Uniontown girls advance to YC tourney final

YATES CENTER -- Abbie Smith put Uniontown's girls into the finals of the Yates Center Tournament by scoring on a runner in the lane with 11 seconds remaining here Thursday night, giving the Eagles a 48-47 victory in the first game of the championship semifinals.

It was the second time in as many games that a game went down to the wire for the Eagles (3-0), who reached the semifinals by prevailing over Sedan, 56-50, in overtime Tuesday night.

Uniontown will play in Saturday's championship game at 6:15 p.m. in Norris Gymnasium. Their opponent will be the winner of Thursday's Yates Center-West Elk game, which was not known when the Tribune went to press.

The Eagles were down by 7 points at halftime, according to head coach Ken Holt. They fought back in the third quarter and the fourth featured several lead changes.

"Candice Clayton hit both ends of a one-and-one with about 40 seconds left to put us up by one," Holt said. "Then they scored with 18 seconds left to go ahead again and we called time out."

The Eagles committed only 14 turnovers and outrebounded Cherryvale, 35-31. Ermel and Smith each blocked 3 shots as well.

Mary Reily led Cherryvale with 20 points.

On Tuesday night, Sedan rallied from a 10-point halftime deficit to outscore the Eagles 35-25 in the second half -- only to see Uniontown post a shutout in the overtime period.

G.A. Tucker of Cherryvale hit a guarded 3-pointer with two seconds left to force the overtime with the score tied at 50-50.

Uniontown beat Sedan despite committing 27 turnovers and going just 5 of 22 at the free-throw line.

"Poor free-throw shooting just about did us in," Holt said. "We could have had a couple of opportunities to put the game away but we couldn't make free throws."

Ermel led the Eagles with 19 points and also hauled down 18 rebounds, a huge effort Uniontown needed.

"Abbie got a couple of early fouls and Hayden Rathbun was home with the flu," Holt said, "which created some rotation problems. Hope Jurgensen gave us a big game off the bench."

Jurgensen added 11 points to the Eagle effort. Smith finished with 13 points and 8 rebounds herself.

Chelsie Wade finished with 11 points to lead the Blue Devils. Tucker finished with 10 along with teammate Sarah Buck. Tucker hit two 3-point shots.

The Eagles outrebounded Sedan, 44-28, in that game.

Uniontown's boys lost to Sedan, 58-57, Tuesday night to fall to 0-2. No report from that game was received by the Tribune. The Eagles will play a consolation semifinal game tonight at 8:30 p.m. in the Norris Gymnasium against Crest. That was the first loss in a regular-season game for the Lancers (2-1) since falling to Yates Center, 40-34, in the finals of this tournament two years ago. Since then, Crest had won 38 consecutive regular-season contests.

The tournament concludes Saturday.

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Tuesday's Game

UNIONTOWN: Ermel 9-12 1-5 19, Smith 6-10 1-3 13, Esslinger 4-12 2-5 11, Poyner 4-8 0-2 8, Jurgensen 2-3 0-3 4, Shook 0-1 1-3 1, Harper 0-3 0-0 0, Clayton 0-4 0-1 0. TOTALS: 25-63 5-22 56.

SEDAN: Wade 4-14 2-4 11, Tucker 4-15 0-2 10, Buck 4-5 2-3 10, McDonough 3-9 2-3 8, Mullendore 1-7 2-4 4, Allison 1-1 2-4 4, Chrisman 1-5 1-3 3. TOTALS: 18-56 11-23 50.

Uniontown...... 11 14 12 13 6 -- 56

Sedan......... 9 6 19 16 0 -- 50

Three-point field goals: Uniontown 1-7 (Esslinger 1-4, Harper 0-3), Sedan 3-10 (Tucker 2-6, Wade 1-1, Chrisman 0-1, Mullendore 0-1).

Total fouls: Uniontown 17, Sedan 21. Fouled out: Buck.

Rebounds: Uniontown 44 (Ermel 18), Sedan 28. Assists: Uniontown 16 (Esslinger 5), Sedan 11. Turnovers: Uniontown 27, Sedan 25. Steals: Uniontown 14, Sedan 0.