CONGRATULATIONS, LADY PANTHERS, ON ANOTHER GREAT SEASON. THANK YOU SENIORS -- HANNAH, KAYLA, MAKENZIE AND ALEXIS! YOU HAVE SHOWN GREAT LEADERSHIP AND YOU WILL BE MISSED NEXT SEASON. GOOD LUCK IN THE FUTURE!
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LEWISTOWN LADY PANTHER BASKETBALL - TRADITION NEVER GRADUATES!
24 CONSECUTIVE WINNING SEASONS
14 DISTRICT 6 AAA FINALS APPEARANCES IN 15 YEARS
PIAA STATE CHAMPIONS 1997 AND 1998
PIAA STATE FINAL FOUR 1997, 1998, 2003, 2004, 2005
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DISTRICT 6 CLASS AAA GIRLS’ BASKETBALL
A final push
Second-half strike sends Lady Panthers to title game
Gordon Brunskill
Centre Daily Times
STATE COLLEGE — Bellefonte held the lead over Lewistown for nearly three quarters, but there was always the feeling it was a tenuous advantage.
There was the feeling the Lady Panthers were sitting in the weeds, ready to strike.
Behind 20 points from Hannah Geedey and 19 from Kayla Espigh — including 27 of the team’s 33 second-half points — Lewistown brought an end to the Lady Red Raiders’ basketball season 55- 45 Friday night at State College’s North Building gym.
“That’s what leaders do in big games,” Lady Panthers coach Kevin Kodish said. “You have a big semifinal where the winner goes to the final and the loser goes home, they did the job and made sure we got to the finals.”
The opponent will be familiar after cross-town rival Indian Valley dropped Forest Hills 46-43 in Friday’s other semifinal to set up the District 6 Class AAA championship matchup Wednesday night at St. Francis University.
“This is an excellent game to win going into district finals,” Geedey said. “The seniors and I were talking, this was going to be our last game if we lost, so everybody put it on the line.”
Cheyenne Stonerook added eight points for Lewistown (17-7), which split its regular-season series with both Bellefonte and Indian Valley.
Liz Wortman and Amber Haslet each accounted for 13 points for the Lady Raiders (18-5), with all of Haslet’s netted in the first half before she was saddled with foul trouble.
Tyann contributed McDaniel nine points and three assists, Haslet also had three assists and Jena Matter tossed in seven points to go with 14 rebounds and four steals.
The Lady Raiders held their last lead of the game 36-35 after a Wortman layup with 44 seconds left in the third quarter. Espigh responded 15 seconds later with a jumper, and in what was probably the turning point of the game, Geedey drew a foul while trying to heave the ball from about 25 feet away with three-tenths of a second left.
“They usually don’t call fouls at the end like that,” Geedey said. “I tried to lean into her a little bit and they called it and I lucked out I guess.”
The St. Francis-bound guard made two of the three free throws to take the margin to three, and the foul on Haslet for her fourth infraction of the game.
“We were up pretty much most of the first 21/ 2 quarters and the game really changed
on that 3-point shot,” said Bellefonte coach Darin Hazel, whose team beat Lewistown in last year’s district final and advanced to the PIAA quarterfinals.
Geedey then began the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, and after Matter put back a miss on a fast break, Hazel decided to put Haslet back into the game. She was called for a reach-in foul 20 seconds later and was lost for the night.
“Everything changed when Amber fouled out,” Hazel said. “We needed her on the court. We were only down four points, but there was no time to rest her. You can’t get behind any further.”
It was the Geedey and Espigh show from there. The pair accounted for all of Lewis-town’s 16 fourth-quarter points while teaming to make 8 of their 10 free throws.
“Geedey and Espigh got hot,” Wortman said. “Their players stepped up and we couldn’t get the momentum back.”
The Lady Raiders made only 3 of their 11 shots in the fourth quarter while turning the ball over five times and could never muster a comeback. Meanwhile, Espigh hit a 3-pointer and a 10-foot jumper for a 47-38 lead, completing a 12-2 run, and started to bleed the clock.
