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By JOHN ERZAR jerzar@leader.net
Sunday, March 09, 2003 Page: 3C
WILKES-BARRE – In a quiet hallway underneath the Wilkes University gym,
Dallas guard Meredith Lacey and forward Jackie Hardwick tried to explain what
had transpired during 32 frantic minutes of basketball a floor above.
Nervousness, then confidence, then fright played head games with the
Mountaineers at times during Saturday afternoon’s PIAA Class 3A girls opener
against Palmyra.
Lacey and Hardwick admitted as much.
“They couldn’t miss a shot. They couldn’t miss a shot,” Lacey said. “We
went cold, then we panicked and forced shots.”
“It was very frustrating,” Hardwick added.
In the end, though, it was very rewarding as Dallas withstood an unexpected
Palmyra comeback for a 64-59 victory.
District 2 champion Dallas (23-5) will play District 1 runner-up Nazareth
Academy (20-8) on Wednesday at a site and time to be announced. Nazareth
Academy defeated District 3 third seed ELCO 41-38.
District 3 sixth seed Palmyra ended its season at 23-6.
A few minutes after Lacey and Hardwick departed, Dallas coach Joe Noon
stood in the same hallway, staring at the scorebook as if the final score
scribbled within it would disappear much like his team’s comfortable lead
during the game.
“I don’t want to go through that again,” Noon said. “We had them. We had
a game plan down, we had everything going for us, we had them by 10 at
halftime. Then we came out in the third quarter and fell apart.”
Noon pretty much summed up the third quarter, except for the fact that
Dallas had a 13-point lead, 34-21, at intermission after scoring the half’s
final 10 points.
Hardwick, who scored a game-high 19 points and was fine after banging her
head on the floor late in the game, matched a couple of early Palmyra baskets
in the third quarter.
No problem, it seemed. Even when Palmyra went on one of those brief runs
that usually indicate the team didn’t quit under dire circumstances, Dallas
recovered quickly and held a 45-32 lead with 2:38 left in the third.
But then what seemed like a harmless free throw by Jess Uhrich triggered 15
consecutive Palmyra points to end the quarter. The Cougars outscored Dallas
26-11 during the period by shooting 10-of-15 from the field.
Like Lacey said, they couldn’t miss.
Erin Ensminger then drained a three-pointer to start the fourth quarter,
giving Palmyra a 50-45 lead.
“You can’t take the human element out of basketball,” Noon said. “The
kids panicked and that was it. But we got them back together.”
The uniting force was the press, and Dallas started beating Palmyra to the
ball and in transition. The Mountaineers regained the lead for good, 57-56, on
Hardwick’s three-point play with 1:57 to play.
“The key was we pressed,” Lacey said. “We pressed, they panicked and
they forced their shots.”
Dallas’ Shannon Thomas kept the lead intact in the final 32 seconds with
five points, including two from the foul line with seven seconds left that
sealed Palmyra’s fate. She finished with 16 points.
“We all worked so hard for this and we weren’t going to let it go so
easily,” Hardwick said.
The game was the first state appearance for Dallas’ all-junior starting
lineup. The five received strong support from their three subs – senior Kelly
Brzozowski and sophomores Cory Patton and Megan Savage – who outscored
Palmyra’s bench, 15-2.
Uhrich led Palmyra’s second-half rally by scoring 15 of her 17 points in
the final two quarters. Kaitlyn Stoner added 14 points and was troublesome
inside before fouling out with 1:57 to play.
“We dug ourselves a big hole in the first half,” Palmyra coach Ron Berman
said. “To our girls’ credit, coming back from 13 points with the team I got
showed a heck of a lot of class.
“But at the same time you spend a lot of energy doing that, and (Dallas)
was much fresher down the stretch.”
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