ST. MARYS — DCC battled through a tie at the end of the first and pulled away at the half to earn the Allegheny Mountain League Girls Title Tuesday.
The game, previously scheduled for Monday, was postponed due to weather. The boys’ AML Championship game between ECC and Johnsonburg will not be played, as the D9 playoffs for the boys start Wednesday.
St. Marys’ Raechel Braun opened scoring with a successful free throw a little over one minute into the game. A DCC basket came immediately after, putting DCC ahead 2-1.
The Lady Flying Dutch took the lead again with a three from Sophie Surra, but DCC immediately answered with a basket to tie the score at 4-4.
St. Marys Taylor Gornatti put up a three next, with four minutes to go in the quarter, giving the Lady Dutch a 7-4 advantage. However, that only held for a minute and a half before DCC’s Hanes poured in a three to tie the score at 7-7. DCC used a basket and successful free throw from Emma Elinsky to gain a 10-7 lead, but St. Marys’ Braelyn Beck managed to put up a three and tie the score 10-10 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter saw Gornatti sink a basket, followed by Caskey to give St. Marys a 14-10 lead. However, Emma Elinsky answered with a basket and another successful free throw to cut the lead to one.
DCC then used a three from Ella Elinsky to take a 16-14 lead, which was immediately answered by St. Marys’ Beck to put the Lady Dutch ahead 17-16.
DCC used back to back baskets to lead 20-17 with 3:43 to go. Hansloven sank two free throws to cut the lead to one, 20-19.
The remaining two minutes saw back-and-forth scoring until the 26-second mark, where DCC used a basket and free throw from Jillian Morgan and a basket from Brooklynn Baummer to take a 27-21 lead into the locker room at the half.
DCC continued to build on that lead in both the third and fourth quarters, coming away with a 48-34 victory and the AML Title.
St. Marys will face Bradford as part of a D9 Playoff double-header Thursday at Kane High School. The girls play at 6 p.m., while the St. Marys boys face Bradford at 7:30 p.m.
