This is the last thing District 3-AAAA girls’ basketball combatants wanted to hear:
Don’t look now, but Cumberland Valley is picking up some major steam.
Ranked No. 1 in PennLive’s Class AAAA girls’ basketball state rankings, the reigning PIAA runner-up Eagles won their eighth game in a row on Wednesday night, decking Central Dauphin 68-37 to put a capper on their second Mid-Penn Commonwealth championship in a row.
Cumberland Valley dropped a 45-41 decision to Dallastown on Dec. 28 in the championship game of the Eagles’ holiday tournament.
Since that setback, Cumberland Valley has been lights out, averaging 66 points per game and winning by an average of — gulp — 31 points per game.
The difference?
Balance.
Leading scorers Maddie Torresin, a University of Maryland-Baltimore County recruit, and super soph Kelly Jekot are still getting plenty of buckets.
But coach Bill Wolf has preached ball movement and sharing the wealth, especially in transition, where the Eagles can really burn you.
End result: Since the Dallastown game, Taylor Sneidman has three double-digit games, including a season-high 15 points against CD on Wednesday; Jen Falconer and Meghan Rhoades both have a pair of double-digit outputs; and Katie Jekot’s point production has gone up, since the frosh has found more minutes in Wolf’s rotation.
Heck, Kelly Jekot hasn’t scored in double figures in the last three games in a row, and the Eagles topped CD East by 28, torched Carlisle by 69 and beat CD by 31 over that clip.
The way Cumberland Valley is going, you just might be looking at the favorite to win Mid-Penn and District 3 titles in the coming weeks.
Long way to go, obviously. But the Eagles are hot, and they're starting to play their best basketball at the perfect time.
You've been warned.
IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Cumberland Valley senior guard Alyssa Hinish on the Eagles’ blitzkrieg stretch — “Since Dallastown we’ve definitely become more of a team. We pass the ball around a lot more. We share the points. And that’s really nice when everyone gets touches — even the kids off the bench. Everyone is scoring. We’ve had a couple of games here recently where everyone on the team has scored. So I think that’s the main thing; our teamwork has really come together and we’re all playing well.”
Cumberland Valley junior guard Taylor Sneidman on Eagles’ run since the loss to Dallastown — “We knew we had to bounce back from that quickly. I don’t think anyone really said anything, and I think that’s what really hit us the hardest — that nobody really knew what to say. I think we were all disappointed in ourselves, and we call hate disappointing (Coach Wolf). So we wanted to bounce back for him and for us. Against Dallastown we really didn’t play as a team. But ever since then we’ve been playing as a team, and it’s worked out a lot better for us.”
Cumberland Valley coach Bill Wolf on his team’s January success — “I think (the Dallastown game) was a reality check for our girls. To lose in your own Christmas tournament on your own floor … I think it woke our kids up to the fact that hey, there are a lot of good basketball teams out there, and if you’re not bringing it game after game after game, every night, you can get beat if you’re not playing your best. So I think that game was a wake-up call. I’m pleased with how they’ve responded. And now from here on out they’re all big games. So this is an exciting time.”
Central Dauphin coach Karen Hicks on Cumberland Valley — "I would say (Cumberland Valley) is the team to beat. Wilson (the reigning District 3-AAAA champ) is also really starting to put it together. But if Cumberland Valley continues to play the way they've been playing, and if they don't slow down, they're ahead of Wilson right now because Wilson had a slow start."