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A 20-point third quarter propelled the North Penn-Mansfield Lady Tigers past Cowanesque Valley 47-43 on Thursday, January 17.

CV jumped out to an early 4-0 lead but a rebound and layup by JoAnne McNamara got the Lady Tigers on the scoreboard. After Mansfield tied it at 4-all CV’s Makayla Vargeson broke the tie with two left-wing three-pointers, giving the Lady Indians a 11-6 lead after the opening quarter.

Mansfield made a run in the second and started chipping away at CV’s 5-point lead. Baskets by McNamara, Jaime Palmer, and Lizzi Welch led to 10 points on the offensive end, while the Lady Tigers’ defense held CV to just two field goals and 7 points in the quarter to trail 18-16 at the half.

The Lady Tigers cut the lead to a point early on a foul shot by McNamara but CV pushed the lead back to three on a turn-around jumper by MiKarra Allen then later to 22-17 on a baseline jumper from Delaney Doan.

That’s when the Lady Tigers started making their run for the lead.

A baseline jumper off an inbound by Welch got the lead back to three points then a rebound by Palmer and left-handed layup at the other end of the court cut the lead to 22-21. Palmer drew a foul on the play and hit the foul shot to tie it at 22-all. Both teams traded buckets before an Emma Palmer shot tied the game back at 28-all. From there, Mansfield went on a 8-0 run to close the quarter to lead 36-28.

The fourth quarter featured a combined 23 foul shots. With Mansfield leading 39-31 a basket by Karmen Short cut the lead to 6 with under 4 minutes remaining. A steal by Vargeson got the lead back to within 5 at 41-36. CV hung around and battled back to within 2 points with under 40 seconds left on another Short basket, making it 45-43. Mansfield, however, would go on to seal the victory from the foul line.

McNamara led all scorers with 17 points, Jaime Palmer contributed 11, and Welch finished with 8 to lead North Penn-Mansfield.

Vargeson led CV with 13 points and Short added 12.

“Coach Vargeson and CV really deserve a great deal of credit for their game plan tonight,” said Tiger head coach Jason Dominick. “They played with a ton of energy and executed well. I was really pleased that our girls responded from an early deficit and didn’t stop playing with intensity. We were able to force a few turnovers that really helped. Furthermore, all of our players were ready to fulfill their role. We had some foul trouble, an injury and each of the players that went into the game gave quality minutes. Our team should be really proud, considering that this was our tenth win and have already exceeded the number of wins from last year. We just need to remember to stay motivated because we have not accomplished our goals yet.”

The win improves North Penn-Mansfield to 10-3 overall and 7-2 in the NTL Small School Division standings while Cowanesque falls to 3-8 overall and 3-5 in the NTL Small School Division.