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Green Dragon girls fall shy of title game

MILTON — A bad third quarter. That’s what it boiled down to for Lewisburg on Tuesday night.

Lewisburg hung with Miff­linburg in the first half, exchanging leads five times with the Wildcats, and played the No. 3 seed very well in the first half, but for whatever reason the shots weren’t falling in the third quarter.

The Green Dragons went 7:39 between the second and third quarters without scoring from the floor and in that time, Mifflinburg built up a double-digit lead.

Lewisburg fell into a hole it couldn’t claw out of, as the Green Dragons lost to Mifflinburg, 41-32, on Tuesday in the District 4 Class AAAA semifinals at Milton.

Mifflinburg will face Mon­toursville — a 47-40 winner over Jersey Shore — in the championship game while Lewisburg will play Jersey Shore in the consolation game at a time and place to be determined.

Mifflinburg used an 11-1 run against Lewisburg in the third quarter, and forced seven Lewis­burg turnovers on eight possessions.

“It’s tough because they just keep the pressure up for whole game, I don’t think we turned it over a lot, but the thing that happened more was that we didn’t get into offensive rhythm we wanted to,” Lewisburg coach Phil Stamm said. “Beyond anything else, I think we got some opportunities when we got set up, but we just didn’t do that frequently enough tonight.”

By the time the Green Dragons (11-13) scored from the floor in the third quarter to snap that lull, it was a 10-point deficit to the Wildcats (20-5).

“I think our defense started playing tough. We pushed the ball up, we had a couple easy shots in the second there,” Mifflinburg coach Kelly Griffith said. “I think we settled down too for a little bit and then in third when we came back out, I thought we settled down, we took our time, we took our good shots and we didn’t force anything.”

Lewisburg and Mifflin­burg’s lead changes came in the first quarter, as Mifflinburg held the lead all throughout the third quarter despite Lewisburg keeping it close. The Green Dragons made it a 2-point deficit on four occasions in the second quarter and trailed by only three twice.

But it was the 11-1 run that gave Mifflinburg the boost it needed. Once the Wildcats went up by double-digits, Lewisburg only cut it down to single digits once when Jamie Fedor­jaka drained a 3-pointer with 30 seconds to play to make it a 40-32 deficit.

The Green Dragons got a team-high nine points from Grace Kelleher, who constantly was driving into the paint to try to get off a shot. Emily Sholly came up close to a double-double, with six points and eight rebounds while adding three blocks.

“Sometimes I feel like Emily’s flown a little under the radar this season because she’s really become an offensive weapon,” Stamm said. “Really strong to the rim, got a decent little jump shot. We felt we had an advantage there, and I think we did, but again, we just didn’t get the opportunities frequently enough.”

“Grace is tough and a hard-nosed player, but she’s a sophomore and it’s tough for her to try to do everything,” Stamm added. “She’s got to break press a lot by herself a lot of times and she comes up and she’s expecting to score as well and that’s a lot for somebody to bear.”

The most Mifflinburg led by was 13 points early in the fourth quarter off two free throws that made it a 36-23 lead.

The Wildcats had three players score in double figures, led by Riley and Reagan Griffith, who both ended the night with 12 points. Riley Griffith added six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

“They played well. I thought they handled the ball well and they’re zone is tough,” coach Kelly Griffith said of Riley and Reagan. “They passed around and found person that was open and when they had shot, they took it. I think it was a good team effort.”

Mifflinburg (41)

Riley Griffith 3 5-7 12; Olivia Young 0 1-3 1; Emily Stauffer 5 0-0 10; Libby Whittaker 1 0-0 2; Malayna Rowe 1 0-3 2; Mashayla Valentine 1 0-0 2; Reagan Griffith 4 3-8 12; Angela Reamer 0 0-0 0; Maddie Young 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 9-21 41.

Lewisburg (32)

Grace Kelleher 2 4-6 9; Erin Hilkert 1 2-2 4; Nikki Cho 2 0-1 4; Allie Reed 0 0-0 0; Jamie Fedorjaka 2 0-0 5; Cassie West 1 2-2 4; Justine Caribardi 0 0-0 0; Emily Sholly 2 2-8 6. Totals 10 10-19 32.

Mifflinburg 9 9 13 10 — 41

Lewisburg 7 9 3 13 — 32

3-point goals: Lewisburg 2 (Kelleher 1, Fedorjaka 1), Mifflinburg 2 (Reagan Griffith 1, Riley Griffith 1).

Records: Lewisburg (11-13), Mifflinburg (20-5). Next game: Lewisburg vs. Jersey Shore in District 4 Class AAAA consolation game, TBD; Montoursville vs. Mifflinburg in District 4 Class AAAA championship game, TBD.

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