Red Lion wins battle of unbeaten teams
Central York's girls' basketball squad quickly found itself in a hole it couldn't get out of against Red Lion on Friday evening.
The Panthers turned the ball over five times in the opening 4 1/2 minutes of their YAIAA Division I battle of unbeaten teams, and Red Lion raced out to the first eight points.
Central York got as close as three points in the second quarter but ultimately fell, 46-37 to the Lions at Red Lion High School.
"I thought we did a great job all game of executing our offenses and playing good, solid defense," Red Lion coach Don Dimoff said. "It was a good effort at both ends of the court. We still have some things we need to clean up, but overall, from beginning to end, I thought we played a very complete game."
The Panthers trailed by six points after the opening quarter and closed to within three after a 3-point goal by Sarah Sepic narrowed the Red Lion lead to 16-13 with 5:20 before the half. Red Lion then went on a 12-7 run to end the first half.
Central York (6-1, 4-1 Division I) shot just 5-of-15 from the field in the second quarter and committed nine first-half turnovers.
Red Lion (7-0, 4-0 Division I) maintained at least an eight-point lead the entire second half until an Emma Saxton layup off a turnover cut the score to 44-37 in the final minute.
"We felt like every time we did something to give us some momentum, we'd turn around and do something or not get a loose ball and give it right back to them," Central York coach Scott Wisner said. "I felt like (Red Lion) had the edge (Friday). They were a little quicker to the ball, a little more intense on defense and shot the ball a bit better."
The Lions were able to keep the lead despite just two fourth-quarter shot attempts (both made) and shooting 7-of-11 from the free-throw line.
"That's always no man's land," Dimoff said. "You're up eight, 10 or 12 points against a really good team. You want to keep scoring, but you also don't want to give them opportunities. I thought we handled it well. We got a couple of layups, we burned some clock and got some foul shots."
Central York (37)
Valencik 3 2-5 8, Emma Saxton 4 2-2 10, Williams 3 0-1 6, Shellenberger 0 0-0 0, Preston 2 1-2 5, Fabbri 1 0-0 2, Sepic 2 0-0 6, Stanton 0 0-0 0, Wagner 0 0-0 0, Santana 0 0-0 0. Totals — 15 5-10 37.
Red Lion (46)
Reba 1 1-2 3, Amy Maciejewski 4 7-11 16, Dimoff 1 0-0 2, Funke 4 1-2 9, Harvey 4 0-0 8, Wolf 2 0-0 4, P. Shingler 1 2-4 4, Sheperd 0 0-0 0, J. Shingler 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 11-19 46.
Central York _ 8 _ 12 _ 6 _ 11 _ — _ 37
Red Lion _ 14 _ 14 _ 6 _ 12 _ — _ 46
3-point goals — Central York 2 (Sepic 2), Red Lion 1 (Maciejewski).
JV score — Central York 34, Red Lion 23