Beaver Falls girls use big fourth quarter to complete comeback win over Ellwood City

ELLWOOD CITY  — One of the first things even the casual basketball observer notices is that basketball is a game of runs.

That knowledge would have done little to prepare the casual fan for the girls’ basketball game between Beaver Falls and Ellwood City at Lincoln High School gym, though, as it had some of the most dramatic swings of momentum of any game anywhere.

Beaver Falls ultimately prevailed 58-53, but it certainly wasn’t easy.

“I know basketball is a game of runs,” said Beaver Falls coach Dom Henderson. “But I feel like I coached three games.”

There were more than enough runs for three games. The home team jumped to a five-point lead before the game was two and a half minutes old… but Beaver Falls had a run of their own and led by three after one – and that was the calm quarter.

In the second quarter, Ellwood City came back quickly to tie but Beaver Falls responded with a 15-2 run and had a double-digit lead at halftime – sort of like the Pitt men did at Duke earlier this week, but the script didn’t follow Pitt’s completely.

“Coach told us that at halftime that they’d come back,” said Beaver Falls sophomore Carla Brown, who tied for game-high scorer with 18 points. ‘We struggle with that sometimes.”

The struggle was real at Ellwood City, too. The host Wolverines had runs of eight and 14 straight points in the third frame and led 45-38 after three quarters.

The break between quarters, though, seemed to ignite Beaver Falls and the Tigers opened with a 10-1 run to take the lead, Ellwood City’s Claire Noble knotted the score with a pair of free throws but Beaver Falls finished with a 10-5 run to seal the win.

“We played hard and we knew we could do it,” said Beaver Falls junior Avina Norman. “Honestly, we’re a very young team and we’re still learning to play together even though we were together all summer, too.”

The young Tigers have learned the benefit of balanced scoring as Norman tied with Brown for game-high scoring honors with 18 – although they did it very differently. Norman had 14 in the first half and four in the second while Brown had three in the first and 15 in the second.

“I tend to heat up late,” said Brown with a smile. “I wasn’t surprised we came back.”

Neither, in fact, was Henderson even though it was, admittedly, a battle.

“We’ve been down 20 and 15 and came back,” said Henderson. “This team is resilient but we have to stop giving up the runs so we don’t have to be that way so much.

“We only have one senior on the team so we’re young but we know what it is. When we rebound we play well and outscore the opponents. We’re not that tall but we’re strong and when we’re winning the rebound battles, we’re winning.

“In this section, every win is big and especially wins on the road.”

Ellwood City can build on the third quarter when the Wolverines scored more than they had in the whole first half. Three players scored in double figures – Noble, a junior, had 16, sophomore Kayla Jones with 13, and sophomore Delaney Sturgeon with 11. Noble also had 10 rebounds to record a double-double.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Beaver Falls girls use big fourth quarter to complete comeback win over Ellwood City