Neuqua Valley edges York for title

The de facto championship game between undefeateds Neuqua Valley and York at the York Turkey Tournament was expectedly a hotly contested battle between two athletic teams.

In the end it was the Wildcats that walked out a 44-41 winner Wednesday night and the girls basketball tournament champions by holding the Dukes to 2 points in the fourth quarter and ratchetting up the full court pressure during a pivotal third quarter.

"Especially in high school sports, the kids spent the first quarter or two quarters kind of feeling their way through the game," said York coach Jason Reinecke, commenting on how his team's offense performed fine when Neuqua ran a halfcourt zone defense in the first half.

"I suspected they would wait and throw the real press at us later in the game when it was getting toward crunchtime."

Neuqua guard Megan Doody struggled from the perimeter with her shot, but scored all six of her points in the third quarter when the Wildcats (5-0) used forced turnovers and easy baskets to build a 7-point lead. AnnaBell Lansdowne, who scored 15 points, knocked down two 3s late in the half to get the Dukes (4-1) back to striking distance of a win, actually going to the fourth up 1, but Neuqua was the more composed team down the stretch.

"It's two great teams playing each other and that's all that you can expect, that it comes down to the end," Neuqua coach Mike Williams said. "Some kids came off the bench and made big plays for us."

Wildcats starter Allison Hedrick had 7 points and 10 rebounds, while non-starters Shay Robinson and Kristen Moore made big plays down the stretch, including Robinson's 2 free throws in a 1-and-1 situation with 37 seconds left to create the margin of victory and survive a last second Lansdowne 3.

"The biggest thing right now is we have to convince them that at any given time they're going to be 'the one' and someone is going to step," said Williams, who uses many of his bench players.

"That's what's happened throughout the entire tournament. Tonight, Shay hit a couple big ones, Amarah Coleman (all-tournament team) played great, Amber Smith. It was an all-around effort. So what's going to happen in the end? Shay came out and did it tonight and tomorrow it's going to be someone else. Hopefully, we can keep that going."