Solanco seized command of the girls basketball Section Three championship chase. The Mules downed visiting Lampeter-Strasburg 47-40 Thursday night, January 23. Coupled with Manheim Central's loss to Lebanon, Solanco moved into sole possession of first place in the section with two league games remaining.
The Mules can clinch a second straight section title by beating Cocalico Tuesday, January 28 and winning at Manheim Central two days later. "Going into tonight we knew we controlled our own destiny," Solanco coach Chad McDowell said. "We have to continue to take care of the things we can take care of, and that's win the games. We finish out strong and we'll be in good shape." Solanco secured the win over L-S by making 17 of 22 free throw attempts in the fourth quarter. The Mules scored just two field goals in the final eight minutes, both by Sammi Jackson. Jenna Dombach led Solanco with 14 points and Paige Phillips contributed 12. "That's a good win against another good program," said McDowell. "Twice in 10 days, that's even bigger. They're a good team. They shoot the ball well. They've got a lot of three-point shooters. It's a credit to them. They don't stop fighting. They fight to the very end. They did a nice job, but we fought harder." With the game tied 13-13, Angela Cylc tallied the final three points of the second quarter to give Solanco the lead for good. The Mules were ahead 18-17 before embarking on an eight-point outburst. Dombach started it with a three-point play. Phillips made three of four free throw attempts. Nikki Trout's steal and layup padded the cushion to 26-17 with 4:31 left in the third quarter. Clinging to a 31-27 edge midway through the fourth quarter, the Mules' Jackson hit a baseline jumper than had a steal and layup to push the advantage up to eight. "They were huge," McDowell said. "Sammi did a great job out there again, just like she did last time against L-S. Back-to-back big games against L-S. Awesome job." Ilynd Rapant hit a free throw and Phillips went 2 for 2 from the line to supply Solanco with a 38-27 bulge with 2:25 to play. L-S made things interesting in the final two minutes but the Mules' depth paid dividends down the stretch. "It's very important," McDowell said. "We get up 10 and we started rotating people around. At about the two and a half minute mark we started rotating the guards out, get them a 30-second break, get them some water. That's huge when you can do that in a game because you're fresh down at the end. Having depth on the bench is very crucial to our success and everybody that got in tonight did a great job." L-S won the JV game 30-23. Kendal Janssen led the Mules with nine points and Arianna Seiberlich added five. Solanco 31, Garden Spot 25 Jade Eshelman collected eight points, 11 rebounds, and three assists to lead the Mules. Jenna Dombach recorded six points and two steals. Nikki Trout added six points and two assists. Paige Phillips provided five points and four rebounds. Ilynd Rapant supplied four points and seven rebounds. Sammi Jackson chipped in two points, two rebounds, and two steals. With the game tied 8-8 at the end of the first quarter, the Mules took the lead for good with a mini-run to start the second quarter. Garden Spot led 16-14 at halftime. "The third quarter turned out to be the difference in the game," Solanco coach Chad McDowell said. "We made a few slight adjustments at halftime. Defensively, we continued to pressure Garden Spot guards and we did a good job limiting their two leading scorers (Olivia Unser and Erin Gonzalez). We mixed in a few specialty defenses and forced them to make mistakes and take shots that were not in the flow of their offense. Offensively, we made an adjustment and were a little more patient in our sets and it paid off. We had some drives to the basket and kick outs for good shots. We played more balanced in the second half. We did a great job on the boards again and that was important in limiting Garden Spot opportunities. Nikki Trout, Alana Yoder, and Ilynd Rapant did an outstanding job guarding Unser (who had 35 points against Columbia the previous week). The trio held her scoreless for the game. They took her out of any kind of offensive flow and had her frustrated. Overall, we played hard and grinded out a solid win." Solanco won the JV game 38-10. Hannah Wood paced the Mules with 10 points and Kendal Janssen and Skylar Eshleman each added six. Every JV played scored for Solanco. Comments are closed.
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