HUNTINGDON — The seasons of the last two Centre County girls basketball teams that were still alive in the postseason came to a conclusion last week when Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area both dropped their District 6 Class 3A playoff openers on Thursday, Feb. 23.
The Lady Rams came out on the wrong end of a tough 57-50 decision in a district quarterfinal Mountain League rematch at Huntingdon — the fifth seed versus the fourth seed. BEA was sidelined by No. 1 seed Westmont Hilltop, 55-18, in Johnstown that same evening.
Making the Penns Valley defeat all the more gut-wrenching is that the Lady Rams had a 42-38 lead entering the fourth quarter. However, Lily Fiscus scored the last 8 points of her 30-point outburst down the stretch to help the Lady Bearcats pull the game out.
Penns Valley finished the year 12-11. Ann-Marie McMurtrie fronted the Lady Rams with 16 points.
Avery Dinges and Scotty Dinges chipped in with 11 and 10 points, respectively, for the Lady Rams, who were up 29-24 at halftime.
Huntingdon had won both regular-season encounters with the Lady Rams and, like the playoff game, both were closely-contested — 52-46 on Dec. 13 and 46-39 on Jan. 16.
Westmont Hilltop scored all the points it ended up needing in the first quarter against the Lady Eagles, surging out to a 27-1 lead after eight minutes, as Christiana Gordon netted 11 of her game-high 17 points for the once-beaten Laurel Highlands Conference champions.
Bald Eagle Area wrapped up the campaign with a 9-14 mark, overcoming a six-game losing skid at the start of the new year and posting a big win against Tyrone late in the season to cement their spot in the top eight.
Abby Hoover paced the Lady Eagles with 9 points, draining a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter.
Zoey Lynch hit double figures for the Lady Hilltoppers with 10 points.
