GUYS MILLS, Pa .- Madison O’Hara saved the best for last.
Rewatch the game:
O’Hara’s bucket with 42 seconds to play, her only points of the game, broke a 28-all tie and ultimately lifted Maplewood to a 30-29 win over Cambridge Springs in a showdown of the top two teams in Region 2.
See O’Hara’s shot:
Maplewood (14-4 overall, 8-0 Region 2) rallied from a 21-12 halftime deficit to earn a season sweep of the Blue Devils and take command atop first place in the Region 2 standings.
“They didn’t give up, they just kept pushing,” Maplewood coach Shawn Rhoades said. “That’s all we can ask for.”
The game had a little bit of everything, including big buckets from Maplewood’s Sadie Thomas and Savannah O’Hara in the fourth quarter to help aid the rally.
Another big play came courtesy of Maddie Eimer, who knocked down a pair of free throws with 0.1 seconds left in the third quarter to cut the Cambridge Springs lead to 26-23 after being fouled on a long 3-point attempt.
“We decided that we needed to keep up our energy and our confidence even though we were down because we did dig ourselves a whole,” Savannah O’Hara said. “We knew if we kept up the pressure and sped them up a little bit, we could pull ahead again.”
See O’Hara’s full interview:
Cambridge Springs still had a chance late. Maplewood missed a pair of front ends of 1-and-1’s and Cambridge Springs’ Makenzie Yanc made 1-of-2 from the free throw line with 18.7 seconds left.
After Maplewood’s second miss from the free throw line, Cambridge Springs pushed the ball down the court, but Finley Rauscher’s 3 (she made four of them in the game) just before the buzzer was long and Maplewood held on for the win.
“I told the girls you have to be confident,” Rhoades said. “If you miss, so what, you’ll get another one. You have to have that shooter’s mentality.”
Rauscher drilled three of her four triples in the first half as Cambridge Springs (12-4, 5-2) built a 21-12 lead.
The game was tied 10-10 early in the second quarter, with the Blue Devils going on an 11-2 run to close the half.
Savannah O’Hara and Thomas both hit big shots in the third quarter to help Maplewood trim the deficit to three after Eimer’s free throws at the end of the quarter.
Thomas finished with a team-high 11 points, while Eimer had eight.
Rauscher finished with a game-high 13 points for Cambridge Springs.
“It was a total team effort,” Rhoades said. “Everybody contributed.”
The win also gave Maplewood the inside track on the Region 2 title after the two teams shared it last season In fact, they had split the regular season series with one another the past two seasons.
“In the past, Cambridge has really been a rival for us,” Savannah O’Hara said. “It feels really good to beat them twice because last year we tied and were co-region champs with them.”
