Gerry Eckenrode was going to be a nice coach and give his players a day off after the YAIAA girls basketball tournament semifinals.
But he had to amend that after Delone Catholic defeated Red Lion 45-30 to reach the final against York Suburban at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12 at York College. The Trojans defeated Dallastown 42-38 in the first semifinal at West York.
“I was gonna give them tomorrow off and practice on Thursday,” Eckenrode said, “but we’re gonna give them the weekend off and then get ready for districts next week.”
Eckenrode, who won the battle between the league’s winningest girls coaches, isn’t surprised York Suburban made the final. But he really thought the Division II champs would be playing Red Lion.
“In all fairness, that wasn’t the best game they played this season,” Eckenrode said of the Lions, who only had one loss coming into the semifinal. “We played well, but they didn’t play as well as they’re capable of playing.”
In fact, the Lions struggled to get anything working.
When they bottled up Reece Meckley, the league’s leading scorer, the Squirettes found an open teammate under the basket for an easy score. Zoe Gregg was often the recipient in the first half, and Amelia Joyce in the second.
“Every team tends to double Reece, or even triple her, and I just happened to be the one who was open,” Gregg said. “Usually, it’s me or Amelia. They can’t really let Jocelyn [Robinson] dribble up the court either, so they have to stay with her.”
Gregg had nine of her 13 points in the first half as the teams played to a 16-all tie. The Lions held Meckley, who is averaging better than 20 ppg, to four points in the first half.
After the Lions increased their lead to six with a bucket by Bekah Sedora to open the second quarter, things went downhill in a hurry. They had good looks inside 4 feet, but couldn’t finish. Their passes were uncharacteristically sloppy, which led to turnovers and baskets at the other end. It took a pair of free throws by Maddie Young in the closing minutes of the first half to pull the Lions into the tie.
Gregg said Eckenrode told the Squirettes at halftime that they had nothing to lose against the Division I champs. So, the harder they played, the more successful they were going to be.
But Eckenrode also knew they needed more from Meckley to have that success.
“I told [Reece] ‘if you’re open, it’s gotta go,’” Eckenrode said. “I don’t care if you miss it or not, you gotta shoot the ball.”
So she did. And unlike the first half, she didn’t miss. She combined a pair of 3-pointers with two baskets by Joyce and another by Gregg as the Squirettes opened the second half on a 12-0 run and never looked back.
Sedora ended the Lions’ skid with an and-one off a steal on her way to a team-high 18 points. But the Lions never got closer than five the rest of the way.
Every time it looked like they were going to chip away at Delone’s lead, Meckley would hit a basket or sink a free throw. She finished with 18 points to lead Joyce (13) and Gregg in double figures.
York Suburban 42, Dallastown 38: The teacher won, but she said the student did great.
“She really did, she had her team well prepared,” York Suburban coach Jess Weaver said of Dallastown coach Molly Day. “I can’t even call her student, not with 20 wins on the season. She’s a veteran coach in my mind, that she can do that in her first year.”
The two coaches are well acquainted. Day played for Weaver at York Suburban. It is believed to be the first time a coach and former player coached against each other in a tournament game.
“Nobody really thought we would get to this place,” Day said. “I think a lot of people thought that we would just be OK this year, but I’m really proud of how our kids fought.”
Senior Ava Jamison was the only starter back from the Dallastown team that won its third straight YAIAA title last year and first District 3 Class 6A crown. Throw in a first-year head coach, and it’s not exactly a traditional recipe for success.
Dallastown's growth over the season was evident in the fourth quarter, when the Wildcats turned a seven-point deficit into a one possession game.
Freshman Denyla Handy was a big reason for the rally. She wrapped seven points around an assist to Sophia Scovitch to pull the Wildcats to within two, 36-34. It was the closest Dallastown had been to the Trojans since Natalie Homisak scored the first basket of the game en route to York Suburban 's 17-9 first-quarter lead.
Weaver said her players stuck to the game plan to a T, which allowed the Trojans to build the lead and then hold off the Wildcats when they mounted their run.
“We kept telling the team the margin wasn’t going to continue to increase, there were going to be some runs in the game,” Weaver said. “We knew we were going to have to weather the storms. We watched a ton of film, did a lot of prep and wanted to defend them in a certain way. Every kid out there, they absorbed that scouting report and executed on the defense.”
Part of that plan was pulling Brynn Barley, York Suburban’s leading scorer and Weaver’s daughter, to the outside. That would pull out Dallastown’s tough defender Ava Jamison, who primarily guards the opposition’s top scorer, and open some lanes around the basket.
When those lanes opened, Amaya Pope made sharp passes to their teammates for easy buckets.
“I’ve been saying all year long [Pope] is the best passer in the league,” Weaver said. “She’s a kid who doesn’t get recognized as much as some of the others, but she’s a tremendous defender, and her court vision is incredible. She will find people and she’s selfless.”
Williams, who led the Trojans with 15 points, received several of those pinpoint passes from Pope.
Jamison held Barley well below her average at nine points, and scored 10 on the other end.
"I think the entire game we were just trying to find our footing," Day said. "I think we finally did in the last quarter. It's one of those things where you with it was maybe a little bit more in the beginning or the middle. But I'm proud of my kids, how they battled, how they never gave up."
The tournament final is going to end a long dry spell for one of the teams. Delone Catholic won their only tournament title in 2001. It’s been even longer for the Trojans, who won their only crown in 1986.
Shelly Stallsmith covers York-Adams high school sports for GameTimePA and the USAToday Network. Connect with her by email [email protected] or on X, formerly Twitter, @ShelStallsmith.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: YAIAA girls basketball tourney final features Division II, III teams