Come this Saturday, the Panthers will find themselves familiar with the sectional final because they’ll be playing in it.

The fourth-seeded Panthers held off the No. 1 seed Ellicottville Eagles 42-38 in the Section VI Class D semifinal on Wednesday at Jamestown Community College.

“These girls have not been in this situation in any sport,” Nobles said about his team’s playoff experience. “They don’t really know how to react or what to expect. The old days Pine Valley it was just the continuity of ‘it’s your turn now.’ So this is really special for this group.”

Having lost the first two meetings in the regular season, Pine Valley found itself in the driver’s seat for most of Wednesday’s contest. The Panthers defense limited the Eagles to single-digits scoring in the first three quarters to build a 28-19 lead headed into the final quarter of play.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Ellicottville’s Allison Rowland knocks the ball away from Pine Valley’s Margaret King.

“We knew we could play defense, our problem is scoring,” stated Nobles. “Our full-court pressure held them in place and didn’t let them set up their offense a lot.”

Ellicottville’s offense struggled most of the game and when the shots finally started to fall it was too late in the game. The Eagles best quarter came in the fourth and most of the points came from Emilee Ruiz who scored 9 of her 11 points in the final quarter.

The Panthers defense did a good job of limiting Ellicottville’s Dalayla Alexander and Allison Rowland who most of the ball movement went through. In the fourth quarter, both Alexander and Rowland fouled out of the game, leaving the comeback up to Ruiz who finished with 11 and Ryah Quinn who finished with 9 points.

“Emilee is a senior and she has really stepped up this year,” Ellicottville head coach Tracy Rozler said about Ruiz. “I really do lean on those starters and when they get in foul trouble, we’re in trouble. They play aggressive and sometimes it gets the best of us.”

The main obstacle in the way of an Ellicottville comeback was Pine Valley’s Danielle West. West hit several big shots down the stretch for the Panthers, draining four 3-pointers and scoring 15 of her 20 points in the second half. Trista Farnham also scored 8 of her 14 points in the second half.

OBSERVER Photo by Christian Storms Pine Valley’s Mattison Cadle loads up a pass while being defended by Ellicottville’s Ryah Quinn during Wednesday’s Section VI Class D semifinal at Jamestown Community College’s Physical Education Complex.

“She is our shooter,” Nobles said about West. “She’s just a freshman. If she’s open, we’ve got full confidence in her to take the shot. It was just a big lift every time she hit a three, every one was important, it gave us a little boost.”

Both sides struggled to find the basket in the first half, which was evident by the halftime score of 16-11 in favor of Pine Valley. However, the Panthers offense started connecting at the end of the first half to build its lead and that momentum carried over into the third quarter.

“When we get a slow start we kind of get down on ourselves,” Rozler said about the Eagles slow start. “It’s hard to get back up on top. I told them at halftime we were still in it and just needed to get fired up. We needed to stop their offense and play good defense and get a few buckets.”

Pine Valley’s lead became too much to overcome and now the Panthers will await the winner of today’s game between No. 2 Panama and No. 3 Sherman at Jamestown Community College at 5 p.m.

PINE VALLEY (42)

Farnham 5 4 14, King 2 0 4, Cadle 0 1 1, Hardy 0 3 3, DWest 7 2 20, Vincent 0 0 0, Kruszka 0 0 0, Hayes 0 0 0, AWest 0 0 0, LTunstall 0 0 0. Totals 14 10 42.

ELLICOTTVILLE (38)

Alexander 2 0 6, John 1 0 2, Quinn 4 1 9, Ruiz 2 7 11, Rowland 2 2 4, Ficek 0 0 0, Leiper 3 0 6. Totals 14 10 38.

3-point goals–DWest 4, Alexander 2.

Pine Valley 8 8 12 14 — 42

Ellicottville 7 4 8 17 — 38