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GIRLS HOOPS: Sloppy play plagues Chambersburg


CHAMBERSBURG - Sloppy passing plagued the Chambersburg Trojan girls basketball team at CASHS Field House in a Mid Penn Commonwealth Division clash with the Mifflin County Huskies on Friday night.

The Trojans committed more than 20 turnovers in the first half alone, allowing the Huskies to gain a comfortable 21-point lead at halftime and ultimately led to a 68-41 victory.

Mifflin County played strong defense the whole game, but most of the steals and defensive stops it had came from bad passes or mishandled dribbles by the Trojans. These stops led to quick and easy fast-break opportunities for the Huskies, allowing them to run the floor, either finishing transition layups or drawing fouls on the attempts.

“That’s been one of our Achilles heels the whole year. We don’t shoot the ball very well as a team and then when you turn the ball over, it compounds everything and the lead for the other team increases and we have a hard time catching back up,” said Chambersburg coach Barry Purvis, “Most of their points in the first half came from layups made off of our turnovers.”

The Trojans' turnovers prevented them from getting into a rhythm on offense, yet Chambersburg still managed to score 41 points. The Trojans took only 37 field goal attempts compared to the Huskies' 54, but neither of the teams were very efficient from the floor.

The big difference was Mifflin County attempting 21 free throws compared to 11 for Chambersburg. Many of the points that the Trojans scored came off of second-chance opportunities because they held a slight height advantage.

“We’re not very big," Huskies coach Roger Herto said. "For a Mid Penn team, we’re pretty small and against the better teams we can't afford to not be fundamentally sound. For us this year it's been a broken record, finding people and boxing them out and having good technique.”

Leading the way for Mifflin County was Maggie Wilson, the main benefactor of the Trojans turnovers. She hustled down the floor in transition, racking up 20 points in the process, while going to the free throw line seven times. Jessa Wright also had an efficient scoring night, scoring 16 points while going a perfect 6-for-6 at the foul line and hitting two 3-pointers in the first half.

Herto said, “It goes back to sharing the ball, our first five especially. We’ve got five kids out there who on any given night, any of them could have a big night, so the key for us is to not worry about who scores, but that we score.”

The lone double-digit scorer for the Trojans was senior forward Lindsay Embly. She scored half of her points in the paint, but also showed off her range, stepping behind the arc to drain a pair of 3-pointers on her way to a 12-point performance.

“We did play better today than we have our last couple games," Purvis said. "We’ve been averaging only about 30 points a game, so it was good that we scored 41 and we did get a few things going.”

Mifflin County 68, Chambersburg 41 

Mifflin County (68)

Maggie Wilson 7-10, 6-7 20, Jessica Wright 4-8 6-6 16, Ericka Lepley 5-8 0-1 10, Rylie Rittenhouse 4-8 1-1 9, Ali Herto 2-2 0-0 6, Eleana Eckley 1-3 3-6 5, Joselyn Walters 1-1 0-0 2, Katelynn Arnold 0-3 0-0, Jamie Mahigel 0-2, Allison Prendergast 0-0 0-0. Totals — 24-54 16-21 68.

Chambersburg (41)

Lindsay Embly 4-5 0-0 12, Madison Whitfield 1-3 5-6 7, Susy Anzalone 2-4 0-0 5, Shadia Joyner 2-7 0-0 5, Camryn Green 2-5 1-3 5, Shayla Cornwell 1-3 0-0 2, Kirsten Pugh 1-1 0-0 2, Taylor Vrabel 1-3 0-0 2, Alexis Sherman 0-3 1-2 1, Liz Bishop 0-1 0-0 0, Olivia Summers 0-2 0-0 0. Totals — 15-37 7-11 41.

Mifflin County _ 18 _ 21 _ 16 _ 13 _ — _ 68

Chambersburg _ 6 _ 12 _ 14 _ 9 _ — _ 41

3-point goals — MC 4 (Herto 2, Wright 2), Chbg 4 (Embly 2, Anzalone, Joyner).