DANVILLE - Mid-Valley outscored Mount Carmel 20-3 in the second quarter Friday night and hung on to win 67-57.
It's not flashy, it's fact. And contained in that one brief sentence is everything you need to know about their PIAA Class AA opening round state playoff game at Danville.
A couple things can be extracted from it though.
Mid-Valley played well, led by Danielle Terranella, who scored 36 points and came down with eight rebounds.
She was the de facto leader on the court, and knew that herself going into the game.
"I knew I had to step up today because it was a really good team we were playing," Terranella said. "I wanted to do whatever I could to make our team win today."
She scored nine points in the second quarter for the Spartans, and added another 17 in the fourth, including a 9-of-12 performance from the foul line.
Also contained in the opening statement is that the Spartans needed to hang on, meaning that Mount Carmel put together a furious rally in the second half.
After shooting a paltry 2-of-21 from the floor and turning the ball over 17 times in the first half alone, Mount Carmel watched as a one-point deficit at the end of the first quarter bal-
looned into 18 by the end of the half.
"They played tremendous defense on us, and it rattled us," Mount Carmel area coach Lisa Varano said. "We didn't get any second shots; they were boxing out on the boards. They controlled all aspects of the game in the first half."
Still trailing big, Varano called a timeout with 4:25 left in the third quarter.
Her message was simple and on point with what she'd told her team all year.
"It's their season, they're in control," Varano said. "I have confidence in them, and I knew that they had the ability to come back, they just had to do it one possession at a time. We needed 10 possessions to come back from that."
It didn't happen all at once, but Mount Carmel started to chip away at the lead, started to make a couple shots and narrowed the gap to 13 by the end of the third.
Kim Andruscavage who hadn't made a field goal until 3:01 left in the third, got a friendly bounce, and Ranotta Ahrensfield, who was held in check by terrific baseline defense from the Spartans found a crack and scored.
Despite being in foul trouble, Mid-Valley stuck to its game plan and didn't allow Mount Carmel any easy baskets in it's half-court sets.
"All week, we focused on keeping them out of the middle and working on our defense," Terranella said. "I think we did a good job of executing our defense."
Mount Carmel eventually cut Mid-Valley's lead to 10 with 1:44 remaining in the game, and got within six after a succession of 3-pointers from Andruscavage and Heather Bolick, while Terranella did her best to keep adding numbers to Mid-Valley's tally.
With 33 seconds remaining, Mount Carmel was within six, but settled for a hurried 3-point attempt, another missed shot and a turnover to end the game.
It's the second straight year Mount Carmel has lost its first game in the state playoffs.
Senior Danielle Bernini finished her career with eight points and 10 rebounds for Mount Carmel. Fellow senior Cara Sinopoli added eight, while Brigid Demko chipped in with four off the bench.
"They've carried themselves with class," Varano said of her squad. "They've played as a team the whole season, and I'm proud of them. They fought back and made a game out of it.
"Mid-Valley is a good team. They came out strong and we didn't."
Game Summary
PIAA Class AA First Round
MID-VALLEY (67) - Sakson 0 1-2 1, Terranella 11 12-15 36, DeMarco 2 3-6 7, Miraglia 4 4-6 12, Walsh 6 1-4 13, Runco 0 0-3 0. Totals 23 21-33 67.
MOUNT CARMEL (57) - Bolick 5 1-3 13, Demko 2 0-0 4, Palewicz 1 6-8 8, Varano 0 1-2 1, Bernini 2 4-7 8, Ahrensfield 3 0-1 6, Andruscavage 5 6-6 17. Totals 18 18-27 57.
Mid-Valley 10 20 12 25 - 67
Mount Carmel 9 3 17 28 - 57
3-point FGs: Bolick 2, Andruscavage.