Central Mountain outlasts Lady Eagles in thriller

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: December 12, 2023

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – It was a battle from the beginning tip-off to the final seconds of the game last night as the Central Mountain girls basketball team traveled to Bald Eagle Area Tuesday.

Defense took center stage and made its stamp on the Tuesday night contest as the Wildcats outlasted Bald Eagle 51-41.

Ava Doyle led the scoring for Central Mountain with 19. Teammate Keely Rohrbach finished with 10-hard fought points of her own.

“We were able to make a few plays down the stretch to be able to come out on top,” said Central Mountain coach Scott Baker. “They (BEA) played very, very hard tonight. I give them a lot of credit. they things very tough for us but we were able to make enough plays to take home the win and come out on top.”

Central Mountain finished with 18 rebounds while the Lady Eagles finished with 32.

Taylor Habovick pulled down 11 boards and finished with four points.

Bald Eagle Area was led in scoring by Sybil Thompson who scraped and scrapped her was to a game high 21-point effort.

“What a great game! Five girls came out and we finally found someone to come off the bench in Riley Housel. She looked really good in the third and fourth quarter. We come back around and play Tyrone tomorrow. We won’t just be five strong but six strong,” said Bald Eagle Area coach Mike Habovick. “The first thing I said to them as soon as we got into the lockeroom was “Now you know how good you really are. They pushed it to the limits, our defense looked great and our offense scored when we needed to score. It was a good overall game tonight. It was a good stepping stone for us for sure.”

Going into the final stanza, the Wildcats held a slim 34-33 advantage.

The Eagles took back the lead as Thompson scored off a give-and-go, finishing off the play with an open lay up.

The defense held on the Wildcats first touch of the fourth, giving the ball back to the Bald Eagle offense.

This time Habovick was fouled in the act of shooting as went 2-for-2, upping the lead to a 37-34 advantage with 5:32 left.

But the Wildcats were about to warm up its offense.

After being fouled, Camdyn Weaver hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe, making it a 2-point contest.

That would be the start of an offensive run that would see Central Mountain roll for a 6-0 run, extending the lead to the biggest of either team at 40-37.

Housel stopped the run momentarily with a bucket at 3:15, making it again a 1-point contest.

Ava Doyle put the lead back up to three on a hoop with 3-minutes left.

But Central Mountain’s defense closed in started to force turnovers in the final minutes, leading to a 9-0 and onto the victory.

In the first, both defenses came out and forced the other team to shoot from beyond the arc or in transition, Bald Eagle, with five points from Thompson held the advantage at 8-5.

The pace started to pick up in the second as both offenses started to attack the other’s weaknesses.

At the intermission, the home team held a very close 24-20 in what was turnout to be a very physical contest.

Central Mountain started to make its move in the third period taking the lead going into the fourth.

It would be a lead that they would end up muscling out in the final minutes to improve to 3-1.

Central Mountain 51, Bald Eagle Area 41

CM. 5 15 14 17 – 51

BEA. 8 16 9 8 – 41

Scoring : Central Mountain Elise McKean 1 2-4 5, Camden Weaver 1 1-5 3, Lena Walker 2 0-0 5,Taylor Doyle 4 0-0 9, Keely Rohrbach 4 2-4 10, Ava Doyle 7 5-6 19 Totals 19 10-19 51. Bald Eagle Area – Olivia Boone 1 2-2 5, Taylor Habovick 1 2-2 4, Gabbie Perry 0 3-4 3, Sybil Thompson 7 6-14 21, Addisyn Burns 3 0-0 8, Riley Housel 1 0-1 2. Totals 13 13-23 41.

Played but didn’t score: Central Mountain – Macy Plowman 0 0-0 0, Morgan Temple 0 0-0 0, Jacey Tripp 0 0-0 0. Bald Eagle Area – None.

3-point shots: Central Mountain – McKean, Walker, T. Doyle, A.Doyle. Bald Eagle Area – Boone, Sybil Thompson.