Tyrone girls' shooting prowess ends Central Cambria's season in semifinals
Mar. 7—TYRONE — Central Cambria coach Brittany Sedlock was talking with her staff before the game about finding her way around the back halls of Tyrone Area High School to get from the locker room to the gym.
"I'm already directionally-challenged," Sedlock joked.
Unfortunately for Sedlock, her Red Devils ran into a foe with a beeline on its intended destination: a District 6 Class 4A championship.
After near-misses in pursuit of D6 gold the past couple of years, Tyrone looks like its going to be a tough out for anyone. The Golden Eagles victimized Central Cambria with a barrage of 3-pointers in Saturday afternoon's semifinals in ending the Red Devils' season, 66-38.
"They really shot on fire. We were expecting No. 3 (Stephanie Ramsey) to come out on fire, which she did. Even when we contested her shots, they went in, and she's the one that got their team going," Central Cambria forward Abby Walwro said. "When they broke our 1-2-2, we didn't really know how to recover from that. We tried every other defense.
"Some of our shots were falling, but we couldn't get the putbacks. They boxed us out, too. They're just an all-around solid team. We had stuff work for us, but we gave it our all."
Walwro and junior classmate Hannah Ray fronted the Red Devils with 12 and nine points, respectively. Central Cambria was down 12 after buckets by Jojo Woods and Walwro to start the second half. Then the Eagles pulled away, scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter to make it a 25-point game.
"We were anticipating (Tyrone all-star forward Jaida) Parker being tough. We didn't want to go man because she's so tough going to the basket," Sedlock said. "I knew they were good 3-point shooters, but I was hoping and praying tonight would not be a super-on night. And it was a super-on night."
Tyrone improved to 17-3 by going 9-for-18 from behind the arc. Ramsey made six treys en route to scoring a game-high 20. Emma Getz drained three 3s and finished with 20 points.
Parker netted 14 points to go along with three blocked shots and a handful of assists from the high post as the Eagles worked the ball around. Tyrone will meet Bedford, a 50-25 winner over Central, on Thursday to play for the District 5-6 championship that's just eluded it the past two years. They lost in the semis two years ago and in the finals last season.
"That's been our motivation. It's like our comeback year. Comeback after last year," Ramsey said. "We knew we could have made it further last year, and it really (stunk) what happened. This year, we want to make it further and just win it all."
Still alive in the state tournament when the 2019-20 season was shut down, Tyrone hasn't lost to a District 6 team all year, but Golden Eagles coach Luke Rhoades was wary of the Red Devils.
"They're very athletic, very well-coached, very disciplined and they play physical basketball," Rhoades said. "They were going to battle and, regardless of what the score said, this was a battle."
The Red Devils only trailed by a point on Megan Stevens' bucket midway through the first quarter. That changed quickly, though, as Ramsey made three 3-pointers in the last two minutes to spearhead an 11-2 run to end the frame — including one off a Kayelin Gibbons' pass from the paint with just seconds remaining to make it 20-10. It was 35-19 at half.
With just one starter returning, Central Cambria still finished 7-8.
"I really did not expect this. I think we came out a lot stronger than a lot of people anticipated," Central Cambria senior Tristan Moss said. "We had a very close bond. We played together forever, so we had good chemistry."
