Southern Huntingdon holds of EJ girls

Southern Huntingdon 40 , East Juniata 31
SH 12 11 13 4 – 40
EJ 6 13 7 5 – 31

Scoring: Southern Huntingdon –
Maddie Dell 1 2-2 4, Larissa Leonard 3 1-6 9, Rhenna Winter 0 2-2 2, Hannah Booher 2 0-0 4, Rachel Miller 4 1-2 9, McKenzie Yohn 6 0-0 12. Totals – 16 6-12 40. East Juniata – Laurel Amey 2 2-2 6, Erin Heimbach 4 1-4 9, Lily Sankey 1 2-3 4, Alyssa Hibbs 3 1-3 7, Haley Lash 1 1-2 3, Elizabeth Weidner 1 0-0 2. Totals – 12 7-14 31. Played but didn’t score: Southern Huntingdon – Raven Booher 0 0-0 0. East Juniata – Meghan Shilling 0 0-0 0, Bre Terry.

Triples – Southern Huntingdon – Leonard. East Juniata – None.

By Kenny Varner

COCOLAMUS – In the prime time spotlight of the Juniata County tip-off challenge, Huntingdon County went up against Juniata County when the sharp shooting Southern Huntingdon girls met up with a feisty East Juniata team Friday night in the East Juniata gym.
The game proved to be a very defensive one as both teams were held to 40 points and less.
But in the end, missed shots proved costly for the Lady Tigers as the Rockets were able to keep the home team from making a late run, winning 40-31.
Despite the defense holding its own on the evening, the missed shots were what came back to haunt coach Travis Quici’s team Friday.
Leading the way for the visitors were McKenzie Yohn who finished with a game high 12 points and teammates Larissa Leonard and Rachel Miller who both chipped in with nine points.
East Juniata was led by Erin Heimbach’s nine point effort.
“I thought our shooting tonight was horrible. When one of my starters goes two for 22 from the floor it’s not going to be enough to win games. We turned the ball over way too much,” Quici said. “I thought a rebounding was ok. But we just missed too many shots. At the end of the day that’s what it comes down to.”
Defensively the Tigers held the Rockets to just one field goal in the first five minutes of the game.
Yohn got the game scoring started for her team on a simple routine jumper.
Laurel Andy tied the game up minutes later as she went a perfect 2-for-2 from the charity stripe.
With the clock dipping below in the opening period, Leonard hit a runner in the lane and was hacked in the process, sending her to the line to complete a old fashioned three-point play, making it 5-2 in favor of the Lady Rockets.
After an East Juniata turnover, Southern got the ball back and increased its lead to 7-2 in a put back by Hannah Booher.
Heimbach cut into the Rockets’ lead as she hit the jumper.
But the Tigers would only score two more points in the period while Southern Huntingdon added five, putting them up 12-6 going into the second period.
In the second, the Tigers slowly battled their way back into the game thanks to a 9-5 run to start off the quarter. Most of the scoring came in the form of lay-ups and fouls on the play.
Before the Rockets knew what hit them, East Juniata tied the game at 17.
The team even took a brief lead at 15-14 and 17-15.
However, Southern spoiled the home team’s march to take the lead, ending the quarter and the half on a 6-2 run.
When the two teams went into the intermission, Sourthen held a 23-19 advantage.
Things crashed for East Juniata in the second half as it was only able to muster a total of 12 points total.
However, the Tigers’ defense kept the Rockets in striking distance going into the final stanza, trailing 36-26.
But as tough and stingy the defense played in the fourth quarter by allowing only four points. The offense struggled and was able to only put five up on the score board, ending the team’s game by posting a nine-point loss.
Bellefonte is up next today at East Juniata and Quici knows that it’s a short turnaround and that there is no time to think about his team’s shooting woes.
“We have Bellefonte tommorrow and we have some ideas on what they are going to do. We have to come out tomorrow and execute. That’s what it comes down to, execution. If we don’t do that we’re going to be in for a long weekend,” Quici said.
In the junior varsity contest, the Lady Tigers held onto a late lead to hold off the Rockets 29-25.