Long

EBENSBURG — When Penns Valley and Central Cambria squared off a little over a month ago, the Lady Red Devils found themselves down by 19 after the first quarter of play.

CC battled back with a 20-point edge in the second frame en route to a tight seven-point win.

Flash forward to Monday night in District 6 Class 3A semifinal action, and the two schools were tied after the first eight minutes.

The top-seeded Lady Red Devils used the middle quarters to assert their dominance on the glass and on both ends of the floor to pull away from the fifth-seeded Lady Rams in a 52-37 victory.

“We knew Penns Valley has been playing well as of late, and we knew it was a battle the last time they were here (on Jan. 18),” Central Cambria coach Brittany Bracken said. “… Penns Valley played a pretty good first quarter, and I just told them (CC) going into the second quarter to turn it up a little bit, let’s stay home on defense, start rebounding and see what they can do in the halfcourt offense. I thought my girls did a great job of executing and enabling us to get out and break the score open a little bit.”

The win moves Central Cambria into the title game against third-seeded Cambria Heights, a 39-32 winner over Marion Center, on Friday at Mount Aloysius at 6 p.m.

The Lady Red Devils will look to claim their second straight district title after beating River Valley a season ago.

“It’s a loud gym,” Central Cambria’s Katie George said. “…. Me and Alaina (Long) will definitely help the younger girls. We’ll keep telling them to be grateful because the brain can’t really process being anxious and being grateful at the same time. So, if hopefully if we keep telling them to be grateful, it will make them less anxious for the game, and keep them calm and relaxed.”

The two squads battled to a 14-14 tie after one quarter of action before PV got a layup from Jordan Johnson just 22 seconds into the second stanza.

CC’s Long responded back 11 seconds later to knot the contest and kickstart an 11-0 run by the home team.

Long’s layup at 6:44 gave the Devils a lead they wouldn’t relinquish the rest of the way.

The senior, who finished with 10 points, bagged a 3-pointer to make the score 21-16 before Makenzie Hite and George converted layups to stretch the lead to nine at 25-16 near the midway point of the quarter.

Back-to-back buckets by the Rams’ Paige Johnson cut it back to five but a putback and layup from Central Cambria’s Gianna Grimaldi, who had 12 points, with a PV trey by Elle Dinges sandwiched in between, sent CC into the half up 31-23.

George and Grimaldi combined for 20 of the Red Devils’ points in the first half as each tallied 10.

“I feel like that’s a preparation thing as we go at it in practice,” George said of herself and Grimaldi. “We’re very physical so I feel like that translates to the game.”

The duo also played a big factor in Central Cambria grabbing 10 offensive rebounds as well.

The defensive side of CC showed up in the third as it held Penns Valley to just two made field goals — both on 3-pointers — while also turning the Rams over seven times.

“We didn’t play any man (defense) tonight, we stayed zone the whole time,” Bracken said. “We started in a different zone and then switched back to the zone that we went to the first time (we played Penns Valley). I thought the girls did a good job of covering their area.”

The Lady Red Devils got a balanced scoring attack to rack up its 14 points as five different players recorded at least two points with George hitting a pair of triples to account for six points.

When Delaney Snyder’s layup fell through at 1:30, Central Cambria had been on a 14-3 spurt and led 45-26 — its largest lead of the night.

Dinges, who paced PV with 13 points, knocked down a 3-pointer at 1:11 to set the score at 45-29 heading to the final frame.

The Rams took the fourth by an 8-6 score but George, who had 22 points and 16 rebounds, made a driving layup one minute into the stanza to give her team a 16-point edge — its largest of the fourth.

Penns Valley got as close as 12 twice at 47-35 and 49-37 with both coming on two made foul shots by Dinges.

Long, who collected 10 points, made the second of two from the line and George delivered a pair to set the final margin.

Central Cambria dominated on the boards 32-20, while pulling down 13 on the offensive side.

“We thought the first time we played them that we didn’t rebound well which enabled them (PV) to get out and get some transition points on us,” Bracken said. “We talked about how we wanted to get rebounds on both ends of the floor to maximize the time that we had the ball.”

Penns Valley coach Terrance Green was unavailable for comments following the game.

PENNS VALLEY (37): P. Johnson 5 0-0 10, Dalton 2 2-2 8, Smith 1 0-0 2, Romig 1 0-0 2, Dinges 3 4-4 13, J. Johnson 1 0-0 2. Totals–13 6-6 37.

CENTRAL CAMBRIA (52): Long 4 1-3 10, Alexander 1 0-0 2, Grimaldi 5 2-3 12, Ruddek 0 0-0 0, George 8 4-6 22, Snyder 1 0-0 2, Hite 1 2-2 4. Totals–20 9-14 52

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Penns Valley 14 9 6 8 — 37

Central Cambria 14 17 14 7 — 52

3-point goals: Penns Valley 5 (Dinges 3, Dalton 2); Central Cambria 3 (George 2, Long).

Records: Penns Valley (11-13); Central Cambria (19-6).