The smell of high school playoff basketball was in the air March 3rd as E-town welcomed Palmyra for a District 3-5A first round clash. The two sides needed all 36 minutes to decide the outcome with the Lady Bears surviving Palmyra's last second three-point heave for a 35-34 victory.

As with any low scoring game, defense played a big roll in determining the winner. E-town held that advantage by holding the visitors to single digits in three of four quarters. That started in the first where E-town used an 11-0 run, capped by an Emma Blyler three-ball at the buzzer, to post a 13-6 edge.

The Lady Cougars were able to flip the game around in the second with 13-3 run. That run ballooned to 22-6 as it extended into the third and pushed the E-town deficit to nine, 28-19. The Lady Bears fought back with a 12-0 run, split into matching 6-0 spurts that closed out the third and opened the fourth. The result was a slim 31-28 lead that E-town nursed to the 35-34 win. Jade Love-Morris led all scorers with 14 while Ainsley Raybold chipped in with eight.

In a year of oddities, the E-town girls' basketball team experienced a rare one, finishing the regular season after kicking off the postseason. Despite playing in a L-L play-in game on February 22nd and a L-L quarterfinal tilt one day later the Lady Bears closed out their regular season slate on February 24th with a 60-39 demolition of McCaskey.

Elizabethtown used monster first and third quarters to leave Lancaster with an easy 21-point win where four of six scorers finished in double-digits. Love-Morris led that quartet with 15-points but it was the work of Raybold and Blyler that helped produce a 23-9 opening quarter run.

The duo combined for 16 of Elizabethtown's 23 first quarter points with Raybold's eight putting her on the way to a 12-point game while Blyler's eight paved the way for her 11-point affair. Love-Morris fronted the 20-9 third quarter charge, collecting nine of her 15 points in the frame. Carly Sedun was the final double-digit scorer, matching Blyler's 11-point effort with Elise Hassinger (seven points) and Taryn Hummer (four points) rounding out the offensive output.

BOWLING

Keep on rolling is a generic catch all phrase used by many, but it has a much different meaning for the Elizabethtown bowling team. The Bears kicked off their postseason journey on February 17th with the L-L Team Championship, had some winter weather delay the singles tournament to the 24th (boy's) and 25th (girl's) before heading right back out for the District 3 Championship on February 27th.

Just three Bear bowlers made the trek to Hiester Lanes in Reading for the District 3 showdown. Eryn Moore repped the Lady Bears while Zach Wentzel and Zach Deardorff did the same on the boy's side. "The kids did well, I think they struggled with spares, but improved from last year," said head coach Frank Telenko of his trio that posted just two combined games over 200 in 18 total qualifying games "We're hoping we can put it all together and qualify for States!!"

Wentzel and Deardorff split those two 200 games with Wentzel's 242 serving as the high mark for Elizabethtown. Despite posting the team's high score for the day, the sophomore still found himself outside the finals cut line. His 1146, put together with games of 165, 242, 186, 196, 182 and 175, slotted Wentzel into seventh place, one spot or 40 pins, outside the finals.

Deardorff's 200 game came in his final qualifying go-round, capping his run to 20th place. The senior posted scores of 171, 167, 160, 166 and 165 in his other five games for a 1029 total.

Moore flirted with 200, posting scores of 195 and 190 in her middle two qualifying games. A slow start gave her a 145-172 opening stretch which was followed by the 195-190 stretch. Moore closed out with games of 164 and 163. Add it all up and the senior posted a 13th place tally of 1029 in her final district battle.

Moore, along with the rest of the Lady Bears, had a more enjoyable time in Palmyra on February 25th. Alaina Telenko, Hannah Griffie and Ally Evans joined Moore at Palmyra Bowling for the Lancaster-Lebanon League Girls Singles Tournament with all four Lady Bears placing inside the top 10.

Moore led the charge by bringing home L-L silver after falling to Aliza Shirk of Northern Lebanon in the finals. After posting a 911 in the opening qualifying round, Moore worked her way to third in the stepladder finals with a 698 in round two qualifying. That meant a match-up and 184-140 win over Garden Spot's Emily See in Moore's first finals match. Up next were back-to-back wins over a pair of Penn Manor bowlers. Moore slipped by Lacey Slaymaker 169-162 in the second round before cruising by Delaney Reitnauer in the quarterfinals. Those two wins setup an all-Elizabethtown semifinal with Moore opposite Telenko, who earned her semifinal spot with a 1654 in qualifying. Moore continued her march to the finals by dispatching her teammate 170-124 but could not carry that momentum into her finals match which went to Shirk by a mere eight pins, 200-192.

Griffie was the next Lady Bear in the final standings, finishing fifth after a 254-209 second-round loss to Penn Manor's Reitnauer. Griffie's 207-144 opening round win in the stepladder finals came at the expense of Evans, setting up Griffie's battle with Reitnauer and slotting Evans ninth in the final standings. Griffie used a 1580 in the qualifying rounds to start the stepladder finals as the fifth seed while Evans started eighth after her 1503 qualifying tally.