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Red Lion cruises past young New Oxford squad


The Red Lion girls' basketball team hasn't just been beating teams. The Lions have been blowing them out.

After four wins by an average of 16.5 points, Red Lion added Friday night's 55-37 victory against New Oxford to further the message that the Lions are a team on a mission.

Seven Lions scored Friday, led by Courtney Dimoff and Kynslee Shepherd who poured in 15 each, and Red Lion (5-0, 3-0 YAIAA Division I) used a strong first half to get by the Colonials, who had given them trouble the last two meetings in Red Lion.

"We came off playing three tough games this week, and I was really pleased with the way they came out on back-to-back nights and executed," Red Lion head coach Don Dimoff said. "We had some things to clean up, but we executed the offense and really executed the defense. We had a lot of girls step up and knock shots down, which is our strength. We have a lot of people who can do a lot of things."

Momentum shifted in the Lions' favor early in the first half when they used an opportune moment to pounce on the young Colonials (1-3, 0-2). With her team up 4-3 midway through the first, New Oxford junior forward Kaelyn Long headed to the bench with two fouls. Red Lion took advantage of Long's absence with a 22-5 run. Without Long, the young Colonials turned the ball over 11 times in the first half and shot 4-of-17.

"We hung in there for as long as we could but then it got away," New Oxford head coach James Kunkle said. "When you take someone with Kaelyn's experience out, it's going to hurt you."

"She really makes them go," Dimoff said of Long. "So that obviously helped and got us on a little bit of a run."

The Lions connected on five shots from long range in the first half, including three from junior Kynslee Shepherd, who scored 10 of her 15 points in the second. Courtney Dimoff added seven in the first quarter, and the Lions took a 30-11 lead into the half.

Long scored 11 of her 15 in the fourth to cut the deficit from 26 points to 18.

"We did everything we wanted to early on and we finished strong and showed heart," said Kunkle, who is in his first season at the helm. "It's hard to implement my philosophy in just three weeks. ... Trying to cram everything into three weeks with such a young team is very difficult."

New Oxford (37)

Kaelyn Long 2 11-13 15, Luckabaugh 3 2-2 9, Berryhill 3 0-2 8, Sauter 1 0-2 3, Stabler 0 2-2 2, Rippeon, 0 0-0 0, Slonaker 0 0-0 0. Totals — 9 13-21 37.

Red Lion (55)

Courtney Dimoff 6 0-0 15, Kynslee Shepherd 5 1-2 15, Wolf 2 2-2 7, Harvey 3 1-1 7, Reba 3 0-0 6, Funke 1 1-1 3, P. Shingler 1 0-2 2, Maciejewski 0 0-2 0, Kolman 0 0-2 0, J. Shingler 0 0-0 0, Klunk 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals — 21 5-10 55.

New Oxford _ 7_ 4 _ 11 _ 15 _ — _ 37  

Red Lion_ 9 _ 21 _ 18 _ 7 _ — _ 55 

3-point goals — NO 4 (Berryhill 2, Sauter, Luckabaugh), RL 8 (Shepherd 4, Dimoff 3, Wolf).