“That was the change in the game for us,” Geedey said. “It got the momentum behind us, it got the fans and the bench behind us and we didn’t look back.”
Hazel was frustrated his team could not contain Geedey, who was held to two points when the teams met in Bellefonte last month.
“If you allow Hannah Geedey 10 seconds to dribble the ball, there’s nobody that stays with her,” Hazel said. “I’m disappointed in that aspect.”
Haslet was on fire in the first half, sinking three 3-pointers, but the Lady Raiders had trouble supplementing her offensive efforts, especially with several missed layups, and could not build a lead larger than five points.
“We knew once we started hitting them in the first half they were going to come out on us,” Wortman said. “We thought we could get them on the inside, but we didn’t have it.”
Despite an 18-win season and a No. 1 seed for the playoffs, It brought an end to the Lady Raiders’ season earlier than the finals for the first time since 2004.
“They worked hard and did everything I asked,” Hazel said. “We lost four starters from last year’s team, we went 18-5.”
Lewistown ends loss streak with a passion
By DREW PELLMAN, Sentinel sports reporter
LEWISTOWN - Entering play on Monday evening, Kevin Kodish and the Lewistown girls basketball team found themselves in very unfamiliar territory.
After the Panthers lost four of their last five games, including three in a row, the team was out to prove that they still are one of the elite teams in the area. It was visiting Tyrone that was in the unenviable position of having to play a team with this much motivation.
And although the Golden Eagles kept within striking distance through three quarters, the Panthers broke the game wide open in the final frame to finish off a 71-51 Mountain League victory.
"You want to get back on track as fast as you can," Kodish explained. "We lost three ballgames in a row - I can't even tell you the last time we lost three ballgames in a row. You have to go way back for that. It seems like you haven't won in forever when you get in a streak like that."
And judging by the start of the game, his players wanted to get back on track just as badly.
"After our recent struggles, it might have been a little bit of an ugly win, but a 20-point win is a beautiful win when you've gone through the last week or two weeks that we have. So it's good to get back on the winning track and pick up a victory tonight."
Senior Kayla Espigh took it upon herself to get the Panthers off to a fast start. After Lauren Coleman hit the evening's first shot, Espigh went off for nine points in the quarter - and none of them from her traditional spot outside the arc.
"She (Espigh) tried to mix it up and see if she could get to the line a little bit," Kodish said. "If they're overplaying her 3-point shot she's got to be able to put it on the floor and take it to the bucket inside. I think she was looking to create a little bit more tonight and kick it to someone else if she was picked up then."
Tyrone tried its best to respond, but was having a lot of trouble breaking the full-court press that Lewistown was putting on them. That press caused several first-half turnovers, leading the Panthers to a 16-9 lead after one quarter.
Hannah Geedey got herself involved with the Panther offense in the second quarter, where she recorded all seven of points on the night. But the story of the second was the battle between two players wearing uniform No. 30. Tyrone's Marah Hawes and Lewistown's Rebecca Knudsen were undoubtedly the offensive stars in the frame, scoring a combined 21 points.
"I thought (Knudsen) had a real nice game for us off the bench," Kodish explained. "We were working her hard on her posts moves so we can get her up and she can be a solid varsity contributor. She came off the bench and did some nice things for us. (Hawes) is a nice player for them - she had 27 against us up there and 25 here tonight."
After taking a 35-28 lead to the locker room at halftime, Lewistown had all intentions of breaking the game open in the third. Coleman once again found her offensive rhythm as she added a pair of 3-pointers in the frame, but the Golden Eagles had no plans of going away that fast. Hawes added six consecutive points and Rachel Emigh hit her first of three long-range shots to keep it to a manageable eight-point deficit with just one quarter to play.
But as the teams hit the floor for the final eight minutes, Lewistown left no doubt as to what the outcome of the game was going to be. Espigh regained her offensive touch to add nine more points - which just happened to be the same number of points the whole Tyrone team would muster. Tyrone's hope of a comeback disappeared when Hawes fouled out of the contest with 3:28 remaining.
