Middletown, Pa. - Kaitlyn Carmo (Palmyra, Pa/ Palmyra) went 10-11 from the charity stripe while grabbing 11 rebounds for a solid double-double performance Saturday January 4th against the Salisbury Seagull's.
The Lions had not seen competitive play since their December 13th loss to Lancaster Bible. Hoping to get the New Year started off right, the women were in the gym heavy this week building up to their conference match up against the Seagull's. The first half was a slow, but scrappy effort from both teams. Kiara Carter (Bronx, N.Y. / Milton Hershey) was extremely impressive getting up high to grab eleven rebounds in the first half and diving to the floor to win many loose balls for Harrisburg early on. With 8:41 to play Jasmine Yanich (Harrisburg, Pa. / Susquehanna Township) scored two of her nine points on the night to tie things at 13.
The Seagull's responded with a 9-0 run over the next three minutes and finished the final five of the half pretty much even to go into halftime up 33-25. Despite being down eight at the half, all the Blue and White needed to do was find a little more energy and hit a couple of shots to be right in the mix.
As the second half got started, it was Salisbury that came out hitting shots. They used an early 14-5 run that finished off with a three pointer with 14:37 to go up 47-30. Harrisburg made some substitutions hoping that someone would step up and make a couple of key offensive or defensive plays, but no-one did. The clock wound down and the Lions eventually fell 70-57 without making the run we were waiting for to make it a winnable game.
Salisbury outshot the Lions today in all categories except for from the free throw line, mainly thanks to Carmo's 10-11. The Seagull's went 8-28 from behind the arc compared to Harrisburg's 3-16 and shot 49% from the field compared to the Lions 37%. This proved to be just a little too much to overcome for the home squad.
Regardless of the tough team loss, Diaper dandy Kaitlyn Carmo continued to shine for Harrisburg. Today she scored 12 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, had two assists, and one steal. Her effort combined with Carter's gutsy play was just not quite enough to handle the Seagulls overall effort.
Harrisburg is now in the thick of their season with little time to look anywhere but forward. They travel January 8th to face off against Southern Virginia before heading home to host Christopher Newport Saturday January 11th.
