Forest Hills girls start fast to put away Cambria Heights
Feb. 23—SIDMAN — After having a stressful week trying to lock up the top seed in the District 6 Class 3A girls basketball playoffs — and having to win two close games in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference playoffs — Forest Hills wasted no time putting away an old conference foe Thursday night.
The Rangers jumped out to a 20-point lead and never looked back as they pounded No. 8 seed Cambria Heights 62-30 in a home quarterfinal playoff game.
"We really wanted to come out and take (Cambria Heights) down quickly," Forest Hills senior guard Anna Burkey said. "We've really been working on (starting strong) out of the gate, getting on our (opponents), and playing well."
Their reward will be a visit from fellow LHAC member Central Cambria, which who eliminated Huntingdon, Monday night at home.
The Rangers not only had an early outburst, but it was also a balanced once as they had eight players record a bucket in the opening stanza. Burkey powered much of that as she got a steal and converted a turnaround jumper for two of her game-high 12 points.
"We knew about (Sienna Kirsch), big scorer," Forest Hills coach Carol Cecere said.
"We just came out and do what we typical tried to do with the pressing, and it went in our advantage."
The Highlanders didn't register a field goal until late in the first on a Kirsch bucket on her way to tying for the game's leading scorer with 12 of her own.
"They're big, they're fast, they're strong and they can shoot," Cambria Heights coach Isaac Vescovi said. "They're an awesome basketball team.
"That was probably one of our worst quarters of the season, but give them credit. That was their doing that it was our worst quarter."
Forest Hills piled on from there as Arissa Britt came up with a layup with a little under five minutes to play in the half to give the home team a 31-3 advantage.
Later in the frame, it was Aivah Maul cleaning up an offensivee rebound for the putback and Olivia McLeary adding a jumper late in the half to give the Rangers a 40-8 lead.
"One of our best assets is that everyone can shoot, everyone can drive, everyone can do what they need to do, and that's what makes our team so strong," Burkey said.
Kirsch scored just before the halftime break, but it wasn't enough to prevent the running clock to start the second half.
While the season has ended for the Highlanders, they are in a spot where they will not be losing a senior to graduation. Vescovi is looking forward to taking advantage of the extra year with this year's team.
"We got the entire team back," Vescovi said. "We won four games last year. We won 13 games this year. We're looking to increase on that, keep building good habits for the beginning of the season next year."
