NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Shots were hitting the front of the rim, the back and the sides.
They were spinning out. Rarely falling through the net.
It was a tough slog for both the Redbank Valley and Moniteau girls basketball teams on Friday night.
Usually sharp shooters were misfiring. Good defense had a lot to do with that. So did just an uncharacteristically poor night from both team’s stars.
But Alivia Huffman got hot in the fourth quarter for Redbank Valley and Mylee Harmon, perhaps the hardest hit by the shooting woes, came up clutch with a running make with five seconds remaining to hand the Bulldogs’ a very hard-fought 36-34 win over Moniteau.
“It was a tough night,” said Huffman, who was fed the ball in the post repeatedly in the final quarter and scored eight of her game-high 15 in the final eight minutes. “I think this game was a great win for us. We needed it. It proves what we’re about and how we play.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
Redbank hadn’t been tested much in the first four games of the season. That changed against the Warriors.
Moniteau (4-2) moved the ball well against the Bulldogs’ zone and created for itself some open looks.
“We talked about that, that we had to be disciplined with the ball and make them work,” said Warriors’ coach Dee Arblaster. “We can’t let them just stand in their zone. They’re athletic and we have to be smart with the ball, use ball fakes. Those girls are athletes.”
The shots were there. They didn’t always fall.
Redbank also attacked the rim and either dished to the perimeter, or tried to score in the paint. The Bulldogs also got some good looks that didn’t fall.
That conspired to produce a low-scoring first half in which Moniteau took a 14-13 lead at the break.
The teams combined to shoot 22 perfect from the field in the first half and were 1-of-10 from the free throw line.
Redbank Valley (5-0) came out of the locker room to start the second half and quickly went on a 5-0 run to take an 18-14 lead.
But Moniteau didn’t buckle and drew even at 21-21.
“We could have folded there very easily,” Arblaster said. “We didn’t. We fought back and played a good game.”
Kendall Sankey came up big again inside for Moniteau with 10 points and 14 rebounds to lead the Warriors.
She also helped Moniteau climb ahead by four in the fourth quarter with an over-the-should layup in the paint.
Allie Pry also drained a pair of key 3-pointers in the final quarter.
“Teams are going to make or shoot,” Arblaster said. “I told her, ‘You’re gonna have to step up.’”
Moniteau led 34-30 with 1:36 remaining in the game, but Redbank closed it out with six straight points.
Four came from Huffman in the post, where she flourished during crunch time.
“She’s a great player,” Arblaster said of Huffman. “We didn’t adjust quick enough when we should have — front her — and we didn’t change to that quick enough.”
Huffman was still doubled and sometimes tripled down low. It didn’t matter. She was able to muscle up shots and have them fall.
It also helped that Redbank was determined to keep feeding her the basketball in the waning moments. There was no mystery as to where the basketball was going on Bulldog possessions.
“We talk to the girls all the time about once we find something that we like, we keep going back to it until the other team shuts it down,” said Redbank Valley coach Chris Edmonds. “They played Alivia tough and she made her take some difficult shots. Luckily, she made a few for us.”
And Harmon made one big one.
The sophomore, who has been a scoring machine for the Bulldogs this season, was held to five points. No two points were bigger for Harmon this season than her game-winner on a running layup in the lane in the final seconds.
“Mylee’s shots weren’t dropping at the beginning, but I kept encouraging her throughout the course of the game, telling her to keep her head up,” Edmonds said. “Whenever she had that chance to help the team, she finished.”
Moniteau did manage to get a final shot, a deep 3-pointer from near the Warriros’ bench from Allie Pry at the buzzer, but it didn’t draw iron.
Still, despite the loss, Arblaster was pleased with how her team — which features five juniors in the starting lineup — played against the favorite to win the District 9 Class 2A championship.
“I’m happy with our performance and our effort,” Arblaster said. “We didn’t give in.”
Allie Pry added nine points and Catherine Kelly seven points and nine rebounds for the Warriors.
Caylen Rearick pitched in eight for Redbank Valley, which was happy to escape with a win against a team Edmonds has a feeling the Bulldogs will see a lot of this season.
“This was the first battle,” Edmonds said. “We’ll probably play them a few more times this year.
“At the beginning of the week, we talked about adversity,” the coach added. “They had a little bit of adversity tonight and at the end, they were able to pull out a win.”
Redbank Valley, Keystone, and Union/A-C Valley sports coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Heeter Lumber.
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