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EJ staves off rally by Southern

COAL TOWNSHIP — Southern Columbia coach Kim Chaundy wanted her team to play the entire game with the same vim and vigor her girls played with in the fourth quarter.

Unfortunately, Southern instead had to rally in the fourth quarter, and that rally fell short against East Juniata, which defeated Southern 29-26 to advance to the District 4 Class 2A girls basketball championships against either Sayre or Line Mountain.

East Juniata clinched a state berth by winning the semifinal.

East Juniata gave Southern fits all game long, as Southern was never able to crack East Juniata’s 2-3 defense. On the other hand, East Juniata’s infinite patience on offense allowed it to slowly break down Southern’s defense and get open shooters in the low post and in the paint.

“(Southern had a) super, uber-aggressive defense and we knew that,” East Juniata coach Travis Quici said. “We knew with the 2-2-1 coming out … We knew the 3-2, they’re going to be trapping. We knew in man-to-man where they’re going to be jumping passing lanes. We knew we probably had some back door opportunities.”

Southern (15-9) limited the damage East Juniata (16-8) was able to cause, holding East Juniata to just four points on 4-of-7 shooting from the charity stripe and 0-of-7 from the floor in the fourth quarter. Southern was able to pull within one point with 50 seconds to go in the game off an open shot from Sarah Rodriguez.

But East Juniata bled the clock for 26 seconds while Southern fouled East Juniata into the 1-and-1 free throw bonus. And then Southern sent Lauren Amey to the free throw line with 24 seconds left in the game.

Amey drained both shots, propelling East Juniata to a three-point lead — an insurmountable lead given Southern shot just 34 percent from the floor, and went 0-for-5 from outside the arc.

“Where was the sense of urgency that we got in the fourth quarter which we were trying to get out of them the entire game,” Chaundy said. “If we would have kicked that up a little bit when we were trying in the second and third, potentially things could have gone different.

“We were cold. We had a very poor shooting day today and it was at the wrong time.”

East Juniata was able to crack Southern’s defense behind expert ball handling from Amey, who notched five assists on the night, all of them coming from shooters in the low post.

“A lot of times this year, when we worked the ball, we got good shots. We kind of made (Southern) work on defense,” Quici said. “We wanted to get them away from the basket so we could get shots to the basket. Get them away from the basket, get them back to the basket so we could get jump shots.”

That kind of patience from East Juniata, which possessed the ball for almost minutes at a time, was something Southern was not used to seeing from any team.

“They really understood and were patient waiting for the absolute shot that they wanted. Definitely not what we are accustomed to seeing,” Chaundy said. “I think when we stayed disciplined and all of us did our jobs, we were okay. When one of us missed an assignment, that’s when they scored.”

District 4 does not announce upcoming rounds in advance, but the championship game is expected to be on Wednesday. Location may be decided by the opponent — fellow Tri-Valley League team Greenwood is in Northumberland County, while Sayre is in the Northern Tier.

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