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READING – This was a team that didn’t understand the meaning of the word quit.
Witness only Liz Taliaferro coming up with a steal at midcourt and racing in for a layup at the buzzer even though the outcome of Friday night’s PIAA Class AAAA quarterfinal game against Central Dauphin had already been decided.
While most teams would have been content to simply let the final seconds run off the clock, the Cheltenham Lady Panthers aren’t most teams – a fact coach Bob Schaefer acknowledged as he headed to his team’s final post-game meeting after the Lady Panthers fell to the Lady Rams 75-68.
“We went awfully far for a bunch of tiny kids,” the veteran coach said.
The Lady Panthers – whose tallest regular measured in at 5-9 - closed out the season with a dazzling 27-3 record, and no one had to look far to figure out the key to this team’s success.
“We just played with heart, knowing anything can happen,” senior captain Shayla Felder said. “Small or big, heart is within, and that’s what kept our team going.”
And no one personified that heart more than Felder, who - although just 5-2 - is fearless. It didn’t matter to the senior captain if her opponent was 5-4 or 6-4, she attacked the basket.
In Friday’s season finale at Reading High School’s Geigle Complex, Felder scored a team-high 24 points, which included four three-pointers, against a Lady Ram squad with three starters 5-10 or taller.“We didn’t worry about how big the players from other teams were – it’s a game, and you play the game to win,” Felder said.
Ciara ‘CC’ Andrews, the Lady Panthers’ rising sophomore star, calmly poured in 20 points off the bench, and junior Tiffany Johnson added 14 points in a gutsy effort. Senior Kira Ogden – the Lady Panthers’ tallest player at 5-9 – pulled down 13 rebounds to go along with seven points.
For a Lady Panther squad whose trademark is its pressure defense, those are numbers that will add up to a win against most teams, but on Friday night, it wasn’t enough to offset the brilliant 40-point, 21-rebound effort of University of Maryland-bound Alyssa Thomas.
“She’s amazing,” Ogden said. “She’s a really good player. We made her work for every basket, but she’s amazing.”
Thomas was – in a word – unstoppable, displaying the kind of moves rarely seen at the high school level, and in a dazzling second-quarter effort, she scored 19 points, sending the Lady Rams into halftime with a 34-28 lead.
“It was very frustrating, but we just had to keep going,” Felder said. “There was nothing we could do, you know. She’s a D-1 prospect.”
Felder, who is planning to take her talents to Kutztown, might not have put up 40 points but was impressive enough to draw a full scholarship offer from a Division 2 college coach in attendance.
“He said told me, ‘Even if (Shayla) doesn’t come to my school, I’m so glad I got to see your team play and see what you got out of those kids,’” Schaefer said.What Schaefer got out of his ‘kids’ was an effort so relentless, so gutsy that he could do nothing but praise their performance.
“I’m not the least disappointed in our team,” he said. “I thought our game plan was good, and there’s no question about the effort – everyone here knew those kids played their hearts out and played beyond what anybody thought they could.
“I’m sure most people were shocked when they saw our starting lineup come out on the court, and yet there they were playing with them and for a little instant were actually up a point or two. I congratulate them. They have a nice team, and they did a nice job of getting (Thomas) the ball, plus some of their shooters made some shots they had to make.”
Monet Constant – who is 5-8 and along with Ogden spent the night battling Thomas – put the Panthers on the scoreboard when she banked a shot home on her team’s first possession. The Panthers led 4-2 after an Ogden putback, and a Felder three made it 7-4 game. Ogden buried two from the foul line to make it a five-point game, and the Panthers led 11-4 after a bucket by Felder midway through the quarter.
It was still a seven-point game (13-6) when – after a Felder steal – Andrews scored on a pull-up off the dribble. By the end of the quarter, the Lady Rams had cut that lead to 14-10, and then Thomas went to work.
The senior star scored the next 11 points for her team, but the Panthers refused to fold and trailed by just one (19-18) after Felder scored on a tough shot in traffic. It was still a 25-23 game after an Andrews three, but Karyn Purcell answered with a trey at the other end.
Thomas turned a Cheltenham miss into a layup at the other end, and after Johnson scored on a pull-up in the paint, Thomas went back to work, scoring back-to-back buckets to put her team on top 34-25.“She just killed us everywhere,” Johnson said. “She’s taller than everybody, she posts up - we could not stop her.”
A bucket by Johnson was followed by a Felder steal, and after Felder sank one-of-two from the foul line, it was a 34-28 game at halftime.
Central Dauphin still led 50-43 after a Purcell fast break bucket late in the third quarter, but Johnson scored, and after a Lady Ram miss, Ogden converted a putback for the Lady Panthers. Another Central Dauphin miss set the stage for a bucket by Felder, and the Lady Rams held a slim 50-49 lead heading into the final quarter.
On the Lions’ opening possession, Constant tipped a hustle rebound to Andrews, who raced in for a layup to put the Lady Panthers on top 51-50 with 7:17 remaining in the game. That’s when Thomas and company went to work.
The senior point guard sank a pair of foul shots to put her team back on top, and by the time the Lady Panthers scored again when Felder buried a pair from the foul line, the Lady Rams – thanks to a 14-0 run – led 64-51. Thomas accounted for eight of those points.“Let’s face it – she was carrying the team on her shoulders,” Schaefer said. “She’s the kind of player that can do that.”
Purcell, who scored 10 of her 17 points in the final quarter, accounted for the other six points, and the Lady Panthers would get no closer than seven the rest of the way.
“They’re a wonderful team,” Schaefer said of Central Dauphin. “I’m not going to take anything away from them, but I think our kids really lived up to their billing that they’re a great group of hustling little kids that play their hearts out.”
“I’m very proud of our team’s effort,” Ogden said. “We always tried, even to the last basket when Liz stole the ball and made the shot. We never gave up.
“It’s disappointing to see it end, but we put our hearts out there and tried our hardest. We left it all on the court. There’s nothing you can do about that.”
CENTRAL DAUPHIN 75, CHELTENHAM 68
Central Dauphin 10 24 16 25-75
Cheltenham 14 14 21 19-68
Central Dauphin (75) – Sarah Dowhower 1 5-8 7; Alyssa Thomas 14 12-14 40; Karyn Purcell 7 2-2 17; Samantha Noss 1 0-0 2; Caitlyn Bassett 3 0-0 6; Gabrielle Scott 0 0-0 0; Emilee Salinger 1 0-0 3. TOTALS 27 19-24 75.
Cheltenham (68) – Monet Constant 1 0-0 2; Tiffany Johnson 4 4-6 12; Kira Ogden 2 3-4 7; Shayla Felder 7 6-10 24; Austen Hamler 0 1-2 1; Liz Taliaferro 1 0-0 2; Ciara Andrews 8 2-2 20; Christina Coleman 0 0-0 0; Artavia Sheffield 0 0-0 0; Lorraine Oliver 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 16-24 68.
3-point goals: Central Dauphin – Salinger, Purcell. Cheltenham – Felder 4, Andrews 2.
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