Governor Mifflin’s big rally falls short at Cedar Cliff in District 3 6A playoffs
LEMOYNE >> The storybook comeback demands a storybook ending, right?
Well, not always. But it was hugely entertaining finding out.
Governor Mifflin fell behind by 21 points late in the third quarter, then staged a monstrous rally that fell five points shy Thursday night at Cedar Cliff, 58-53, in girls’ District 3 6A basketball action. The sixth-seed Mustangs, who never led, got to within a highly improbable 54-53 with 30 seconds to go but couldn’t close the deal.
Governor Mifflin (18-9) will tussle with old familiar league neighbor and foe Wilson in the state elimination bracket Monday night, at home. The Bulldogs dropped a 57-31 decision to high-flying No. 2 Dallastown, the York-Adams monster that now entertains Cedar Cliff (18-5) in Tuesday’s D-3 semifinals.
Veteran Mifflin head coach Mike Clark was upbeat despite having the route to a district crown sealed off. The Mustangs still have a shot at states; besides, his team’s dogged fight to get back after three largely ragged quarters would make any coach proud.
“Yeah, I’m proud,” Clark said. “We were watching them on tape and knew they had four, five guards and I thought we might struggle. I didn’t like our first quarter; I didn’t like our first half. I told them we had to come ready in the fourth quarter and if we cut it to one or two, we have a shot.
“There’s fight in this team. This team’s decided that they’re never out of a game. (Cedar Cliff) had the players to stay with us. (Usually) we can wear teams down in the fourth quarter and then they kinda run out of gas. Here, their girls can still make foul shots and bring the ball up against us.”
Thursday night’s encounter in Lemoyne looked done and dusted. Over. The Colts, who roared out of the gates, held a 41-20 lead with just under three minutes to play in the third quarter and your eyes told you it was over: The Berks League champs had not cobbled together a single run all evening, not even able to score consecutive baskets against 6A’s third-seeded hosts. At the other end, Cedar Cliff spent nearly three quarters dissecting Mifflin’s defense with sharp decision-making on the ball, crisp passing and deadly perimeter shooting. Next.
But Mifflin — a battle-hardened crew which had to string together a nine-game winning streak just to salvage its campaign and get to this point — stirred ever so slightly as the third stanza came to a close with a 7-0 run, its first of the contest.
The stretch run was a tooth-pull, fraught with foul trouble and gifted missed free throws. But four 3-pointers during the final eight minutes — three of them banked off glass — sustained the rally and inched the Mustangs closer. When Gloria Serrano’s paint jumper dropped through the net 30 seconds from time, Mifflin was right there, down a point.
The foul troubles? It cost the Mustangs four-year star Ta’Shonna Wright-Gaskins for the final 1:19 of the game. She picked up her fifth making a play on the ball near midcourt. Her presence was sorely missed.
“We realized it was crunch time and we didn’t have any time to waste,” Wright-Gaskins said, “so everything we did counted. It was hard to watch it from the bench (the final 1:19). I wish I could have done something about, but at the same time, my team didn’t give up and that’s all that mattered.”
Those resulting free throw misses? Magically dried up, when the Colts shifted from the bonus to the double-bonus with 2:49 left. After missing four of five from the stripe in the single bonus, Cedar Cliff nailed its final eight — also, the only points the Colts would score in that span — in the double to barely hold off the stampeding Mustangs. Two pairs of converted freebies, from Ashley Hoagland and Natalie Sassono, during the final 21 seconds daggered the comeback.
“We knew that they were not gonna give up,” Cedar Cliff head coach Scott Weyant said of the Mustangs. “They’ve got good seniors. But I think we did a nice job of not losing our minds and getting the ball where we needed to get it. Obviously, we hit some big threes and made some big free throws down the stretch.”
Wright-Gaskins and Stella Mollica — who scored 11 points in the final quarter and was the sparkplug down the stretch — shared scoring honors for Mifflin with 17 points. Wright-Gaskins also hauled down 13 caroms for a double-double.
Sassano drained four triples on her way to a game-high 21 points. Cliff teammate Ryan Kaercher provided inside balance, with 12 from the paint.
District 3 6A quarterfinal
Cedar Cliff 58, Governor Mifflin 53
Governor Mifflin – 4 12 11 26 — 53
Cedar Cliff – 12 17 12 17 — 58
Governor Mifflin
Wright-Gaskins 8 0-0 17, Mollica 6 2-5 17, Fiore 1 0-0 3, Payne 1 0-0 2, Serrano 2 0-0 4, White 2 0-0 5, DelVecchio 2 1-2 5. Totals: 22 3-7 53.
3-pointers: 6 (Mollica 3, Wright-Gaskins, Fiore, White)
Cedar Cliff
Sassano 5 7-8 21, R Kaercher 6 0-1 12, Dalby 1 1-3 4, Hoagland 1 5-6 7, S Kaercher 3 3-6 9, Hoffman 2 0-0 5, Gorham 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 16-26 58.
3-pointers: 6 (Sassano 4, Dalby, Hoffman)
