CUMBERLAND — The top-ranked Allegany girls used their size advantage and some defensive adjustments in the second half to battle back from some hot Northern shooting in the first 16 minutes as the Campers rolled to a 77-58 victory for the Maryland Class 1A West Region, West Section title Thursday night at Allegany.
Allegany will be taking a 21- 2 record and a 21-game winning streak into the West Region championship game against Poolesville on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Frederick Community College. Poolesville claimed the East Section title with a 41-36 victory over Catoctin on Thursday night.
Senior point guard Detonia DeGross scored a game-high 22 points while running the Allegany offense and also contributed four assists and three steals. Center Leah Wormack was too much for Northern to handle in the second half as she finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and five blocked shots.
Junior forward Kelly Baker also had a solid all-around game with nine points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Brooke Wharton came off the bench to contribute nine points and four assists.
Northern was led by Adria Graham, who had 14 of her 17 points in the first half. Area scoring leader Kaitlynn Fratz had 13 points, while Megan Wiley and Kerry Conroy had 10 each. The third-ranked Huskies finished the season with 20-4 record.
Northern, which handed Allegany one of its two losses with a 53-50 victory back in December, appeared to have the game plan to do it again as the Huskies went into the locker room at the break leading 40-33. But it turned out to be like two different games.
“I told our kids they played like champions in the second half when it would have been easy to put their heads down at halftime,” said Allegany coach Jim O’Neal. “In the first half we missed a lot of defensive assignments and that had too many open shots. In the second half we corrected that and on offense we executed and knew where to make our passes.”
Northern coach Dave Yoder thinks the Huskies may have caught Allegany by surprise with some well executed screens to get the open shots in the first half. Those same shots weren’t there after the break and Wormack was.
“We had a lot of good ball movement in the first half to get good shots I think we kind of surprised them,” said Yoder. “In the second half they played good defense and completely changed the game. They were able to isolate in the post for Wormack.”
Wormack, a 6-foot-1 sophomore, scored 14 of her points after the intermission. She was 8-for-12 from the floor and converted 5-of-9 foul shots.
“We just played our game and did what the coach told us,” said Wormack. “We have been down before and we knew we just had to come out and do it.”
Graham scored the game’s first four points and the opening period had two lead changes and a tie before ending with Allegany on top 21-19.
The score was tied at 33 when Graham hit her second three-pointer for a 36-33 lead with 48 seconds left in the half. Allegany then drew a technical foul for not having enough players on the court and Fratz made the two foul shots. Two free throws by Conroy gave Northern the seven-point halftime lead.
Fratz scored the first two points of the second half to give the Huskies their biggest lead at 42-33. Wormack then took control inside with a pair of buckets and a Baker bucket sliced the lead to three.
After another Graham three for her only points of the second half, DeGross started a 12-point run with a driving lay-up at the 5:25 mark. A Wormack lay-up made it 53-45 with 30 seconds left in the period that ended with Allegany leading 55-47.
The Campers, who beat the Huskies 77-55 in their second regular-season meeting, pushed the lead to double figures with a DeGross jumper that made it 63-52 with 5:40 left. The final score was the biggest margin.
High School Girls Basketball
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Steve Bittner
Allegany rallies past Northern
DeGross scores 22 in 77-58 victory
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