Central Dauphin East defeats Downingtown West

READING - The Downingtown West girls' basketball squad surprised a lot of people just by qualifying for the PIAA Class AAAA state tournament.

Last night, a berth in the quarterfinals was there for the taking. But the Whippets shot the ball horribly, gave up too many second-chance buckets, and committed 15 first-half turnovers. The result was a 40-34 loss to Central Dauphin East in a second-round matchup at Reading High's Geigle Complex.

Overall, Downingtown West shot 12 for 54 (22 percent) from the field, including 3 for 17 from three-point territory. West was 7 for 14 from the free-throw line.

"This was the wrong night for the ball not to go in the basket for us," Whippets coach Dave Johnson said.

West senior guard Jordan Stevenson netted nine of her 12 points in the first half. She missed her first seven second-half shots, all treys, and finished with a 5-for-16 effort.

"I kind of got frustrated with the ball not going in," Stevenson said of the second half. "That made me press harder and things got even worse. I couldn't find a rhythm."

In a quarterfinal on Friday, Central Dauphin East will meet William Allen, which defeated Spring-Ford, 60-58, last night.

Down 20-16 at intermission, Downingtown West (18-13) started the second half with a 7-0 scoring run. Hurt by seven turnovers, Central Dauphin East (23-7) went almost six minutes without scoring.

"Our kids are resilient," Johnson said. "They've been in too many battles this season to give up easily."

Central Dauphin East was ahead, 28-23, early in the fourth quarter. Despite their sloppy play, the Whippets closed the gap to 30-27 when 5-foot-10 junior Isabel Scott made two free throws with 4 minutes, 12 seconds remaining.

The Panthers made 9 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. Hitting only 13 of 51 field-goal attempts, they were lucky to advance.

Danielle Everson, a 5-11 junior, paced District 3's runner-up with 19 points, eight rebounds, and three blocked shots. Sophomore guard Kathryn Lytle chipped in 10 points off the bench.

"I look at us and Downingtown West as being similar teams," Central Dauphin East coach Greg Potteiger said. "We knew they were pretty good at running their half-court offense, so we didn't want a slow game. We wanted to go up and down with them."

Junior guard Amanda Donia paced the Whippets, who placed seventh in the District 1 playoffs, with 13 points and nine rebounds (five on offense). Scott, junior guard Kelly Coker, and 5-9 sophomore Jessica Renaud each collected six rebounds.

Downingtown West 8 8 7 11 - 34

Central Dauphin East 11 9 5 15 - 40

DW: Jordan Stevenson 12, Kelly Coker 4, Isabel Scott 5, Amanda Donia 13, Laura Foti 0.

CDE: Elyse Irvis 2, Kimberly Regets 4, Danielle Everson 19, McKenna Regets 2, Kirstin Selvey 3, Kathryn Lytle 10.