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Warrior girls to final in AAAA

MILTON — Marlene Bas­sett knows that as a senior for Montoursville, she’s one of the leaders on the court whenever she’s out there. And after struggling somewhat in the first half, she knew she had to come up big in the second half.

It was something the Mon­toursville coaches talked to Bassett about in the locker room at halftime. Bassett listened and stepped up.

After not scoring at all in the first two quarters, Bas­sett put up 10 points in the second half en route to a double-double as Mon­toursville held off Jersey Shore in the District 4 Class AAAA semifinals, 47-40, to advance to its second district final in three years on Tuesday at Milton.

The Warriors (23-2) will face Mifflinburg — a 41-32 winner over Lewisburg — in the final at a time and place to be determined. The Bulldogs (18-6) will face Lewisburg in the consolation game. All four teams are PIAA playoff-bound.

“We wanted her to play within herself and I think she was trying to do too much in the first half. Not getting her looks, started double teaming her down in the post,” Montoursville coach Travis Heap said. “We told her get on the boards, get on the offensive re­bounds and she came out strong, got a couple re­bounds and I think that got her confidence and second half she was all over the place.”

Bassett ended with 10 points and 10 rebounds while adding four assists, two steals and two blocks for the Warriors.

“I know I’m one of the leaders on this team, so I have to come up big in that second half. I knew defense would get that spark from it,” Bassett said. “We all feed off each other.”

In addition to Bassett’s 10, Montoursville got a team-high 16 points from Lexi Marchioni while Lydia Albert scored a career-high 11 points, coming up big again off the bench like she did in the quarterfinals against Shikellamy.

Jersey Shore came out strong in the first half, taking an 11-point lead against Montoursville with 1:58 to play in the first quarter, 16-5, thanks to a shot by Averie Hess. Olivia Edler was clutch for the Bulldogs in that first quarter, as she scored the team’s first 10 points and had 12 of Shore’s 18 first-quarter points.

Montoursville slowly kept chopping down the deficit.

After Hannah Kauff­man drilled a shot with 5:55 to play to put Jersey Shore up by eight, Mon­toursville proceeded to close out the second quarter with a 10-0 run to claim its first lead of the game.

That run was thanks in large part to Marchioni and Albert.

“Once again she (Albert) came in the game and I think she was in game for majority of that 10-0 run, she played lights out. She brought energy to the team that was lacking right off the bat because they came out and hit us in the mouth a little bit right off the bat,” Heap said. “But when Lydia went in there, she was spark plug just like the Shikellamy game and it turned the game around completely.”

Edler and Kauffman were a solid duo for Jersey Shore and caused problems for Montoursville. Edler ended her night just shy of a double-double, scoring a team-high 18 points while grabbing nine rebounds (eight defensive). Kauffman ended with 14 points and five boards.

Montoursville and Jersey Shore exchanged leads a total of five times from the second and third quarters until the Warriors claimed the lead for good on a shot by Albert with 2:00 to play to go ahead, 41-40.

Jersey Shore didn’t score a basket from the floor in the final 3:59 of the game, the last coming on a putback by Kauffman with 4:00 to play that made it a 40-37 Bulldogs lead.

“They just did a great job recognizing when O’Malley or Marchioni got the ball, we were clogging up the middle and we did a great job on Bassett too, she’s not easy for us,” Jersey Shore coach Darrin Bischof said. “We’re not big, but we made her work for everything and that was key.”

After Albert’s shot to go ahead by one, Bassett made a huge block on the next possession that turned into a nice layup from Marchioni to put the Warriors up by three.

Jersey Shore (40)

Averie Hess 1 0-0 2; Baleigh Lorson 0 0-0 0; Liz Severino 0 0-0 0; Olivia Edler 7 1-3 18; Hannah Kauffman 7 0-2 14; Janel Eck 0 0-0 0; Abby Watkins 0 0-0 0; Sidney Trunzo 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 1-5 40.

Montoursville (47)

Lauren O’Malley 1 4-5 6; Ashlynn McQuillen 1 0-0 2; Lexi Marchioni 6 2-3 16; Rebecca Reeder 1 0-0 2; Gillian Mitchell 0 0-1 0; Lydia Albert 5 1-2 11; Shelby Kurtz 0 0-0 0; Marlene Bassett 3 4-5 10. Totals 17 11-16 47.

Jersey Shore 18 4 9 9 — 40

Montoursville 10 14 9 14 — 47

3-point goals: Jersey Shore 3 (Edler 3), Montoursville 2 (Marchioni 2).

Records: Jersey Shore (18-6), Montoursville (23-2). Next games: Jersey Shore vs. Lewisburg in District 4 Class AAAA consolation game, TBD; Montoursville vs. Mifflinburg in District 4 Class AAAA championship game, TBD.

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