RECAP
READING — Kelly Jekot scored 12 of her 16 points in the second half, including 10 third-quarter points to kick-start Cumberland Valley’s offense, and the Eagles held off District 12 champ Archbishop Carroll 34-28 in a PIAA-AAAA second-round game in Reading High’s Geigle Complex.
CV, now 25-5 overall and the No. 3 seed from District 3, led by just 16-15 at the half when Jekot took over. Scoring on a variety of dribble-drives — plus a 3-pointer — Jekot scored 10 of the Eagles’ 13 third-quarter points, when CV built a 29-22 cushion.
REMATCH
CV will take on Dover in a state quarterfinal game on Friday at a site and time to be announced.
Dover, which knocked out CV 45-38 in the District 3 semifinals on Feb. 25 in the Giant Center, beat Mount St. Joseph 45-40 on Tuesday.
NUMBER CRUNCHER
CV and Carroll both turned the ball over 16 times; Eagles survived 10 first-half turnovers, including eight in a helter-skelter first quarter when both teams tried to force tempo. … Eagles out-rebounded the Patriots 26-20; Meghan Rhoades plucked a game-high 10 boards for CV, which is angling to get back to the state title game after falling to Spring-Ford in last year’s PIAA finale. … Lexi Stover lit it up from deep for Carroll, drilling four 3s and popping in a game-high 18 points for Carroll, which wrapped up its season 15-10 overall. … CV shot 1-for-7 from 3 in the first half; that was a trey by Taylor Sneidman on the Eagles’ first possession of the game. … CV’s Maddie Torresin scored all 6 of her points in the first quarter, when the Eagles built a 14-9 lead. Meghan Rhoades converted a three-point play during CV’s game-opening run. … Points were at a premium in the second quarter: Carroll outscored CV 6-2, taking a 15-14 lead on three foul shots by Jess Carney with 2:07 to go in the half. … Jekot’s bucket with 1:35 to go in the first half put CV ahead for good, 16-15.
QUOTABLE
CV senior Maddie Torresin on the victory — “I thought we came out with a lot of intensity and we had a great start. We were playing strong early. Then we lost a little momentum heading into the second quarter. But I thought we hung in there; nobody hung their heads.
Torresin on grabbing momentum in the third quarter — “We needed to start pushing the ball inside, making layups and trying to draw fouls and we were able to do that. We were able to get rebounds and we were able to keep taking the ball inside on them.”
Torresin on getting another shot at Dover — “Hopefully we can take care of them this time. We know their strengths and we know their weaknesses. Hopefully we play well as a team. I’m excited to get a rematch with them. Hopefully this is our time.”
CV coach Bill Wolf on Eagles’ second-half effort — “I thought the thing that turned the game around in the second half was that instead of relying on the outside shot, we were getting the ball inside. We needed to get the ball inside and we did. And I thought that was the difference; we were able to create some separation because we concentrated on the high-low and getting the ball inside from the top of the key. That ultimately was the difference.”
Wolf on holding Carroll to 28 points — “Defense has been our bread and butter, game in and game out. I mean, we usually score a lot of points, but we concentrate on defense; we rely on our defense. We said before the game that the first team to 40 points was probably going to win. And neither team got to 40.”
Wolf on getting a rematch against Dover — “Dover’s a great team. It’s going to be one of those games where you’re glad to get the opportunity to play them again. And I’m sure they’ll be looking forward to playing us again. It should be a great battle; a District 3 showdown in the elite eight. It’ll be neat that at least one District 3 will get a shot at making the final four. Our girls want to get back to the state championship; they’re using that as motivation, so we’ll continue to go one game at a time.”