Garnet Valley’s Jillian Nagy shoots a 3-pointer against Ceder Crest in the first round of the PIAA Class 6A tournament Friday. Nagy’s defense keyed a 52-34 win for the District 1 champion Jaguars. PETE BANNAN — MEDIANEWS GROUP
By Bruce Adams
District 1 champion Garnet Valley reached a new milestone in its 52-34 win against Cedar Crest in the PIAA Class 6A girls basketball opener Friday at Spring-Ford High School.
With the victory, the Jaguars (27-1) established a school season record for wins for both the girls and boys basketball programs. They now advance to a second-round match Tuesday against the winner of Friday’s Bethlehem Freedom-Souderton contest.
Cedar Crest (19-9), the seventh-place finisher in District 3, committed numerous turnovers thanks to Garnet Valley’s aggressive defense, but kept the score reasonably close for most of the first three quarters with some accurate outside shooting.
At the end of the first quarter, Garnet Valley led by only five points (17-12). It was quite a difference from the Jaguars’ last game, in which Garnet Valley jumped out to an early 20-3 against Neshaminy en route to capturing their first District 1 championship.
“Defensively, we came out strong, got some steals and created some turnovers,” Garnet Valley coach Joe Woods said, “but give Cedar Crest credit, they have some good shooters, and those threes kept them in the game.”