Espigh led the Panthers (8-4) with 23 points on the evening while Coleman recorded 13 and Cheyenne Stonerook 11. Hawes finished with a game-high 25 points for the Golden Eagles.
"This was the start of a big week for us," Kodish said. "We're going to Central Mountain Wednesday for a make-up game and we go to Bellefonte on Friday, so these are big ballgames - all of them."
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Lady Panthers Come Up Big with Treys
LEWISTOWN - "We had a very, very good shooting night tonight." Those words from Kevin Kodish summed up Thursday night's 71-50 Lewistown girls victory over Huntingdon.
The Panthers scored 48 points in the first half to give them a commanding 20-point advantage at the half. Unfortunately for the visiting Bearcats, it would only get worse.
"Our long-range shooting was definitely on tonight," Kodish explained. "But it was really a coming out party for Cheyenne Stonerook. She had 13 points and at least that many rebounds - we're looking for big things out of her in the future."
Lewistown hit nine three-pointers on the evening - each one coming from its two most consistent scorers, Hannah Geedey and Kayla Espigh. Espigh finished with 23 points on the night while Geedey broke through for 20.
As for the unbeaten Panthers, Kodish certainly likes what he's seeing out of his group.
"If you're five for five you have to be pleased," he explained. "We're seeing more consistent plays at both ends of the floor, but we want to keep getting better. If the girls are willing to work we'll get it done."
Lewistown (5-0, 4-0) travels to Central on Saturday evening.
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ESPIGH AWARD
Lewistown senior scores 1,000th point in victory
By BRIAN COX, Sentinel sports reporter
LEWISTOWN - Just watching Lewistown and Bellefonte play basketball, it's easy to see why the two teams have met in the last four District 6 Class AAA girls championship games.
Both teams played stingy defense, gave up their bodies time and again for the loose ball and ran up and down the floor for 32 minutes in an effort to get the other squad to give in.
Neither did - and when all was said and done Lewistown was left with a 38-34 Mountain League win over its biggest rival of the past few seasons.
The win was made even more special for the Panthers (4-0) when senior guard Kayla Espigh became yet another 1,000-point scorer that Kevin Kodish has coached.
"Kayla's come up and played four solid years of varsity basketball for us," Kodish said. "It's great to see her do it at home. It was a nice night for Kayla and a super achievement. Any time you can get 1,000 points it's a great accomplishment."
Espigh - a team captain - tallied her 1,000th point on a free throw in the second quarter.
"I was really excited when our Central Mountain game (Thursday) got cancelled," Espigh said. "The fact that we were playing at home against Bellefonte did excite me. But I just wanted to win tonight and the 1,000 points just came with it."
But the game didn't look great for either side early on.
"When you have two teams with the history that we do going against each other the way we do the last several years, intensity is high," Kodish said. "It's a battle. Lewistown-Bellefonte is always a battle."
The two teams played for more than five minutes following the opening tip before the first whistle was blown and in that span, neither side could get much of a rhythm going offensively.
"The big difference was that we went 4-of-26 from the 3-point line," Bellefonte coach Darin Hazel said. "If we make some of those shots, we win that game."
It was paritially because of the solid defense and partially by missed shots, said both Kodish and Hazel - albeit with contrasting styles.
Lewistown's tough 2-3 zone was forcing the Red Raiders into bad shots.
"(Bellefonte's) Jena Mater's gotten off to a very good start for them this year and we held her to eight points tonight. We wanted to keep her in single digits if possible and we were just able to do that."
Meanwhile Bellefonte's tenacious man-to-man kept Geedey and Espigh from getting too many open looks.
"I thought they played terrific," Hazel said. "I talked to them about how proud I was of their defense and how hard they played. Nobody can question our effort tonight. We really got after it."
The Red Raiders and Panthers were knotted at 7-7 eight minutes in - but Lewistown's struggles ended with the first quarter.
Hannah Geedey began to feel it offensively as she singlehandedly dropped nine of the Panthers' 17 points in the quarter. With the outpouring of points from Lewistown, Bellefonte had to do what it could to remain within striking distance.
