MILTON - Line Mountain literally stole a 46-43 District 4 Class A semifinal victory from Muncy Wednesday night at Milton.
Don't read that to mean the Eagles didn't deserve the victory.
They surely did. Their game is all about effort, and though they don't go deep on the bench, they play with a full gas tank and get after people.
But they sure enough stole it, too.
Down 10 with 3 minutes, 22 seconds to play in the third quarter, Line Mountain coach Mike Reed called a timeout. He used the break to let the Eagles know what was what. In simpler terms, he jacked them up.
"We looked then like we'd already lost the game," said Reed, whose team will now meet Lourdes Regional for the district championship. "I told them to go out there and play hard.
"We got on them, and they started to scrap and slap at the ball. That's when it's fun. We really had them (Muncy) rattled there.
What the Eagles did was force Muncy into turnovers - most of them Line Mountain steals - on six straight possessions and convert those turnovers into fast, easy points. Kelsey Lagerman, who had only three points in the first half, scored nine of her team-high 12 over that final 3:22 of the third and the Eagles, who hadn't led since early in the first quarter, turned that 31-21 deficit into a 33-31 lead by the time the quarter ended.
But even that wasn't end of the Eagles' heroics.
Mikhail Whitcomb, who was 2-for-22 shooting from the field during the game's first 30 minutes, 51 seconds, popped a nothing-but-net 3-pointer from the right side with 1:09 remaining in the fourth to swing a back-and-forth fourth quarter Line Mountain's way and ultimately account for the winning margin. Fittingly, Paige Swineford swiped an errant Muncy inbounds pass with 3.5 seconds remaining to eradicate the Indians' final chance.
"I don't know if she wanted to shoot," said Reed of Whitcomb, whose trey broke a 43-43 tie and held up to the end. "But we told her to keep shooting. She can shoot her way out of it.
"We told her nobody remembers the ones you missed, they remember the one that iced the game."
The early shooting woes weren't Whitcomb's alone. As a team, the Eagles were 5-of-35 from the field in the first half, including a wicked bad 1-of-15 from beyond the arc.
Muncy wasn't on fire either, but Indians' center Courtney Ebner was, scoring 11 of her game-high 17 points before the breaks to help her team to a 21-14 halftime lead.
"We knew she was big and strong, and we knew we didn't have anyone like that," said Reed.
Line Mountain ended with a nice offensive balance. Led by Lagerman's 12 points, the Eagles also had Kasey Long and Swineford in double figures with 10 apiece. Whitcomb and Maggie Fessler added seven each.
"Muncy played a great game," Reed said. "They played tough.
"We scrapped. Good teams come up big in the clutch."
Game Summary
District 4 Class A Semifinal
MUNCY (43) - Ruby 7 0-0 14, Berninger 0 0-2 0, Shank 0 1-2 1, Jones 2 0-0 5, Leonard 2 0-0 4, Lamoreaux 0 0-0 0, Schultz 1 0-0 2, Ebner 8 1-3 17. Totals 20 2-7 43.
LINE MOUNTAIN (46) - Long 4 0-2 10, Swineford 3 1-2 10, K. Lagerman 5 2-6 12, Whitcomb 3 0-0 7, Fessler 3 1-2 7, Bethge 0 0-0 0, M. Lagerman 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 4-12 46.
Muncy (14-10) 6 15 10 12 - 43
Line Mtn. (20-5) 5 9 19 13 - 46
3-point FGs: Jones, Swineford 3, Long 2, Whitcomb.