MONTOURSVILLE - There's a reason Mount Carmel Area's girls basketball team hasn't won a district title in 26 years.
It's not easy to do.
Ask this year's Red Tornadoes, who WILL play for the District 4 AA championship.
For three quarters, Mount Carmel was cruising against Towanda. About 10 minutes later, the Tornadoes were a point away from losing.
Mount Carmel built an 18-point lead, then saw it disappear completely before Kim Andruscavage came to the rescue in the final two minutes to give the Red Tornadoes a 49-45 win over the Black Knights in a semifinal game at Montoursville High School on Wednesday. Mount Carmel (21-3) will play the winner of tonight's Central Columbia-Loyalsock game for the championship, tentatively on Saturday.
Mount Carmel, using its quickness to force defensive pressure, built a 40-22 lead after three quarters. Then, facing an 18-point deficit and in serious foul trouble, something clicked for Towanda, which started to chip away at the lead.
It was 40-27. Then 41-29. Then 43-36.
"For the first three quarters, we executed our game plan, and everything went right," said Mount Carmel head coach Lisa Varano. "Then everything started to go wrong."
Towanda (19-5) finally solved the pressure for a few minutes and got some easy layups, even with star Alison Wickwire fouled out. When Cassie Bingaman hit a foul shot with less than two minutes left, then scored on a breakway moments later, the Black Knights tied the game, 44-44.
But Andruscavage broke the tie with a steal and breakaway basket with 1:17 left to give Mount Carmel a 46-44 lead. Towanda's Darien Lantz made one of two foul shots with 54.7 seconds left to cut the lead to 46-45, but Andruscavage hit two foul shots with 38.2 left, Towanda's Michele Aronson missed two foul shots with 19.5 second left, and Ranotta Ahrensfield made a foul shot for Mount Carmel with 15.9 seconds left, and the Tornadoes sealed the win with a rebound after a Towanda miss.
"We were looking for some kind of layup (late in the game)," said Varano. "We wanted to go at them because they were in foul trouble."
Mount Carmel's 18-point lead likely would have been closer to 30 had the Tornadoes shot better. They shot less than 30 percent from the floor (16-for-54), compared to Towanda's 19-for-37, but Mount Carmel forced the Black Knights into almost twice as many turnovers (29-15) and had a 31-24 rebounding advantage.
Heather Bolick supplied much of the early offense. She led all scorers with 15 points, hitting 6-of-9 shots, including two 3-pointers, and Mount Carmel held Towanda to two points in the second quarter, when the pressure was so tight on defense that the Knights got just four shots off in the eight minutes.
And when Wickwire (11 points, 10 rebounds) fouled out with more than four minutes to play, it looked like Towanda's chances were slim, despite the rally.
"Give Towanda a lot of credit," Varano said. "They didn't give up. I think our leadership and experience showed. We kept our composure, and that was huge."
"We were upset that they beat us in districts last year," said Andruscavage, who had a fine all-around game. She finished with 13 points, six rebounds and four assists. "We wanted to go to the championship game. The last time was when our coach played, and Mount Carmel's never been known much for basketball."
Bingaman led Towanda with 14 points, and also had five assists and four steals.
Danielle Bernini, although suffering through a rough shooting night, had 13 rebounds for Mount Carmel.
"We have a good bunch of girls. They pick each other up," said Varano. "On any given night, any one of them can have a big game and they all contribute."
Game Summary
District 4 Class AA Semifinal
TOWANDA (45) - Grimes 1 0-0 2, Bingaman 6 1-2 14, Lantz 3 1-3 8, Wickwire 5 1-1 11, Sutton 3 1-2 8, Aronson 0 0-2 0, Fleming 1 0-2 2, Hallaback 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 4-12 45.
MOUNT CARMEL (49) - Bolick 6 1-4 15, Sinopoli 2 1-2 5, Bernini 1 3-6 5, Ahrensfield 3 2-6 8, Andruscavage 3 6-8 13, Demko 0 0-0 0, Palewicz 0 0-0 0, Varano 1 1-2 3. Totals 16 14-28 49.
Towanda (19-5) 11 2 9 23 - 45
Mount Carmel (21-3) 10 12 18 9 - 49
3-point FGs: Towanda (3) - Bingaman, Lantz, Sutton; Mount Carmel (3) - Bolick 2; Andruscavage.