The Blue Mountain girls pose in front of a District 11 backdrop with their silver medals after falling to Allentown Central Catholic in Saturday's District 11 Class 4A championship game at Easton Middle School. Team members include, from left: Lilah McKee, Aubrey Hudock, Kelti Ludwig, Mila Fleagle, Karley Koch, Hailey Place, Kelly Canfield, Delaney Walborn, Emily Leonard, Callie Peel and Clara Easter (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

Central Catholic uses quick start to claim D-11 title

EASTON — Sometimes high school sports are more remembered for the journey, not the final result.

When the District 11 girls’ basketball playoffs began, not too many people gave Blue Mountain a chance to advance out of the Class 4A bracket.

Except the Eagles themselves.

Seeded eighth, Blue Mountain ripped off three straight wins to reach the District 11 Class 4A championship game and earn the Eagles a berth in the PIAA Tournament.

Blue Mountain’s Cinderella run came up short of a gold medal Saturday afternoon as Allentown Central Catholic used a hot start to grab a 46-31 victory at Easton Area Middle School.

But as the calendar flips Sunday to March, Blue Mountain (14-12) is still alive, still playing basketball as the season moves into the PIAA Tournament.

The journey, as they say, isn’t over.

“I think at the end of the season we were just hitting our stride and doing what I thought we could have done all year. It just took us longer than expected to get there,” Blue Mountain coach Rose Carper said. “That’s what you want to do.

“The senior leadership on this team is amazing. They stepped up and held this team together. Kept pushing them forward, kept saying, ‘Hey we can do this. We can have an opportunity to continue to play.’

“There’s kind of that not-giving-up attitude. Just gritty.”

Blue Mountain senior co-captain Kelly Canfield said the Eagles’ postseason drive actually began Jan. 28, when Blue Mountain captured a 46-41, Schuylkill League Division I win on the road at North Schuylkill to officially qualify for districts.

The Eagles closed out the regular season with Division I wins over Pine Grove and Minersville, dropping a non-league game to Governor Mifflin in between, to finish the regular season at 11-11.

Once they got to districts, the Eagles rallied past Saucon Valley, knocked out top-seeded Lehighton in the quarterfinals and downed North Schuylkill in the semifinals.

“We beat North Schuylkill and that set us off,” said Canfield, who had a key role in the semifinal win over the Spartans.

“We didn’t slow down after that in the regular season. At that point we hadn’t made leagues and we were all mad. We had nothing to lose. We played like that all the way through since.”

The Eagles’ other two senior co-captains, Delaney Walborn and Hailey Place, agreed with Canfield.

“We all know what we were worth and that we were capable of playing how we’ve been playing,” Walborn said. “We just all kind of clicked together. We played as one team and we played for each other. Playing as a team helped us soar the past couple of games.”

Added Place: “Everybody doubted us that we could be here. Even though we didn’t show out today, we still accomplished many things.”

Saturday, Central Catholic (14-12) held Blue Mountain scoreless for an 8-minute stretch of the first half in building a 19-5 lead and never looked back. The Eagles shot 1-for-7 from the field and committed four turnovers in the first quarter, finishing 3-for-20 from the field in the first half.

Skylar Taylor, a 5-foot-10 bruiser underneath, had six of her 13 points in the spurt as the Vikettes dominated the boards and controlled the paint, something Blue Mountain had done in the win over North Schuylkill.

Carper was proud of her team’s resiliency, as the Eagles didn’t give up despite the huge early hole. Trailing 26-11 at halftime, Blue Mountain sliced the lead to nine at 32-23 after three frames as Mila Fleagle had six of her eight points in a 12-6, third-quarter run.

ACC didn’t let Blue Mountain get any closer, however, icing the game by hitting 8-of-10 from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

Shamiya Roberts led the Vikettes with 14 points, while Morgan Seagreaves added eight points and nine rebounds. Taylor had eight rebounds.

Place led Blue Mountain with 11 points, while Karley Koch and Canfield both had eight rebounds.

“We came out and looked a little tight, felt a little pressure,” Carper said. “In the run that we did there was no pressure on us. All of a sudden we’re in the championship game and they feel pressure to win.”

As they received their silver medals and posed for a team photo in front of a District 11 backdrop, the Eagles were disappointed in the result on the scoreboard, but not in their journey to this point.

That journey continues next Saturday, when Blue Mountain hosts District 2 runner-up Valley View (19-6) in the opening round of the state playoffs.

“It was fun proving everybody wrong and that kind of kept us going,” Place said. “Unfortunately, today just wasn’t our day. There’s got to be a winner and there’s got to be a loser. They played better than us. At the end of the day they got us.”

Canfield may have summed it up best.

“Coach Carper always told us, at the beginning and end of practice, ‘Why not us?'” she said. “So we carried that all the way through. We worked so hard and knew we could be up there.

“It’s not over. We’re not done.”

Game Summary

District 11 Class 4A Championship

At Easton Middle School

BLUE MOUNTAIN (31) — Fleagle 3 2-2 8, Canfield 2 0-0 4, Place 5 0-2 11, Koch 2 1-6 6, Walborn 0 2-2 2, Leonard 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 5-12 31.

ALLENTOWN CENTRAL CATHOLIC (46) — Roberts 5 2-4 14, Spinosa 0 2-2 2, Seagreaves 3 2-4 8, Taylor 5 3-4 13, Hursh 1 0-0 3, Kofroth 1 2-2 4, Menecola 1 0-0 2. Totals 16 11-16 46.

3-point FGs: Place, Koch, Roberts 2, Hursh

Officials: Banzhoff, Gildner, Hoffstather