Lebanon girls push winning streak to 10 straight after snapping Ephrata's 10-game victory tear in nonleague showdown

One team kept an impressive streak going.

The other had an impressive streak snapped.

A pair of Lancaster-Lebanon League girls basketball section front-runners squared off in an intriguing nonleague tussle on Saturday afternoon, both trying to keep their streaks alive and kicking.

Lebanon, which is tied for the Section 1 lead, roared to its 10th victory in a row, compliments of a 50-27 victory over host Ephrata, the Section 2 leader, which saw its nifty 10-game winning streak come to a crashing halt.

Lebanon coach Jaime Walborn called it a solid team win.

“We jumped them right away,” she said. “We didn’t wait. We didn’t waste any time. We got the job done. I thought our defense rattled them a little bit in the first quarter. That’s what we do, and we wanted to keep that up.”

Lebanon did, rarely letting Ephrata up for air. The Cedars trailed just once, and then counter-punched with a 14-2 binge to seize control for good.

Lebanon (12-2 overall) did what it does best: Get key contributions from everyone on the floor.

“Balance, balance, balance,” Walborn said. “Everyone chips in at different times when we need something. Everyone brings a different skill set to the team. Sometimes we need a board and an offensive stick-back. Sometimes we need a transition layup.”

Lebanon got those things — and more — against Ephrata.

A sampling:

Olive Brandt scored a game-high 14 points, including three straight dribble-drive layups in the first quarter, when the Cedars grabbed an early 16-4 lead. Brandt’s wing 3-pointer stretched Lebanon’s cushion to 22-4 midway through the second quarter.

Kailah Correa scored nine of her 11 points in the second half, and she piloted the Cedars’ fifth-gear transition ship.

Girls' basketball

Interview with Lebanon's Kailah Correa & Liliana Harrison at L-L League basketball Media Day [video]

JEFF REINHART | Sports Writer

Zariyah Whigham owned the glass; she pulled down 14 rebounds, and two of her four buckets were on put-backs at the rim. Ephrata had no answer for Whigham in the paint.

Jae Burrus was her usual energizer-bunny self, chasing everyone in sight on defense, and she plucked five rebounds. Burrus helped Lebanon force 15 turnovers — six in the second quarter, when the Cedars went 16-5 for a cozy 32-9 lead at the break.

And Liliana Harrison, scoring on an array of spin moves and up-and-under shots in the key, chipped in with 10 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocked shots. She helped the Cedars out-rebound the Mounts 35-23.

“We needed a lot of things to go right,” Ephrata coach Brian Cerullo said. “But we just ripped off 10 wins, and we’re a good team. But there are different levels of good teams when you’re talking about the top of the league. We just got a sampling of that.”

Lebanon is the reigning L-L runner-up, and the Cedars returned four starters from last year’s team, which won the Section 1 title and advanced to the second round of the PIAA playoffs after a glittering 24-0 start.

Plenty of silver linings to go around for Ephrata. When the Mounts (10-2) return to the court Tuesday at Elizabethtown, they’ll still be alone in first place in Section 2. And they got to run with a team they could potentially see again in the league and/or District 3 Class 6A playoffs.

“It was a learning experience,” Cerullo said. “We saw how far we have to go. We’re at a certain level. But there’s another level that we’re trying our best to get to.”

Leah Caldwell scored 11 points and Marie McCracken pulled down nine rebounds to pace Ephrata.