Daniella Ranieli scored 20 points and made half of Pittston Area’s eight 3-pointers Thursday night as the defending champion Lady Patriots clinched no worse than a tie for first place in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 girls basketball with a 44-33 victory over visiting Dallas.
Pittston Area, the No. 2 Big School girls team in the Riverfront Sports Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, improved to 11-1 in the division with the district’s best overall record at 19-1. The Lady Patriots need a win in either of their last two games or a Wyoming Valley West loss to repeat as champions.
Wilkes-Barre Area was eliminated from contention with a 52-39 victory. Tunkhannock threatened to do the same to Wyoming Valley West and end the title race early, but the Lady Spartans rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to win, 56-51, in overtime.
Wyoming Valley West is at Pittston Area in Wednesday’s regular-season finale.
Pittston Area and Dallas were tied, 4-4, after one quarter Thursday when Ava Callahan’s 3-pointer accounted for the only basket for the Lady Patriots.
Callahan also had 3-pointers in the second and third quarters while scoring 11 points.
The Lady Patriots got 15 of their 17 second-quarter points from beyond the arc while taking a 21-16 halftime lead.
Ranieli had three of her 3-pointers in the second quarter and Kallie Booth, who finished with eight points, added one.
Pittston Area extended the lead to 32-23 going into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Patriots closed out the win when Ranieli scored nine points and Booth went 3-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter. Ranieli’s points included 2-for-4 foul shooting.
Elizabeth Viglone led Dallas with 11 points. Molly Walsh added 10 and Victoria Spaciano had 8.
The Lady Mountaineers fell to 5-7 and 10-10.
