Lady Raiders finish regular season with two-game win streak

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Editor's Note: The Lady Raiders beat DuBois, 55-43, Wednesday night to wrap up their regular season.

BROOKVILLE - For a team in dire need of a victory, the Brookville Lady Raiders did just enough to notch a win Monday night in a non-league matchup with visiting Johnsonburg.
Brookville led from start to finish, holding off the Ramettes for a 44-39 win in its final home game of the season. Wednesday, the 12-9 Lady Raiders visited DuBois for their last regular season game.
From there, it's on to the District 9 Class AA playoffs where Brookville will be part of a small three-team bracket with defending champion Cranberry and Moniteau. With Cranberry secured as the top seed thanks to a 20-1 record following Monday night's win at Clarion-Limestone, Brookville will take on Moniteau in the semifinal for the second straight year.
Because District 9 sends two teams to the state tournament, the Moniteau-Brookville winner is guaranteed a spot in the PIAA playoffs.
Playoff brackets will be announced sometime this weekend. The Brookville-Moniteau matchup would be played on a neutral court sometime next week. Look for updates in this weekend's Tri-County Sunday.
Brookville head coach Mark Powell wasn't looking that far ahead. His team's task at hand going into Monday's game was to end a losing skid. Brookville, which started 7-1, had lost eight of 12 games, including its last three in a row before beating Johnsonburg.
"The kids feel real good and should," Powell said. "We played a good basketball team and it was physical. This does a lot for their confidence and it's what we needed.
"We shortened the game to a two-game season and forgot about everything that happened before and focus on our last two games. We're headed to DuBois and they have a much-improved team. It's a tough task ahead, but step one is complete."
The Lady Raiders won their first game without leading scorer in senior Emily Ferraro, who is missing the final five games of the regular season due to a family trip. Against Johnsonburg, the Lady Raiders got 14 points from Aisha Newsome, who drilled four 3-pointers and grabbed nine rebounds. Karly Reinsel scored 13 points and also collected nine rebounds.
Junior center Brittany Watts led the Ramettes (12-9) with 14 points and 20 rebounds while sophomore Chelsea Benson scored seven points and pulled down 14 rebounds.
Neither team shot the ball well - Brookville made 15 of 52 shots for 28.8 percent - and it was Johnsonburg's lack of shooting (15-of-56, 26.7 percent) that kept it from owning a any lead from start to finish. Brookville started the game with a 12-2 lead and took it from there. Johnsonburg got as close as 31-29 early in the fourth quarter, but couldn't get any closer.
Despite going 9-of-21 from the foul line, including 6-of-13 in the fourth quarter, Brookville held on to win.
Kiana Myers' basket with 49 seconds left got the Ramettes within 40-37. Brookville's Madison Hill missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Newsome grabbed the rebound. That began a key stretch where Brookville had the ball and took six free throws - including four following a technical foul on Johnsonburg's Myers - while making just two to put it up 42-37.
Watts' basket cut the score to 42-39 with 7.6 seconds left, but Reinsel's two free throws with 5.3 seconds on the clock sealed the deal.
The Lady Raiders lost the junior varsity game, 34-26. Samantha Reinard scored 12 points and Amanda Ray finished with six points to lead Brookville, which dropped to 4-15.
In last week's games:
FRIDAY, Feb. 10
Bradford 59, Brookville 30
At Bradford, the unbeaten Lady Owls clinched at least a share of the District 9 League title with an easy win over the visiting Lady Raiders.
Bradford (20-0 overall, 8-0 league) controlled the game from the start, leading 58-19 after three quarters.
Aisha and Lanae Newsome scored nine and seven points respectively for the Lady Raiders.
The Lady Raiders lost the junior varsity game, 30-19. Kylee Deal and Brenna Dworek each scored six points for Brookville.
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 8
Elk Co. Catholic 48, Brookville 28
On Senior Night for the Lady Raiders last week, a strong defensive effort by Elk County Catholic put away Brookville.
Taylor Dacanal led the way with 11 points while Lexi Meholic added 10.
Karly Reinsel led Brookville with nine points and Lanae Newsome added seven.
Brookville committed 11 of its 19 turnovers in the first half. The Lady Raiders also shot just 5-of-20 from the floor in the opening 16 minutes.
The shooting woes continued for Brookville in the third as ECC held a 13-5 scoring advantage to push the lead to 38-18 after three.
Both teams scored 10 points in the final quarter to set the final score.
Three Brookville seniors in Katie Zents, Stephanie Wolfe, and Sydney Buffington were honored prior to the game.
"These are three wonderful girls who work hard each day and they all represent themselves and the school in a very good way and I'm very proud of all three and wish them well," said Powell.

Steve Smail contributed to this story.