The Solanco girls basketball team held on and moved on. The Mules (19-5) secured a state tournament berth for the second straight season with a 51-44 triumph over visiting New Oxford Tuesday night, February 19 in the first round of the District III Class 5A tournament. Top-seeded Solanco advances to the district quarterfinals where they will host 8th-seeded Mechanicsburg Friday night at 7. Mechanicsburg advanced with a 42-18 triumph over Susquehannock. The Mules' win over a feisty 16th-seed New Oxford (9-14) was not easy, but it was momentous. Teams that triumph in the district opener are assured of a state tournament bid. The season ends for the losing squads.
"Lot of pressure in the first one, because you've got to win that one to keep playing," Solanco coach Chad McDowell said. "We were able to do that last year and this year and now we get to keep playing. We've guaranteed ourselves three more weeks of basketball and we get to keep playing. This one was tough. There's a little extra pressure being the number one seed this year, going against the 16th seed. That was a very good 16th seed. Their record (now 9-14) doesn't give them justice. They're an excellent program, excellent team. They did a lot of good things out there against our team. I give them a lot of credit. I give our girls a lot of credit. They withstood. They played hard. they persevered. It wasn't the prettiest, but it was a win, and we get to keep playing." Solanco started the final eight minutes with a 40-29 lead, but the Colonials scored six straight points in the first 65 seconds of the quarter to slice the deficit down to five. Following a timeout, the Mules' Jess Cabrera drove left for a basket but New Oxford answered with a three-pointer by Jayla Brown to make it 42-38 with 6:25 remaining. The Colonials got as close as three on two occasions. Brown scored with 2:36 to go to trim the margin to 45-42. On the ensuing possession, Solanco turned the ball over but got it back on a steal by Jenna Dombach. Dombach was fouled and made one free throw. After another New Oxford turnover, Aleksa Burger hit one from the charity stripe. Kiana Smith brought the Colonials back to within three on a bucket with 1:27 left. Then came the key sequence in the game. The Mules managed to hold on to the ball for the next 56 seconds before New Oxford finally fouled Dombach. Dombach made both ends of a one-and-one for a five-point edge. "They made a run to start the fourth quarter but we weathered the storm," McDowell said. "That's what we talked about during the timeout. Weather the storm, keep everybody at bay, and keep the lead. So I thought they did a good job. We had some turnovers that we shouldn't have had. I thought we did a nice job on the boards. Mackenzie Gladfelter and Jade Eshelman did one heck of a job in the post. They had to play girls bigger than them and they both did a great, great job. It's something that doesn't necessarily show up in the boxscore all the time, but they're working in the post and rebounding and defending. With Leks, Kara (McClune) and Jenna doubling down, (New Oxford's 6-1 Morgan Adams) got 14 points, but I'm okay with that. It was a tough 14 points." New Oxford was able to stay within striking distance by using a pressure defense to force a few turnovers and disrupt Solanco's rhythm. "We knew coming in they were going to press," said McDowell. "We knew they'd be physical with us. They were long and lanky and we knew we had to deal with their big post player. We had a lot of things we needed to focus on to help persevere and win, the press being one of them. We knew we had to take care of the basketball in order to break their press. I think that's one of the best presses we've seen since Lancaster Catholic. They were very active. They were very aggressive. They changed to a man-to-man in the second half which sort of benefitted us a little bit because we were able to clear it out and let our guards take control. And they did. They did a nice job." Solanco led by as many as eight late in the first quarter after Paige Phillips buried a three-pointer. New Oxford tallied the last two points of the first quarter and the first six of the second quarter to tie it. The Mules outscored the visitors 9-4 after that to take a 24-19 advantage at intermission. Solanco scored six in a row to start the third quarter and padded its cushion to 33-21 on a three-pointer by Cabrera. Two free throws from Grace Kreider made it 36-23 and it was an 11-point game heading into the fourth quarter. "It got a little tight in the fourth quarter but we came through," said Burger, who led Solanco with 13 points. "They have a talented team but I knew we had it." Despite being one of the smallest players on the floor, Burger was able to do serious damage inside and on offensive rebounds. "I just tried to put as much body on them as I could and box them out so I could get the putbacks," she said. Burger added eight rebounds, five steals, and five assists. Cabrera had 12 points and four rebounds for the Mules. Kreider contributed eight points and five steals, Eshelman added seven points and a team-high 12 rebounds, and Dombach supplied six points. "It was definitely a lot of pressure but I think we definitely handled it well," Burger said. "Especially the seniors, knowing it could potentially be our last game, all wanted to keep pushing forward and keep playing…It's awesome. We've worked so hard for this especially ever since our freshman year, we were young girls trying to build the program. As the program keeps building, it's awesome going to districts and states for the second year in a row." Comments are closed.
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