Pictured above: Pittston Area’s Kallie Booth, shown in a file photo, was the winning Luzerne team’s Most Valuable Player.
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
DUNMORE – Luzerne built a big lead with its defense, then turned to Kallie Booth for enough second-half offense to turn back a Lackawanna rally and produce a 96-89 victory in the girls game of the second annual 570 Sports Show Senior Basketball All-Star Games Saturday afternoon at Marywood University.
Pittston Area’s Booth scored 14 of her team-high 18 points in the second half to earn Most Valuable Player honors for Luzerne, which was made up of players from the Wyoming Valley Conference and former conference member Northwest.
Gianna Cafarella from Scranton Prep won the halftime 3-Point Contest and continued that long-range shooting in game action, going 7-for-15 for a game-high 21 while landing the Lackawanna team MVP award. The team was made up of players from the entire Lackawanna League.
Luzerne had a 10-2 run late in the second quarter for a 45-26 halftime lead in the game featuring 12-minute quarters.
The lead reached 23 points early in the third quarter and briefly returned to 22 midway through the fourth.
Montrose’s Mia Snyder hit two straight 3-pointers and Scranton Prep’s Rita Collins went coast-to-coast for a three-point play for nine straight points to start a comeback.
Dunmore’s Cadie Lewis had two 3-pointers, including one from 25 feet to get within eight with 1:22 left, while Cafarella and Valley View’s Molly Murphy hit one each as Lackawanna cut into the final margin.
Booth made a 3-pointer with 48 seconds left to help hold off the late threat.
Along with going 6-for-12 from the floor in the second half, Booth also was the game leader in assist with 6 while pulling down 7 rebounds.
Shelby Ardo-Boyko from Wilkes-Barre Area added 15 points and 7 rebounds in the win.
Wyoming Seminary’s Cassidy Skoranski added 14 points and Lake-Lehman’s Hailey Kline had 12 points and 7 rebounds.
After Ardo-Boyko scored seven straight points in the final 55 seconds of the first quarter for a 22-11 lead, Kline went 4-for-4 in the second quarter.
Kline also hit a clutch 15-footer after Lewis cut the Luzerne lead to eight late.
Wyoming Area’s Anna Wisnewski led Luzerne with nine assists.
Kline and Wyoming Area’s Morgan Janeski each had two steals for Luzerne.
Lewis went 6-for-10 for Lackawanna on 3-point attempts and finished with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals.
Murphy, Collins and Snyder also scored in double figures with 12, 11 and 10 points.
Collins had nine rebounds while Scranton’s Zaliyah Small had eight.
Snyder and Riverside’s Lexi Kostoff joined Lewis with four assists. Caroline Murray from Abington Heights and Murphy joined Lewis with two steals. Murray and Snyder blocked two shots each.
A group of 11 players participated in a 3-Point Contest at halftime, taking 20 shots at a time in one minute.
Snyder led the first round with 10 made while Cafarella, Murphy and Skoranski also advanced.
Cafarella then advanced to the final by making nine and was joined by Murphy, who won a tiebreaker from Snyder. Cafarella beat Murphy, 12-7, in the final.
