By Kenny Varner
STATE COLLEGE – There is a quiet confidence building every time the Mifflin County girls basketball teams takes to the court.
After a week of the Lady Huskies picking up convincing wins
against Carlisle and CD East, Mifflin County had a chance to end the week with yet another win but it wouldn’t be an easy task.
Standing in their way to spoil their week was a tough State College team, a team that beat them earlier in the year 55-50.
After a tough first half, the Lady Huskies offense rolled in the second half while its defense clamped down to take home the victory with a 52-39 road win.
Leading the way for ” Purple and Black attack” was Riley Rittenhouse who posted a double-double with 12 rebounds and a 23-point effort.
Teammate Eleana Eckley also had a good shooting performance from the floor, posting 21.
“I’m really excited. I’m really excited about two things. Number one is when we beat Chambersburg and an ugly game on our home court a week ago. I told them just to visualize and think about what it’s going to feel like next week if we could win three straight. And God love them they did it,” Mifflin County coach Roger Herto said. “Not too many people would’ve picked us to beat CD east the other night. We have reach deep. And I love how we had to win this. Early on we played scared, we played slow. We challenge them a little bit in the locker room and they dug in. That was some of the best defense that I had had any Huskie team have since I have been here.”
After the half, the Huskies found themselves trailing 28-22.
But the 8-point deficit didn’t seem to phase the kids from Mifflin County as they came out swinging.
Taking the first possession, Eckley didn’t waste anytime getting themselves back on the scoreboard by hitting a jumper.
Mifflin County forced a miscue on the Little Lions side and the ball went back down and Rittenhouse pick off an offensive rebound and put it back in, closing the gap to 28-26.
With 4:24 left in the third, for the first time in the game the Huskies tied the game at 28 thanks to Rittenhouse’s two foul shots.
State College battled back to take the lead when sharpshooter Kelsey Love got a clear look at the basket from downtown to hit a triple, making it 31-28.
But the Lady Huskies were bound and determined to keep the momentum as they picked up a triple from clutch shooter Eckley, tying the game once again.
The MC defense forced yet another turnover at the 3-minute mark as the Huskies got the ball back to Eckley.
Once again, Eckley came up huge by hitting her second consecutive basket , taking the lead for the first time 33-31.
Mifflin County refused to allow another State College field goal the rest of the period.
However, her offense kept rolling going on a 7-2 run to end the third.
Going into the final stanza, Mifflin County led 41-33.
In the fourth quarter, Mifflin County continued its domination outscoring State College 11-6 to take home the victory.
“I can’t say enough about one of the kids off the bench Megan Harshbarger tonight. She came in for Bryn (Ferguson) when she was in foul trouble, Meg was excellent,” Herto added. “With our team if we have the lead at the end, the game is over. Because we are going to make free throws. This team makes free throws.”
In the fourth, Mifflin County hit seven of its last 10 to help lead them to the road win.
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