Wildcats fight to the finish in CMC championship loss
FREDERICK, Md. — Playing in the Central Maryland Conference championship game for the first time, in front of a packed house at Hood College, things seemingly couldn’t have gone much worse offensively for the Williamsport girls basketball team in its matchup against Linganore on Tuesday.
Consider:
The Wildcats, the Gambrill Division champions, made only three total field goals in the first half.
Their star, senior Paige Smith, got poked in her right eye early in the game and dealt with vision issues the rest of the way.
Smith, who came in averaging 22.2 points per game, didn’t get her first field goal until late in the third quarter.
Yet, somehow:
Smith finished with a game-high 18 points.
And with 3:05 left in the game, Williamsport trailed by only two.
However, the Lancers (20-3), the champions of the Spires Division, pulled away down the stretch to win the overall conference title, 48-38.
“I don’t think one of my teams has ever shot as bad as we did in the first half,” Williamsport coach Kevin Murphy said. “We were 3-for-28 from the floor in the first half, and to say that we were still in the game, down seven (20-13) at the half, was a testament to our ability to play defense. Our defense kept us in the game. That was huge.”
Wildcats fight to the finish
The Wildcats (21-2), who trailed by as many as 11 points in the third quarter, were down 36-28 with 4:56 left in the game.
But after a layup by Amelia Robbins and a pair of buckets by Smith, the Lancers’ lead was 36-34 with 3:05 remaining.
Up 38-34 with 1:49 left, Linganore all but sealed it when Trinity Lindblade drained a deep 3-pointer with the final seconds ticking down on the shot clock, increasing the lead to seven.
“That was a back breaker,” Murphy said. “That was tough.”
From there, the Lancers, being intentionally fouled, scored the rest of their points on free throws.
Trysten Colburn led Linganore with 16 points, while Lindblade finished with nine. The Lancers outrebounded the Wildcats, 35-25.
Ellie Levasseur and Robbins each added six points for Williamsport, while Emerson Shank grabbed a team-high seven boards. Kam Seltzer had four points, five rebounds and two steals, while Robbins and Smith also each had two steals.
“I’m pleased with our effort. We competed,” Murphy said. “But give Linganore credit. They made us play bad in certain areas and beat us up on the boards.
“They did some things that made us rush our shots. Their size, they were the biggest, longest team we’ve played all year. Their length really bothered us.”
Smith shows her toughness
Despite her vision issues, Smith played the vast majority of the game and finally caught some of her trademark fire late, scoring 14 of her 18 points in the final 10 minutes.
“I couldn’t really see. My whole right side was blurry,” she said. “I was just trying to use my left eye as much as possible.
“I was just trying to keep my composure and still play basketball,” she added.
“She played through it. She’s tough,” Murphy said. “But you could tell she wasn’t the regular Paige Smith you normally see.”
Wildcats set to defend region title
Up next for Williamsport are the Maryland Class 2A West Region II playoffs.
After receiving a first-round bye as the No. 1 seed, the Wildcats will host either No. 4 Poolesville or No. 5 Walkersville in a semifinal Monday.
“Losing before the playoffs is never a bad thing because you learn about your team and you also learn what you need to work on,” said Murphy, whose team advanced to the state semifinals last year.
“(The bye) gives us a few days to get healthy, hopefully, and get back after it.”
The Wildcats defeated Poolesville 63-42 early in the season and beat Walkersville twice, 38-32 and 45-37.
“Both are solid teams,” Murphy said. “In the playoffs, in the one-and-done format, anybody can win.”
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Williamsport falls to Linganore in CMC girls basketball championship
