PHOTOS: Solanco girls basketball posts crucial victories over Lampeter-Strasburg, Cocalico1/14/2019
Immediately following the Solanco girls basketball team's milestone win over Lampeter-Strasburg, coach Chad McDowell started making sure his squad would avoid a letdown in its next game vs. Cocalico. He was quite confident the Mules would be ready and his faith was rewarded with a 47-34 triumph over the Eagles Friday night. "That was a big discussion," McDowell said. "We talked after the L-S game and I told the girls they had that night and all day in school to celebrate that win. Come 3 o'clock, practice started again and we had to get ready for Cocalico. So we gave them a little time to celebrate because it was a big win for our program. It was a significant win, a signature win for our program and we did an awesome job with L-S. But we couldn't be satisfied with just that because we knew Cocalico was going to come in and give us a tough fight. They're a good program and well-coached. They were ready to go. We knew they had shooters. We had to come out and play. We had to be focused. We celebrated for a little bit but we knew we had to come back ready to work. We knew that game [against L-S] meant nothing if we lost to Cocalico. We had to come out and win and they did a nice job."
Second place Solanco never trailed in its victory over third place Cocalico. "Knowing this team and knowing their instincts, I knew they would come out and be ready to play and do the job," McDowell said. "It's a team effort. Eight of the nine girls [who played] scored. It's a complete team effort. Everybody has to understand their role. Some nights you're going to score. Some nights you're going to rebound. Some nights you're going to play defense. You're going to do things to help the team win and that's what we are building here. We're building a culture and that culture has to be 'team first, individual accolades later.' It's all about the team." Jenna Dombach scored all nine of her points in the first half as the Mules built a 10-point bulge at the break. A natural right-hander, Dombach displays a knack for driving left to the basket and finishing with her left hand, something she can't fully explain. "I don't know," Dombach said. "I just grew comfortable with it. It just happens. Preferably, I just go to my left more. It's odd." In the second half, Dombach became more of a facilitator and set up teammates for easy baskets. "My teammates were passing me the ball when I was open," Dombach said. "I did the same for my teammates in the second half. We just flowed well together." Ahead 22-17 late in the second quarter, Kara McClune scored then Grace Kreider closed out the half with a three-pointer. After playing solid defensively in the first half, the Mules turned it up a notch in the third quarter. "We definitely have just learned to kind of keep the tempo up the whole game," Dombach said. "That was one of our problems last year coming into the third quarter. We've made some improvements and figured out how to keep the tempo up when we come out for the second half. We just kept our minds focused on the game and did what we had to do." The Mules led by as many as 14 in the third quarter before Cocalico scored the final four points of the period to get back within 10. The Eagles narrowed the gap to nine but Jess Cabrera answered with a three-pointer. Cocalico scored five straight points to trim their deficit down to 41-34 with 4:33 remaining but that turned out to be the visitors' last points of the game. Aleksa Burger buried a three-pointer 23 seconds later and Paige Phillips knocked down a trifecta with 2:43 left to make it 47-34. "We just needed to keep persevering," Dombach said. "We have a lot of games left. L-S is our competitor so we can't lose. We knew that coming into this game. He (McDowell) has been pushing it ever since the win that we just need to forget about it and move on, that we need to keep winning and stay focused." Aleksa Burger finished with a team-high 10 points. Cabrera contributed eight and Kreider and Phillips each supplied seven. Solanco downed visiting Lampeter-Strasburg 40-31 Tuesday, January 8. The game was tied 25-25 entering the fourth quarter. "We had to come out in the fourth quarter and play defense," said McDowell. "That was the difference. We buckled down defensively and was able to secure the win. They had a rough night shooting and we did a good job of defending them and boxing out to get the rebounds. We got the ball to fall our way when we needed it to." Cabrera paced Solanco with 13 points. Jade Eshelman provided 10. Dombach delivered seven and Burger and Kreider each added four. The victory ended the Pioneers' 25-game league streak and was McDowell's first triumph over L-S in five seasons as head coach. More importantly, the Mules trail the Section Three leaders by just one game heading into the stretch run. The two teams meet again January 24 in West Lampeter. "We're going to have a big battle when we go play them at their place," McDowell said. "I'm sure it will be a packed house and they'll be out for revenge. We've got to go up there and show we meant business here and go up there and beat them up there, too." L-S still has to play Lancaster Catholic on January 29. The Mules are in good position to earn a Lancaster-Lebanon League playoff berth. The top two teams in each section qualify for the tournament. By virtue of its win Friday, Solanco is two games ahead of Cocalico. "This was big for us to create some space," said McDowell. "We talked about that prior to the game. That's why it was a big game for us." Solanco's JV team split its two games last week. The Mules nipped Cocalico 25-24 Friday night. Ilynd Rapant scored six points and Nikki Trout chipped in five. Solanco trailed 24-23 when Trout made a steal and converted a layup with 63 seconds left. Sammi Jackson's steal with 15 seconds left helped ice it. Cocalico did not have enough team fouls to send Solanco to the free throw line and the Mules managed to protect the ball to seal the deal. The Mules lost 42-37 to Lampeter-Strasburg. Jackson had eight and Rapant notched six. Comments are closed.
|
Archives
August 2023
Categories
All
|