Central Cambria girls roll over Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in 3A opener
· Yahoo Sports
EBENSBURG, Pa. – It was just under a year ago that the Central Cambria girls basketball team faced Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in the PIAA Class 3A Quarterfinal and saw their season come to an end.
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That four-point setback is something that haunted Red Devils coach Brittany Bracken.
“I think that was a winnable game for us and a game that slipped away from us,” she said. “I watched that film recently and tried to learn from my mistakes and think of things that we could do differently so this would be a better outcome for us.”
Fast forward to Friday night, the Red Devils got their chance at redemption and couldn’t have met the moment more emphatically.
After enduring some early turbulence, junior Katie George scored 26 points and the Red Devils didn’t look back as they doubled up the Chargers 54-27.
“It definitely fueled us,” George said. "It was a hard-fought game last year. We didn’t give up, it was tight to the very end. I didn’t feel the best that game. It was nice to come here, and have a home game against them, and have our redemption.”
Their reward will be matchup with Karns City on Tuesday at a site and time to be announced following its 37-24 triumph over Seton-LaSalle.
After a Lola Garner 3-pointer put the Chargers up one after the first, the Red Devils put the pedal to the medal. knocked down a pair of 3-pointers late in the second to spark an 11-1 run for a 30-20 halftime lead.
“They did a great job of getting into passing lanes in half court pressure,” Our Lady of the Sacred Heart coach Don Eckerle said. “I thought that was one of their strengths. We went cold at the end of the second quarter, we had a couple of open shots which could’ve kept it close which is what we were hoping for and it got away from us at the end.”
Camryn Hummel led the Chargers with 13 points.
“We were running the floor, Katie found an opening, Cam (Matlin) got the ball and it was a very, very quick pass and I don’t think the defense had time to react,” Bracken said of the late surge in the first half. “Great shot by Katie, great pass by Cam.”
Moving to the third the domination continued as Delaney Snyder connected with Alana Long for a layup.
George added a putback and Snyder along with Camryn Matlin added three-pointers to spark a 19-2 outburst.
“It was just wanting redemption,” George said.
“Having all of the energy and support all of our fans and students coming and supporting us fueled me and I kind of went unconscious.”
Bracken couldn’t be prouder of the way George has grown into the leader she has become.
“Katie has really worked hard to develop and improve her game all around. Not only does she work on her basketball skills, but I do feel like she is a leader out on the court guiding the girls on defense and on offense. We might’ve been a little bit nervous to start the game, a couple of maybe uncharacteristic mistakes and I feel like Katie steadied us.”
Rowyn Ruddek added a three early in the fourth with about six minutes left in the game to help activate the running clock.