31/12/2025
Photos by Tim Weight
By Kenny Varner
LEWISTOWN - Playing with patience on both sides of the ball Tuesday, the MIfflin County girls was able to shake off a late run by the young and improving Central Mountain girls basketball team.
With the maturation process continues for the Central Mountain girls basketball team.
Coming into the season, the Wildcats were a very young team but now they are starting to gel as they went head-to-head with Mifflin County Tuesday evening after staying within striking distance for most of the night.
However, the veteran Huskies team would pull out the win late, topping the Wildcats 49-36.
“We are really working hard on playing smarter. Smarter with the ball. As long as we have it they can’t score type of mentality there at the end of the game,” said Mifflin County coach Crystal Weaver. “Got to give credit to Central Mountain’s Reagan Weaver. She’s really good and we focused on taking things away from her and making the other girls do other things. But I was really proud of our girls efforts offensively and defensively, especially in the second half. Now in the third quarter I thought we had a little bit of a lull. They started making a little bit of a run. But then our defense came back and we were smart. I think that’s our key thing.”
Mifflin County was led offensively on the night by Jayda Kanagy with 19 points. Teammate Mackenzie Peachey was sizzling from the foul line en route to finishing with an 11-point effort. She went 9-for-10 from the charity stripe with just one field goal. Mifflin County went 17-23 from foul line and the smaller crew also pulled down 20 rebounds while Central Mountain had 19.
From three-point line the Huskies had a strong night dropping six.
Leading the charge Tuesday offensively for the Lady Wildcats was Reagan Weaver who posted a team-high 15 point performance. She also finished with a double-double as she brought down 11 boards in the loss. Weaver was a strong force inside the paint on both sides of the court.
Teammate Camdyn Weaver also finished in double digits with 12 points.
Payton Williams rounded out the team’s scoring as she fell a point short of double digits posting nine.
“We got down in the first half but we were able to comeback to within one point in the third quarter,” said Central Mountain assistant coach Jaime Kessinger. “We just need to continue moving the ball, taking good shots and really gel as a team. That’s what’s missing right now. We got two freshman that have played together, we have a couple upperclassmen that have played together. They’re have not really gelled yet. I think once we more team chemistry we’ll be in a better position to finish these games.”
The Wildcats opened the game going on a 4-0 run.
Both times Central Mountain went inside to Weaver inside and she was clutch posting the first two buckets.
MIfflin County’s Jayda Kanagy cut the lead to one as she stepped back behind the three-point line and hit nothing but net. Kanagy had a game-high 19 points on the afternoon. She had three triples on the night.
But the Wildcats continued its strong start. This time they worked the ball to Camdyn Weaver. Weaver hit a jumper. On the next possession, she stole the ball and took it in for a lay up, extending the lead to 8-3.
The Huskies battled back to take the quarter outscoring Central Mountain the rest of the way in the first going on a 13-4 run.
Going into the second, Mifflin County led 16-12.
Mifflin County was able to keep the momentum, keeping the Wildcats offense at bay and taking a 27-19 advantage going into the intermission.
Coming out of the half, the Wildcats would make their move.
After an opening triple by Mifflin County’s Kanagy, the Lady Wildcats went on a 9-2 run in a very defensive-laden quarter.
The offense was able to open up their scoring with another pass and bucket by Weaver underneath, cutting it to 30-21.
Mifflin County took their lead back to double digits when Mackenzie Peachey hit a bucket to go ahead 32-21.
Payton Williams’ triple brought the Lady Wildcats even closer, making it a 32-24 MIfflin County lead.
After a Huskies turnover, the Wildcats worked the ball back inside as Camdyn Weaver hit a runner in the lane to cut it to six.
Rounding out the third quarter scoring a Reagan Weaver shot underneath, making it a 32-28 to start the final stanza.
Central Mountain kept things going as Payton Williams started the scoring on a textbook give-and-go, closing it to 32-30.
Central Mountain tied the contest at 34.
But that would be as close as the Wildcats would get as the Huskies would take back the momentum in the final minutes, going on a 15-2 run to finish it out.
But it wasn’t before the Lady Wildcats did everything they could to complete the comeback but it just wasn’t to be on this night.