"They have a little bit more firepower from the outside than we do," Hazel said. "We said if it was a low-scoring game, we'd have a great chance of winning. We did everything we wanted to do, but we just didn't make shots."
Four diffrent Red Raiders (2-1) managed buckets in the second, including a layup by Mater as the buzzer sounded to cut the lead to seven at the break.
And when the third quarter began, it was Bellefonte's turn to pour it on offensively.
The Red Raiders did their damage from beyond the arc, connecting four times to cut deep into the Lewistown lead.
But the Panthers managed to do enough to maintain the lead. Espigh's five points helped Lewistown escape the period with a 33-29 lead.
But the fourth quarter belonged to the Panthers, especially on the defensive end. Bellefonte could muster just a single basket from the field and only five down the stretch as Lewistown played keep-away with the ball, leading to a key early-season win for Lewistown.
"I was just happy we picked up with our defense in the fourth quarter," Kodish said. "I thought we were giving them some open looks in the third and we tightened up a little bit defensively and made enough plays down the stretch to win it."
LEWISTOWN - The Lewistown Panthers used a 26-point first quarter on their way to a dominating victory over Milton in the championship game of the Lewistown Tip-off Tournament Saturday night.
After scoring 30 points in the first quarter Friday night against Bald Eagle Area, Lewistown lit up the scoreboard early and often Saturday. The tournament champs also used some scrappy defense in coasting to the 73-40 victory.
Three Panther players combined for five 3-pointers in the opening quarter, including two each by Kayla Espigh and Makenzie Knable, while holding the Black Panthers to a combined 9 points.
"After scoring 30 in our opening game, it was great to see us get another great start with 26 in this one," Lewistown coach Kevin Kodish said. "We like to run the floor and get easy baskets. We were able to do that from the start tonight."
The second quarter saw much of the same, but this time it was tournament MVP Hannah Geedey leading the way for Lewistown. Geedey scored half of her 22 points in the second, including three treys. The Panthers tallied 12 three-point goals in the game.
"Our girls get their energy from their play," Kodish said of Geedey and Espigh. "Once they get going the rest of the girls pick up their play to meet them."
Milton's Amanda Reich did all she could to keep pace with Lewistown in the second quarter by scoring six of her 10 points, but the Panthers offense was just too strong. Lewistown went into the half with a convincing 43-17 lead.
The lowest output for Lewistown came in the third quarter, with the host team putting up a relatively meager 14 points. Even with the low output by Panther standards, Milton was still unable to cut into the lead, as the Black Panthers were held to eight in the quarter.
Espigh, the tournament's Outstanding Offensive Player, got back on track in the fourth quarter, hitting another three and putting up 11, matching Milton's entire offensive output in the final frame. Ellyn Geedey hit her second three in the final frame as the Lewistown offense continued to click.
"I like to say that if we had a 10-second shot clock we wouldn't want it to go off before we get a good shot," Kodish said. "Our offense plays off our defense by running the floor and getting good looks. We are off to a good start."
Espigh led all scorers with 23, while Hannah Geedey was right behind her with 22. Melissa Balliet led Milton with 15.
Along with Geedey and Espigh garnering tournament awards, Clarissa Adams was named to the All-Tournament Team and Ellyn Geedey took home the Sportsmanship Award.
Lewistown's game with Bald Eagle Area on Friday was a league contest, putting the Panthers at 1-0 in the league and 2-0 overall.
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Lewistown 86, Bald Eagle Area 55
LEWISTOWN - Lewistown's girls basketball team kicked off their season in impressive fashion Friday with a 86-55 rout of visiting Bald Eagle Area in the first half of the Panther Club Tip-Off Tournament.
Leading the way for the Panthers, senior Kayla Espigh tallied 30 points in the victory while fellow senior Hannah Geedy added 25. Each girl also drained four shots outside the arc to complement successful nights from the field.
"We want to limit our opponents to one shot, keep a fast pace and get the ball to our shooters when they're hot. That's how you win basketball games," Lewistown coach Kevin Kodish explained. "That is what we did tonight."
The Panthers will play Milton's Black Panthers tonight at 7 in the tournament championship.
