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Lewistown hosts Greenwood Tuesday.

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LEWISTOWN - Entering the Panther Club Holiday Classic with a 2-2 record, few gave the Shikellamy girls basketball team a chance to get by first-round opponent Southern Huntingdon - a team that made it to the Class AA semifinals a year ago. But a victory over the Rockets on Monday night set the stage with the host Panthers in the title tilt.

And on Tuesday, the Braves rode the momentum that they had built the night before to a 58-51 triumph over Lewistown despite the fact that the visitors had one starter ejected and two others who fouled out.

It wasn't the majority of the game, but only the first few minutes of both halves that did in the Panthers.

"I told them after the game to take the first three minutes of each half - we were down 13-2 (in the first) and I think they scored the first 10 in the second half," Lewistown coach Kevin Kodish said. "Right there in six minutes of clock time, three minutes in each half, it's 23-2. That was your game right there."

The game started off for Shikellamy in the exact way that any coach would like as each member of the Braves' starting five connected for field goals in the first two minutes of play.

After Kodish called a timeout to regroup his young squad, the Panthers quickly got back to the game that the Lewistown faithful are used to seeing - and it started with Cheyenne Stonerook.

The junior used her size and athleticism to break through the Braves defense time and again for the remainder of the quarter. After one field goal, Shikellamy decided to make Stonerook earn her points at the free throw line. But she was more than successful at the charity stripe - converting 5 of 6 in the opening quarter - to help her team close to within 15-13 before the first eight minutes were over.

Lewistown kept its momemtum for the duration of the second quarter as it outscored Shikellamy 16-6. Stonerook added nine more points in the frame, including five more from the foul line.

It was also the second quarter that raised the level of emotion for the rest of the game.

First, the Panther bench was called for a technical foul after arguing a foul. Then after a whistle had stopped play later in the quarter, Shikellamy's Dana Hall was ejected from the game in addition to receiving a technical for apparantly striking Lewistown's Clarissa Adams with a closed fist.

To top off an exciting eight minutes, Logan Snyder connected from well beyond the arc as time expired in the half to give the home team a 29-21 halftime lead.

When the teams returned though, it was Shikellamy's Kelly Bickel that made everybody aware that an 8-point lead might not be enough for Lewistown. The Braves senior scored the first six points of the third and finished with 10 for the quarter. Megan Slonaker also controlled the paint in the third by adding five points and keeping Lewistown's offense at bay with Stonerook on the bench in foul trouble. By the time the final quarter rolled around, Shikellamy had outscored the Panthers 21-10 and had retaken a 3-point lead.

The Braves nearly increased their lead to dougle digits, but Slonaker's fifth foul and 14 missed free throws in the fourth quarter alone allowed Lewistown to cut the lead to four in the waning minutes. But Stonerook fouled out soon after, leaving the desperate Panthers to fire low-percentage shots from long range.

"We're a young team and we're going to make some young team mistakes, but I'm happy with their fight," Kodish said. "They kept battling back and we had a chance at the end if we could have got another shot or two to fall, but they're correctable errors and that's the good thing."

Stonerook finished with a game-high 19 points for Lewistown while Adams registered 14 in defeat. Bickel's 17 led the way for Shikellamy while Alexis Angstat added 15.

Lewistown (5-2) returns to its home floor on Tuesday against Greenwood at 7:30 p.m.