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By Kenny Varner

MIFFLINTOWN – They came to play!

In the second game of the rivalry double header, the East Juniata girls fought tooth-and-nail from beginning to end keeping within 10- points for much of their contest against Juniata.

However, the Lady Indians were able to come out in the second half and eventually get its offense going to pull out the 55-35 Tri-Valley League rivalry win over the young Tigers.

“I just think we needed to get going. Having a day off of school yesterday and no practice, I just thought we needed to get in the swing of things,” said Juniata coach Hannah Geedy. “We just  had to get relaxed and play our game and we just had to get that train going.”

Juniata was led offensively on the night by Grace Reinhold and Regan Lowrey who both tallied 14. Lowrey was also honored at halftime for her 1,000 point from her game last week.  Reinhold sizzled from beyond the three-point line posting four. Mylee Landis also netted nine to round out the scoring for Juniata.

East Juniata, who will return everyone but one player from this year’s squad, teams led by the strong inside play of Landyn Cramer. Cramer hit the double-double posting 11 rebounds and 17 points to help keep her team in the game for most of the contest.

East Juniata coach Laurel Amey liked the way her team went out and played against their rivals.

“I thought we battled hard. This is a tough place to play. Hats off to Hannah. She has a good team and they are well coached and are always ready to go“ said Amey. “But I thought my kids got themselves up for this game and left everything they had on the floor. So I am very y proud of them for that.”

In the first, the game started out as a back-and -forth affair.

Lowrey opened the game with a lay in, getting the scoring started.

Juniata followed the Lowrey bucket with a bucket by Grace Reinhold and a foul shot in a three-point play.

With one shot East Juniata cut the lead to two points. Kennedy Seigler -Lewis got open from beyond three-point range and hit the triple, making it a 4-3 contest.

Lowrey put her team back up by four on a shot in the key.

On the next possession, EJ’s Carolyn Dressler brought back to within two on her first bucket of the contest.

But again, Lowrey would extend the game to four as she hit a soft jumper.

Dressler cut thins to within one with 2:14 remain in the period. Dressler popped a clutch triple.

But there was still time and the Indians took care of the last score. Juniata was able to once again get the ball out to Lowrey for the last second bucket.

Going into the second quarter, the Indians held a close 11-8 advantage.

In the second, the Lady Indians slowly started to put some room between them and the Lady Tigers.

But before that would happen, the feisty Tigers were able to take charge early.

Cramer started things with a strong drive to the hoop, and taking the foul on the play. She tied things at 11 with hitting the one-in-one.

Lindsea Gilson gave her team back the lead at the 5:00 mark.

From there, Juniata went on a shooting exhibition as Reinhold hit three triples in four Juniata scoring attempts to extend the Indians lead to 26-14.

That would be the run that Juniata would look back on to see where the momentum went in their corner.

From there, the Tigers went toe-toe with Juniata and only trailed 29-21 at the half.

But in the third period, the Juniata defense held East Juniata to five points while its offense blew up for 17.

Going into the final stanza, Juniata held a 44-30 lead.

From there, the Lady Indians were able to hold onto the victory only allowing five Tigers points in the final stanza while the Indians had 11.

Juniata 55 , East Juniata 35

EJ   8 15   7   5   – 35

JU 11. 18 15 11 –  55

Scoring: EJ – Carolyn Dressler 4 0-0 9, Kennedy Seigler-Lewis 1 0-0 3, Makayla Peters 0 1-2 1, Landyn Cramer 6 5-12 17, Madison Snyder 1 2-2 5. Totals 12 8-14 35. JU –  Grace Reinhold 5 1-1 14, Maura Campagna 4 1-2 9, Regan Lowrey 6 0-1 14, Olivia Mummah 1 0-0 2, Lindsea Gilson 1 0-0 2, Mylee Landis 4 1-2 9, Carolyn Heidenreich 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 3-5 55.

Played but didn’t score: EJ – Haven Smith 0 0-0 0. JU –  Sara Montoya 0 0-0 0, Reagan Burd 0 0-0 0.

Three-point shots: EJ – Dressler, Seigler -Lewis, Snyder. JU –  Reinhold 4, Lowrey