LEWISTOWN - Lewistown Panthers senior Hannah Geedey revealed her future plans on Friday afternoon before a large audience of friends and family at the Lewistown Area High School.
The four-year starter for the Panthers girls basketball team signed her letter of intent to continue her career on the court at Saint Francis Univeristy as a member of the Red Flash women's basketball team.
"As Hannah's coach, I'd like to say that Lewistown High School - it's teachers, students and staff as well as all Panther fans - would like to congratulate and honor Hannah for her outstanding high school career," Kevin Kodish said. "It took a lot of work for Hannah to get here this day and everyone in the Lady Panther basketball family is very, very proud of her. Not many people realize the many extra hours of effort that Hannah put into her basketball career. It's a wonderful thing that Hannah can stand here today and confidently express her college choice."
Geedey made a verbal pledge over the summer to second-year coach Susan Robinson Fruchtl, who is a former player for Penn State's women's basketball squad.
"Hannah is one of those players who puts the team before herself. There are 'we' players and there are 'I' players," Kodish explained. "And Hannah is a 'we' player all the way. She really is a true leader and cares about how the team is doing. Actually, when she was coming up through junior high - we had to yell at her because she never shot the ball. She'd always enjoy passing the ball to
someone else."
Kodish went on give some of Geedey's current statistics through three complete seasons on his team.
"In her career right now, she has scored 761 points which is outstanding in itself," Kodish explained. "But she's also had 587 assists - so she's produced almost 2,000 points in her career going into her senior year. She's also added well over 200 rebounds and has been an excellent free throw shooter and also from the field. It's been fun watching her dedicate herself to excellence."
As for Geedey herself, this can be considered nothing less than a dream come true.
"When I first started out, I just thought 'I will see where this goes'," Geedey explained. "But ever since I was in middle school I have had the dream of playing D-I ball and I have worked hard ever since."
Among many others, Geedey credits Kodish for helping her get to this point.
"He has always had faith in me," Geedey said. "He put me on the floor as a freshman and he was patient with me went I made mistakes - and still is. He's like a second dad to me."
Fortunately for the community, there is still one more upcoming season to watch Geedey and the rest of her teammates as they prepare to try for another District 6 championship.
"Obviously I want to have a good year and I think we can do that," Geedey said. "I think we need to have some people step up because obviously we are going to be a young team, but I think we're going to get that district title again. I'm really looking forward to the season."
As for her coach, Kodish drew the biggest laugh of the afternoon as he cut off his guard by joking that "it'll probably all come down to coaching."
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Espigh is headed to Mansfield
LEWISTOWN - Lewistown will have yet another alumnus playing college basketball.
Kayla Espigh has signed a letter of intent to play at Division II Mansfield on the women's basketball squad, choosing the Mountaineers over Kutztown and a number of other Division II and III schools.
Kayla is the daughter of Tracy and Laurie Espigh.
"I've literally watched Kayla grow up," Lewistown girls basketball coach Kevin Kodish said. "She came to all the games her sister (Alicia) played and followed the team. It's been a very fun experience and it's nice to see her get rewarded for all her hard work."
Espigh will follow in the footsteps of her older sister who will be a senior on the Mountaineers this season.
Mansfield is a member of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference, considered as one of the tougher Division II conferences in the country.
"The PSAC is a tough conference," Kodish said. "Cal (California (Pa.)) is a tough team that won the national title a few years back. Ship (Shippensburg) was in the title game a few years ago, so this league is good."
A likely big reason Espigh was sought after by Mansfield would be her ability to score.
"You can count on Kayla to put points on the board," Kodish said. "She has a very good shooting percentage. She stretches things out for us because other teams don't leave her alone. She's always had an excellent shooter's touch. There's been a lot of growth in her (the past few years). She could have her best season of all this year."
Espigh will receive a partial scholarship.
This makes two current Lewistown players that will play college basketball in 2009. Hannah Geedey signed with St. Francis (Pa.) earlier in the week.
"We are very proud of our program as a whole," Kodish said. "We definitely put them through the paces and develop them and they work very hard."
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