Kirsch. “She had some key 3’s during our run in that third quarter. I’m very proud of her.”

Momentum changed hands drastically in the first half, with Central scoring the game’s first nine points on a 3-point shot by senior guard Maddi Benton, a field goal from junior post Addie Imes, and a field goal and two free throws from senior Adyson Poet as the Lady Dragons built a 9-0 lead out of the gates.

Heights (now 15-9) responded by reeling off the next 16 points, with Kirsch hitting a 3-pointer and field goal, junior guard/forward Lilly Karlheim scoring a pair of 3-pointers, senior guard Kinley Rogal chipping in a field goal and free throw, and freshman Julia Karlheim hitting two free throws, as the Lady Highlanders took a 16-9 lead.

Heights had a 21-19 edge at halftime before the big third quarter that the Lady Highlanders carried, 14-6 to take a 35-25 lead after three stops.

“The first half was a game of runs, and in the locker room at halftime, it was stressed to the players that we couldn’t let (Central) go on another run in the

second half,” Thomas said.

Heights bore down on defense in the third quarter and took the upper hand, 28-19, on two successive field goals by Rogal and a 3-pointer from the left side by Kirsch.

With Imes scoring a pair of field goals, Central narrowed the gap to 29-23 before Kirsch nailed another 3-pointer from the right side and heaved in her fourth trey of the game on a shot from midcourt that beat the third-quarter buzzer and put Heights up by 10 points entering the final period.

“I put a lot of work in during the offseason, and I practice a lot of shots with a trainer as well,” said Kirsch, who was appearing in her first District 6 varsity playoff game Wednesday. “I was really nervous at the beginning of the game, but it felt really good to help the team out tonight.”

Rogal, who scored 11 points and pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds for Heights, said that Kirsch has been a sparkplug for the team all season.

“She’s been a great shooter for us all year, and she has stepped up in every game for us when we’ve needed it,” Rogal said.

Imes led Central, which wrapped up a 9-14 season, with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“We were playing zone defense against them in the first half, but they made adjustments and drew up a good plan in the second half,” Central coach Blake Over said. “We had to switch to man defense, and we weren’t comfortable in that, and (Heights) took advantage of it.”

Along with 24 Central turnovers in the game that were forced by the Lady Highlanders’ pesky defensive scheme.

“We couldn’t quite take care of the ball tonight,” said Over, whose team made just two of nine third-quarter floor shots. “(Heights) was tipping away everything we did in the passing and driving lanes.”

Central earned a playoff spot this year after sitting out the postseason a year ago. The Lady Dragons will lose just two starters to graduation.

“The girls worked hard,” Over said. “We started off the season 2-8, and they could have given up, but they didn’t, and for them to make the playoffs this year was a good experience for all of the players.”

Heights – which won on Wednesday despite converting just six of its 21 free throws — will face a stiff challenge on the road Monday from a talented Marion Center team in the semifinals. The two teams are rivals in the Heritage Conference, and Marion Center won a regular-season matchup with Heights, 48-39 back in early December.

“It was a fairly close game,” Thomas said of the first meeting that took place on Marion Center’s floor. “We know that we’re going to have to be ready both offensively and defensively, because they bring it all the time.”

CENTRAL (31): Imes 4 2-4 10, Benton 1 2-2 5, Poet 1 4-4 6, Long 3 0-0 6, Diehl 2 0-0 4, Rhykerd 0 0-0 0. Totals – 11 8-10 31.

CAMBRIA HEIGHTS (40): Rogal 5 1-4 11, Bender 0 0-2 0, L. Karlheim 2 1-6 7, J. Karlheim 1 4-9 6, Kirsch 6 0-0 16, Adams 0 0-0 0, Abrams 0 0-0 0. Totals -14 6-21 40.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Central 9 10 6 6–31

Cambria Heights 9 12 14 5–40

3-point goals: Central 1 (Benton); Cambria Heights 6 (Kirsch 4, L. Karlheim 2).

Records: Central (9-14); Cambria Heights (15-9).

Officials: Skip Dry, Curtis Miller, Chris Walter.