Night-‘Mare’: Solanco hands Ephrata girls fourth-straight loss

Ephrata’s Maddie Root (13) drives past Solanco’s Kara McClune during Tuesday’s key Section Two contest. Photo by Dwight Palm

Just two short weeks ago, the Ephrata girls basketball team was sitting pretty.

With a 6-2 Section Two record at the time (10-6 overall), the Lady Mounts were alone in second place and appeared destined to be a participant in both the L-L League and District Three playoffs.

Now, after four-straight losses, that all seems in doubt for the Lady Mounts.

The nightmare continued Tuesday at home in a huge section contest against Solanco, one of five teams in a logjam behind undefeated Lampeter-Strasburg in Section Two.

In a game both teams had to have, the Lady Mounts endured a miserable second quarter. And it cost them.

With the score tied 9-9 after one, Ephrata committed seven turnovers, shot 1-for-10 for the period and was out-scored 15-3 in the second stanza.

Solanco grabbed a 24-12 half-time lead and never looked back from there, earning the big 56-42 victory over the Lady Mounts.

Aleksa Burger led the way for the Mares (7-4 section, 13-6 overall), scoring a team-high 18 points. Kara McClune added 11 as Solanco took over sole possession of second place with the victory. Ephrata, which got 16 points from Gabi Gerola-Hill, fell to 6-6 (10-10) with games at L-S Friday and at home vs. Manheim Central Tuesday remaining.

It’s been a case of missed opportunities for the Lady Mounts during this four-game skid, said Coach Todd Moyer after Tuesday’s contest.

“We were in each of those games, and had opportunities in those games,” he said. “You don’t make a play here, don’t make a play there and there it turns. And we haven’t been able to overcome that. The first half of the season, we wouldn’t make a play but something would come back and we’d find a way to overcome it. Right now we are not. We make one mistake and it leads to another.”

Tuesday, that moment occurred early in the second after Ephrata sprinted to a 7-2 lead out of the gates before Solanco tied it at 9-9 by the end of the first period.

Gerola-Hill nailed a three 15 seconds into the period but the Mares hustled down the floor and Jess Cabrera drained a wide-open trey to tie it back up, and Ephrata, for some reason, was never the same.

“We got a three, and then no one picked up Cabrera,” Moyer said. “She went down and got off a wide open look at a three. It was totally uncontested and she is not going to miss those. And then we didn’t do anything offensively after that. Bad pass, bad pass, bad pass, and then for something different, a pass that was not good.”

Ephrata didn’t score a single point the rest of the period as the Mares raced in front to stay, taking a 24-12 lead into the half.

In the second half, Ephrata tried to get back in the game and several times cut the Solanco lead to single digits. However, each time, Solanco had an answer to kick the lead back up over 10.

Gerola-Hill’s second trey of the third period cut the deficit to 34-25 with 2:37 to go. But Grace Kreider matched it a minute later with a three-ball and Ephrata found itself down by 12.

Then early in the fourth, Gerola-Hill bombed another three after a quick Solanco spurt to get it to 44-32, but the Mares then ran off an 8-1 run to stretch the lead to 19, and that was basically it.

For the game, Ephrata struggled to take care of the basketball, committing 22 turnovers.

“You can win those games (when you don’t take care of the basketball) but you need to play great defense at the other end to make up for it,” Moyer said. “We didn’t. We didn’t play horrible defense. You take away that one open look that Cabrera had and that’s a low 40s ballgame and we are doing OK. But the offense went cold again. It’s hard to score when you throw it away.”

With Donegal’s victory over Cocalico and Garden Spot’s win over Lebanon, Ephrata now sits a game behind third-place teams Donegal (7-5) and Garden Spot (7-5), and the chances for the the Lady Mounts to make the post-season are dwindling by the minute.

“Our chances are not dead…they may be on life support but they are not dead,” Moyer said. “Solanco still has three games left and they have traveling to do, and back-to-backs…who knows? The way this section has been, who knows? We are getting ready to do our best against L-S on Friday.”

As stated above, Donegal defeated Cocalico Tuesday night but unfortunately individual results and the score were not reported as of press time.

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