TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain's Taylor Doyle shoots during Wednesday's game against Danville.

MILL HALL– Central Mountain junior guard Taylor Doyle spent many of her days in the gym tirelessly following her freshman season. Doyle knew that in order to make a strong impact on the game for seasons to come that she would need to improve. Doyle has made tremendous strides from that first year and from last season to what has turned into a solid display through 14 games thus far.

In an important Heartland Conference game against an evenly matched Danville squad at home, holding on to a one-point lead heading to the fourth quarter, Taylor and the Wildcats secured a 40-38 nail-biting victory over the Ironmen to get to .500 on the season.

“It was nice to get back to 7-7. We missed the opportunity to go above .500 the other night but that gave us a little bit of confidence knowing we could play with good teams,” Central Mountain coach Scott Baker said. “Tonight was an important one for us. We just keep looking to knock off a team here and there.”

Taylor has been a focal point of Central Mountain’s offense this year. She’s not only the leading scorer for the Wildcats but she, like her sister Ava, is one of the heavily-skilled returners that brings leadership, especially verbally. Taylor was seen cheering her teammates on from the sidelines Wednesday, but when she was on the floor, she made her presence known in various facets of the game-scoring, assisting, rebounding and helping direct traffic offensive and defensively.

“Energy. She’s always been athletic and wiry in terms of being all over the floor and getting steals but last year she was erratic,” coach Baker said of Doyle. “This year she has become more calm. She’s played more now, she’s worked on her shot a bit. She’s worked really hard. She and Lena (Walker), Cam (Weaver) and Ava (Doyle) will get partnered up after practice and start firing away so I’m pleased with the leadership.”

Central Mountain has played in its fair share of close, nail-biting games this season. And rightfully so, the Wildcats have been on both ends of the spectrum, particularly where they have lost two games by two points or less. The Wildcats (7-7, 3-3 HAC-I) were in a jam with visiting Danville (6-9, 1-4 HAC-I) on Wednesday night after Central Mountain watched another double-digit lead go down the drain, this time as much as 13 points.

Taylor wouldn’t let the Wildcats be deterred as she stepped up to lead the charge by scoring six of Central Mountain’s last seven points in the final three minutes of the game to help the Wildcats earn a home win.

Taylor’s fiery passion was critical down the stretch, but she wouldn’t have been able to make those plays without the help of her teammates in the first three quarters. Lena Walker, who finished with 10 points and four rebounds, helped knock down important shots particularly in the first three quarters as Danville continued to chip away at the Wildcats’ lead.

The Wildcats jumped out to an early 11-2 start in the opening four minutes of the game courtesy of eight points from Taylor when Central Mountain looked like it was rolling offensively. As the second quarter rolled on, Danville senior point guard Lucy Pickle, who finished with 11 points, two assists and two steals, did her job facilitating the offense, getting forward Madison Merrell and Grace Everett, who finished with a team-high 14 points, involved.

Following Central Mountain playing what seemed like its best six minutes of a quarter all season in the third quarter–notching 11 points, including a 9-2 run in that span–Danville came firing back with a 10-0 run of its own when it took its first lead of the night at 31-30 in the final minute of the third.

“It felt like at times we struggled to extend runs. We had at least three runs three different times, a seven-point lead, a nine-point lead and a 13-point lead early in the game,” coach Baker said. “But our inability to extend those runs because we turned the ball over and let them back in each time made the game closer. (We) just made enough plays down the stretch to be able to pull it out.”

Danville’s lead lasted all but 28 seconds. Central Mountain had a knack for countering plays the Ironmen made and came up big to close the quarter. One of those plays happened to be at the end of the third quarter when Central Mountain junior Macy Plowman scored a putback layup to conclude the frame, a basket that not only gave the Wildcats the lead, but gave it (and Plowman) confidence that it could close the game out on both ends of the floor.

“We didn’t even say anything about that but that was a big basket because you’re talking about a two-point difference, up one (point) or down one (point),” coach Baker mentioned when asked about Plowman’s basket. “There was no special message there except that we had to turn our defense back up and stop turning the ball over because that’s what had gotten us the lead.”

An underrated part of Central Mountain’s success in its win Wednesday evening was its ability to rebound. Senior Keely Rohrbach pulled down a team-high eight rebounds, including six offensive. Her second (and often third) chance opportunities kept the ball away from Danville but allowed her team a chance to score at the rim.

The last two days in practice, the Wildcats implemented a new rebounding drill to help the girls crash the glass. It paid off as the Wildcats grabbed 28 rebounds, out-rebounding Danville 28-14. Even more impressive, Central Mountain almost totaled as many offensive rebounds as Danville did total rebounds (11).

“The last two nights in practice we put in a drill to compete in terms of rebounding,” coach Baker said. “I saw a glimpse of that drill paying off a little bit because I saw Keely going after the ball in the second half especially.”

Following Central Mountain’s loss to Jersey Shore 12 nights before Wednesday’s game, the Wildcats felt as if making some changes were necessary. It had been the third loss in four games and if the changes were going to help in an upward trend for the team, they needed to happen at that point in time.

Those changes didn’t exactly pan out to a win on Saturday when the Wildcats hosted Shikellamy and fell by one point, but it showed Central Mountain what it could be. It proved to help Central Mountain pull out a gritty win against a Danville team that was inching to steal a road game. With the Wildcats set to travel to a hungry Lewisburg team Friday night, Central Mountain has to keep chipping away and hoping to see where that lands it.

“We were very disappointed with our play and after that game we made a few personnel adjustments,” said coach Baker. “We made a few X-and-O adjustments. I feel the changes we made were very beneficial to us. I feel we are a better team now than we were 10 days ago or two weeks ago. Now it’s about continuing to get better and becoming more consistent.”

DANVILLE (38)

Lucy Pickle 5 0-0 11; Morgan Gerringer 1 0-0 2; Grace Everett 6 2-2 14; Madison Merrell 4 1-1 9; Myleigh Seese 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 3-3 38.

CENTRAL MOUNTAIN (40)

Macy Plowman 2 0-0 4; Camdyn Weaver 1 3-6 5; Lena Walker 4 0-0 10; Taylor Doyle 6 0-0 14; Keely Rohrbach 1 3-8 5; Ava Doyle 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 6-16 40.

Danville 6 13 12 7-38

CM 13 8 11 8-40

3-point goals: Central Mountain 4 (Walker 2, T. Doyle 2). Danville 1 (Pickle).

Records: Central Mountain 7-7 overall (3-3 HAC-I).