RECAP
With gritty junior point guard Kelly Liebl parked on the pine for the final 7:19 after fouling out, Ephrata hung on for dear life Saturday afternoon, holding off hard-charging Elizabethtown 39-34 in an L-L League Section 2 girls’ basketball game in E-town.
Ephrata, which improved to 3-2 in the section race and 5-5 overall, held Elizabethtown scoreless in the second quarter and led 21-11 at the break.
The Bears roared back in the third quarter behind ace senior Jen Fairbanks, who scored 10 of her 12 points as Elizabethtown whittled Ephrata’s cushion down to 31-23.
The Bears opened the fourth quarter with a 6-0 blitz, with Kirsten Mumma’s coast-to-coast layup bringing Elizabethtown to within 31-29 early in the fourth.
First-year coach John Myers' Bears closed to within 35-34 with 45 seconds to go in regulation when Rachel Sweger swished a 3-pointer from the top of the key.
But Kay Liebl sank a pair of free throws to stretch Ephrata’s lead to 37-34 with 41 ticks showing. And freshman sensation Caroline Stauffer slammed the door for the Mountaineers, racing the length of the floor for a game-clinching layup in the waning seconds after Elizabethtown failed to squeeze off a potential game-tying 3-pointer with time running out.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Ephrata dominated the boards, 36-27, with Irene Lascarides plucking 10 rebounds. … Stauffer had 7 boards to go along with her 19 points for Ephrata. She hit a pair of third-quarter 3s to spark the Mounts after Elizabethtown opened the second half with a quick 6-0 burst. Fairbanks keyed that run with three buckets and 4-for-4 at the line in the quarter. She spent most of the first half glued to the bench with three fouls. … Elizabethtown turned the ball over 24 times, Ephrata 20. … Kenzie Horst had 9 points and 8 rebounds in the post for Ephrata — all in the first half.
QUOTABLE
“We were up by 10 at halftime and we thought that if we could come out and play a good third quarter we’d be OK. Jen Fairbanks had three fouls at halftime but she came out in the third quarter and scored (10 points) and played really well. We didn’t respond very well in the third quarter. … To come up here and win … hey, we haven’t played in a week. And that makes a big difference. So this is a good win for us. Now we get Conestoga Valley away on Monday and that’ll be tough. … We play hard, and when we can get three or four kids scoring, it just makes us that much better. If we can become more consistent with that, it’s going to help us a lot.” — Ephrata coach Mike Garman.