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TOUGH NIGHT: Central Mountain Wildcats lose 85-19 to Mifflin County High School

Summer Flanagan (5) of Central Mountain High School shoots the ball against Mifflin County in a high school basketball game last night in Mill Hall, PA. CM lost, 85-19. (The Express/Phil Mapstone)

MILL HALL — It’s been a rough start to Central Mountain’s season.

After dropping its first two games of the year, the Wildcats suffered another loss to the Mifflin County Huskies, 85-19.

But after the defeat, Central Mountain coach Terrance Green greeted each one of his players as they exited the locker room. He gave them a fist bump, and exchanged a short conversation with every athlete to highlight what he thought they did well and an area for improvement in their game.

He knows maintaining a positive attitude is pivotal if the Wildcats want to turn their season around.

“We just keep it positive, no matter what’s going on,” Green said. “We look for the positives, and we understand our negatives and how we get better from our negatives.”

Summer Flanagan led the Wildcats with a team-high 11 points. After missing her first few shots, she began to find the bottom of the net and work the glass for layups.

“I was very proud of her,” Green said of Flanagan’s performance. “She’s a shooter. She had a hell of a game tonight. Kudos to her for just taking shots when they were there and just keeping us in it for as long as we could.”

After a quick lay up by CM’s Marissa Moyer following the opening tip-off, the Huskies went on a 14-0 scoring run.

Mifflin County closed the opening quarter with a 28-4 lead. Eleana Eckley recorded 23 points in first period. She finished the night with 38 points.

“Eckley to me is one of the better players in the state,” Huskies coach Roger Herto said. “She had 23 points in the opening quarter and she’s just really playing well now.”

Mifflin County out-scored CM in every quarter and limited the Wildcats to zero points in the final period.

“Our kids shared the ball pretty well, I thought, so we got what we wanted out of the ball game,” Herto said. “Hopefully Central Mountain got some stuff out of this, too.”

LONG RANGE

Mifflin County fancies the perimeter shot.

The team combined for 10 three-pointers in the game, with the bulk of them (6) by Eckley.

Fern Silfies scored 15 points and knocked down four shots from behind the arc.

Mifflin County plays in one of the toughest leagues in the state, so given their level of competition, Herto has found it necessary for the team to develop its outside shooting.

“For us, we spend a lot of time shooting, and it shows,” Herto said. “That credit goes to them. You don’t shoot like that without putting the time in.”

Central Mountain adjusted its schemes on defense, but the Huskies managed to find gaps in the court for uncontested shots.

Central Mountain switched from a two-three zone to a three-two zone. They implemented man-to-man coverage toward the end of the game, but the Huskies are streaky from both mid-range and long range.

“There’s only so much you can do in the game of basketball when a team’s hot,” Green said. “I was impressed by Herto’s team. Eleana Eckley is a good ball player, and [Herto’s] got great complementary players as well.”

WHO’S NEXT?

Central Mountain: The Wildcats travel to DuBois to battle the Beavers on Thursday.

“We’ll get back to the chalk board tomorrow, clean it up, focus on these next two days and come at it against DuBois on Thursday,” Green said.

Mifflin County: The Huskies look to improve its record to 4-0 when the team hosts Chambersburg tonight at 7:30 p.m.

MF 85, CM 19

TEAM SCORING

MF 28 20 26 11 – 85

CM 4 6 9 0 – 19

INDIVIDUAL SCORING

Mifflin County: Eleana Eckley- 38 points, Molly Wagoner- 16 points, Fern Silfies- 15 points, Emma Yeager- 8 points, Hannah Aumilier- 4 points, Jamie Mahigel- 2 points, Megan Harshbarger- 2 points.

Central Mountain: Summer Flanagan- 11 points, Morgan Wetzel- 4 points, Tayln Fredericks- 2 points, Marrissa Moyer- 2 points.

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