CATAWISSA R.R. - Southern Columbia shook off the effects of losses to Mount Carmel and Montoursville by playing effective team basketball in a 53-38 Heartland Conference Division II win over Central Columbia on Wednesday.
The Tigers (9-4) built a six-point halftime lead, 23-17, over the taller Blue Jays, then played a near-perfect third quarter in which they shot 9 for 12 from the floor and outscored the Jays, 21-9, to pump the lead up to 18 points.
Mackenzie Clark had a fine all-around game with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals. She shot 8 for 14 from the floor. After that, the next leading scorer was Reba Lyash with nine points, but nine different players scored, and the Tigers got 10 points from their bench. In addition to Clark's four assists, four other players had two each.
"I think this was a good team win," said Southern coach Kim Chaundy. "We got lots of support from the bench. That enabled us to get our tired legs off the floor and keep everybody rested. We've been focusing on everybody on the floor being able to score, not just one or two people."
Southern lost 46-26 to Mount Carmel last week and 56-48 to Montoursville on Saturday and the Tigers were eager to get back on track.
"Sometimes you learn more from a loss than a win. We didn't come out to play against Mount Carmel and that was evident," Chaundy said.
The Tigers faced a decided height disadvantage against the Blue Jays, who had a 46-26
rebounding advantage. But the Jays had trouble making shots (15 of 61 overall, 4 of 19 from three-point range) and Southern forced them into 18 turnovers while making just seven of their own.
Center Lindsey Carl scored 13 points with 17 rebounds and four blocked shots, but made only 6 of 16 shots before fouling out. Their outside shooter, Madeline Murtin, scored 12 points with four three-pointers but she took 18 shots overall, including 14 threes. Another of Central's big girls, Taylor Knorr, had 10 rebounds but only scored three points on 1-for-7 shooting.
"We were concerned with (Carl) because we don't have that much height, but Miranda Long came in and did a good job keeping her out of th middle," Chaundy said.
Game Summary
CENTRAL COLUMBIA (38) - Murtin 4 0-0 12, Carl 6 1-2 13, Harder 1 1-1 3, McCracken 3 0-1 6, Knorr 1 1-2 3, Morony 0 0-0 0, Flick 0 1-2 1, McDanel 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 4-8 38.
SOUTHERN COLUMBIA (53) - Clark 8 0-1 17, Long 1 2-5 4, Podpora 1 0-0 2, Lyash 4 0-0 9, Daubert 2 3-4 7, Shutt 3 0-1 6, Vought 0 0-0 0, Oley 1 0-0 2, Chaundy 1 0-0 2, Levan 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 5-11 53.
3-point FGs: Central (4) - Murtin 4; Southern (2) - Clark, Lyash.
JV score: Southern 41, Central 24.