Steve Luse
Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — The Allegany girls used some stiffling defense to jump out to a quick 10-2 lead and were up by 21 points in the second period before holding off a Southern’s comeback for a 47-33 victory in the Maryland Class 1A, West Section championship game Thursday afternoon at Allegany,
The second-seeded Campers lifted their record to 15-5 and will be defending their West Region championship when they face East Section champion Smithsburg on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Frostburg State’s Bobcat Arena.
Allegany freshman Lindsie Linaburg came off the bench to provide a big spark for the Campers hitting on 6-of-7 shots from the floor for a team-high 12 points. She also had five rebounds.
Southern entered the tournament as the fourth seed and upset top-seeded Northern, 50-45, in the section semifinals on Wednesday at Northern. It was the third game in three days for the Rams, who rolled over Fort Hill 56-36 on Tuesday, and they finish with a 16-7 record.
Junior point Brooke Wharton was the only other player in double figures in the balanced Allegany attack with 10 points and also had four assists. Junior forward Bailey Ellsworth added nine points and had team highs with seven rebounds and five assists. Senior center Kelly Baker contributed eight points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.
The only player in double figures for the cold-shooting Southern girls was Heidi Welch with 13 points. Struggling to get any open shots, the Rams hit on only 11-of-39 field goal attempts. They were 9-for-15 at the foul line.
“Our calling card in every game has been defense and we have always preached that if you keep playing defense you give yourself a chance to win, especially in defense,” said Allegany coach Jim O’Neal. “We had a chance to put them away early, but they kept hanging around in the second half. I give Dan Bosley a lot of credit for some great coaching in their win over Northern last night and I think they may have just run out of gas with three games in three nights.”
The game was a reversal of the last meeting between the two schools when Southern used tough defense to jump out to a big early lead and held on for a 41-40 victory at Southern. In the first encounter, Allegany prevailed 52-22 behind 2009 Player of the Year Leah Wormack, who had her season ended with a knee injury in the eighth game.
Forcing the Rams to take most of their shots from long range, the Campers led 13-4 after one period with Baker and Audrey Eisentrout combining for 10 points on easy layups.
Linaburg, a 5-foot-10 forward, came in to score the first four points of the second period and the Campers continued what became a 14-point run that had them up 24-4 after a Wharton foul shot at the 4:04 mark. Welch ended a six-minute drought by the Rams when she scored on a drive with 3:42 left in the half.
A rebound follow by Baker gave Allegany its biggest lead at 26-5 at 2:40, but the Rams weren’t ready to quit and scored the final 10 points of the half to trail by only 12 at the break.
The Campers had the margin back up to 17 points (34-17) with 2:20 left in the third period, but Southern had one more spurt left and scored the next six points to go into the final eight minutes down by 11, 34-23. A three-pointer by Welch and a foul shot by Alli Shaffer closed the gap to seven points (34-27) with 5:35 still left.
Wharton then took charge and had a pair of key buckets sandwiched around an Ellsworth drive that made it 40-27 with 3:25 left. A six-point run had the Campers on top 47-31 with 1:34 on the clock and O’Neal cleared the bench.
“Lindsie Linaburg played very well coming off the bench for a 10th grader and has been working very hard,” said the Allegany coach. “When things started to get a little shakey, Brooke Wharton took control and ran the offense.”
Southern coach Dan Bosley cited defense as the big difference.
“Allegany is well-coached and Jimmy O’Neal had his team ready for us,” said Bosley. “We didn’t run our plays effectively and you can credit their defense for that.”
Smithsburg crushed Catoctin, 60-38, in the East Section finals on Tuesday night and has a 19-3 record.
“Smithsburg will be a tough opponent,” said O’Neal. “They are big, athletic and strong.”
