Four was the magic number in the Solanco girls basketball team's 45-37 loss to visiting Twin Valley in the District III third place game Thursday night. The Golden Mules mustered just four points in the fourth quarter and finished fourth in the district tournament. Solanco (20-7) starts state tournament play Saturday, March 9, against District One runnersup Mount St. Joseph (13-13). The game is at Upper Dublin High School in Fort Washington with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m.
The winner of that game faces the victor of the Thomas Jefferson-Trinity game. Second round games are slated for Wednesday, March 13. Last season, Solanco lost to Abington Friends in the opening round of states after placing sixth in the district tournament. "It's an improvement from last year," senior guard Jess Cabrera said. "We kept working hard so it was great to show we got better from last year. As a team, we're so determined to make a run [in the PIAA tournament] and make school history. We're all really excited for it." Solanco also finished fourth in the 2012 district tournament when it advanced to the state tournament for the first time. "It's huge," said senior Grace Kreider. "We're tied with the school record. It's really cool to be in the top four. It's like the Final Four in college, but it's hard when you know you can almost beat these teams. You know you could've gone a little farther but we're really proud of where we're at." Solanco led Twin Valley 33-29 entering the fourth quarter before the Raiders rallied. Samantha Phillips was fouled while scoring off an offensive rebound and converted the three-point play. Then, sharpshooter Peyton McDaniel drilled a three-pointer to give the visitors a 35-33 lead with 6:49 remaining. The Mules' Jenna Dombach tied it on a drive with 5:05 to go, but it was all Twin Valley after that. Ava Morrow put the Raiders ahead for good just 15 seconds after Dombach's basket. The game's most significant sequence came with a little over two minutes left. Solanco's Grace Kreider made a steal and headed toward the basket for a potential game-tying layup. But the extremely athletic 6-foot McDaniel came from behind to block the attempt. Natali Foster made a layup seconds later on the other end. Instead of tying the game, the Mules were down four. After Solanco missed a shot, Foster scored again. Aleksa Burger give the Mules a glimmer of hope with a basket to trim the deficit down to 41-37 with 71 seconds left, but McDaniel made two free throws seven seconds later to essentially seal the deal. "Double zero (Peyton McDaniel) and 2 (Ava Morrow) are excellent ballplayers," McDowell said. "McDaniel is a very good player for a junior. Their coach told me she has over 40 college offers. We wanted to contain her. Leks (Aleksa Burger) did an awesome job holding her to 13 points, had her frustrated at times. She made some shots. When she's open, she's going to make shots. That's what a Division I basketball player does. When it counted in the fourth quarter, she stepped up and made her shots. We played good defense on her. We contested and they made good shots." Kreider had a team-high 13 for Solanco. Burger added 10 and Cabrera contributed eight. Neither team led by more than five until the last two minutes. Twin Valley took a 13-8 advantage on a McDaniel three-pointer before Kreider connected on her third trey of the first quarter to get the Mules back within two. Trailing 20-16 in the second quarter, Solanco scored seven straight on consecutive buckets by Kreider and Burger and a three-pointer from Kara McClune. Jess Cabrera buried a three-pointer at the end of the third quarter to hand the hosts a 33-29 edge. That was the last bright spot for the Mules. "We more forward. We knew it was a seeding game [to determine seeding for the PIAA tournament]," McDowell said. "Yeah, it's a little disheartening we didn't get to play in the championship game, but it was still a game we had to come out and play and I thought we did a good job for three quarters. Fourth quarter, we just had a little lapse and didn't get what we needed to get." McDowell didn't sense Solanco's overtime loss to Palmyra in the district semis two days earlier had a deleterious impact on the Mules' performance Thursday night. "I think we just went out there and played like we usually play," he said. "We had good spurts. We had some times when we were down. Just didn't execute in the fourth quarter and that was the difference in the game. We didn't get shots to fall. We didn't get stops on the defensive end like we were getting the whole game. Part of that might be from Tuesday night's game but they played hard. We did the best we could. It was a seeding game and we're ready to go more on to states now. We're ready for the next chapter." Cabrera and Kreider agreed with McDowell's assessment. "This is the district playoffs," Kreider said. "Every game is going to be tight at this point. Seeding doesn't really matter. With the last game [against Palmyra] and the game [against Twin Valley] we played our hearts out. We played really hard so it stings no matter what. It's hard to lose by a few points but I'm proud of my girls for how hard they work." Said Cabrera: "[The loss to Palmyra] definitely stung after the game," said Cabrera. "We were all down about it. We're looking forward to states now and we're all thankful we have this opportunity to keep going. Like we said in the locker room, it's a whole new chapter now. We have states. This is a brand new thing and we can make a run there if we want to. We can just bounce back and recover." It is the second time in program history Solanco advanced to the district semifinals. In 2012, the Golden Mules finished fourth in the district after losing to Central Dauphin 41-29 in the semis and dropping a 59-38 decision to Wilson in the third place game. Solanco earned its first-ever state tournament win by topping Central (Philadelphia) 46-39 in the opening round before being eliminated by Cheltenham. State tournament games are played at neutral sites so it was the last home for the Golden Mules. "We love the fans," McDowell said. "We want to thank our fans. The fans, the pep band, The Black Hole (student section). It's awesome having support from our community. Our community is awesome. It's a great place to work, great place to coach, great place to live." Comments are closed.
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