The Elba girls basketball team has been a second half team all year, with several comebacks on their resume.
You can add another one as the Lancers had a very large fourth quarter to beat rival Notre Dame 53-48 Tuesday. The win wraps up the Genesee Region League Division II title for Elba, which is 13-0 in the league and 16-2 overall.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 14-4 lead in the first quarter and had a 24-14 advantage at halftime. The Lancers chipped four points off the deficit with a 20-16 edge in the third quarter.
But as always, Elba's depth and pressure defense helped the squad to come from behind for the win. The Lancers scored 19 points while holding the Fighting Irish to just eight points.
"Our press just takes its toll on people as the game goes on," Elba coach Tom Nowak said. "We just have a lot of players and the ability to keep running them in and out and keep them fresh."
Missy Call hit two 3-pointers in the final period. Those six points were all she scored in the game.
Free throws have been the one weak spot for Elba this season, but the Lancers went 5-of-7 in the fourth quarter. Katie Newton hit a pair late and Rachael Cook put them up by 5 to ice the game with two at the end of the game.
Newton scored six of her eight points in the fourth and were led in scoring by Cassy Engle, who poured in 12. Cook had nine points with Katie Newton scoring eight and Sarah Schwartzmeyer pitching in six.
Jill Marshall led the Fighting Irish (11-2, 14-4) with 15 points, with Nichole Hart adding 12 points. Trisha Pike had 11 points and Liz Geandreau added eight points.
The Lancers also maintain the top seed in the Class DD sectionals. Jasper-Troupsburg is 16-1 and trailed Elba by just two seeding points coming into the game.
The Wildcats host Arkport Wednesday and should win, after thumping that team 67-31 earlier in the season. Elba has games with Lyndonville and Lima Christian remaining on the schedule.
"If we want to end up No. 1 we have to win out the rest of our games," Nowak said. "If we slip in a game, we could certainly fall to No. 2 or No. 3. If we would have lost tonight we would have fallen to third. But it was nice to come out and win the league. We were at that point and we wanted to do that tonight."
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Pembroke had the edge in every quarter and dropped visiting Oakfield-Alabama 57-39.
Katie Hackett and Nicole Sharick each had a big game, with Hackett scoring a game-high 18 points with five dimes, three steals and a block. Sharick had seven boards and three assists to go with her 10 points.
Brynne Perfitt had 10 points with Hillary Bates and Sarah Scarbrough scoring nine points apiece for the Hornets (9-9).
The Dragons are now 10-8.
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The Trojans keep holding on to that top seed in Class C with a 57-32 victory over host Attica.
Finnish exchange student Anni Lehtola had a monster game, scoring 24 points with 11 boards and three steals. It was a big rebounding game for Alexander as Katie Kochmanski had 10 rebounds to go with her 10 points and three rebounds.
Chelsea Turcer was also in double figures with 10 points and Anna Dominick was close with nine.
Breanna Hummel had nine points and 10 rebounds to pace the Blue Devils, who fall to 1-18.
Margaret LaFleur pitched in seven points.
Alexander is now 12-4 and maintains a slim lead over Perry in the Class C sectional bracket. The Yellowjackets whipped Mount Morris 68-24 Tuesday.
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Holley trailed by a point when Emily Troup dropped in a 3-pointer with about a minute left, giving the Hawks a 51-47 win over Byron-Bergen.
Corrine Vanschoick had a double-double with 14 points and 14 rebounds and Troup ended the day with 14 points as well.
Julie Brooks had 13 points for the Hawks (6-12).
Rory Partridge had 13 points for the Bees (9-8). Kayleigh Puma had 10 points and Kaylee Amesbury pitched in eight.
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Lyndonville disposed of Wheatland-Chili 51-32 as Molly Burgess scored 16 points and Ashley Mahnke had seven points and 13 boards for the Tigers (8-10).
Lauren Drago scored a game-high 18 points for the Wildcats (4-11).
