EDITOR’S NOTE: The Wyoming Valley Conference held its girls basketball tournament semifinals while the Lackawanna League was completing its girls regular season Wednesday night. While NEPASportsNation.com compiles more complete reports, here is a quick recap of the night’s most important developments.
Pictured above: Mia Ashton
By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
WILKES-BARRE – Division 2’s top two girls basketball teams swept Division 1 during the semifinals Wednesday night to advance to Saturday’s Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament finals.
Division 2 champion and two-time defending tournament champion Lake-Lehman won the opener, 61-43, over Hazleton Area behind 20 points and 5 steals from Brenna Hunt.
Mia Ashton and Jillian DelBalso combined for 40 points as host Holy Redeemer outlasted Division 1 champion Pittston Area, 63-59, in overtime.
Pittston Area had entered the night with District 2’s best overall record at 21-1.
In the Lackawanna League, Division 3 champion Dunmore easily completed a fourth straight perfect season in the division while finishing up its 10th straight championship and Division 4 champion Montrose wound up 11-1 behind a school-record performance by Mia Snyder, who hit seven 3-pointers.
Big starts were again the story of the WVC playoffs.
Lake-Lehman had won a playoff for the Division 2 title Friday when it scored the game’s first 20 points in a 60-46 victory over Holy Redeemer.
In Wednesday’s semifinal, Lake-Lehman again led start to finish after opening leads of 7-0, 11-2 and 17-4 in the first quarter.
Holy Redeemer made its first three 3-point attempts – two by Ashton and one by DelBalso – while taking a 9-0 lead before the midway point in the first quarter. Although Pittston Area eventually caught up and twice led by two, the Lady Patriots never had possession and the lead at the same time.
Lake-Lehman’s Hunt had four of her steals in the first 5:45.
Ella Wilson added 17 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
Hailey Kline grabbed 14 rebounds to lead a 33-25 advantage on the boards that helped Lake-Lehman offset 24 turnovers.
Lia Keefe had seven assists.
Hazleton Area was led by Alexis Reimold with 15 points and 6 steals. Sophia Shults had 13 points and Brianna Kennedy had 5 steals.
Ashton had two blocked shots to go along with her two 3-pointers in the first 3:30 for Holy Redeemer. She finished with 21 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
DelBalso scored 19 points.
Pittston Area got 22 points from Daniella Ranieli and a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds from Kallie Booth.
Ranieli’s drive with 12.1 seconds left forced overtime.
Freshman reserve guard Tessa Cegelka opened overtime with a 3-pointer to put Holy Redeemer ahead to stay.
Meghan Albrecht went 2-for-2 and DelBalso 1-for-2 on free throws in the final minute after Ranieli had nailed a 3-pointer to pull the Lady Patriots within one.
Tristan Canavan and Ciera Toomey each scored six points in a 24-2 first quarter as Dunmore routed Carbondale, 71-25, to finish 12-0 in Division 3.
Canavan finished with 12 points while Toomey and Jackie Brown had 10 each.
Snyder scored 27 points, breaking the single game 3-point record she shared with Dallas Ely, the school’s all-time scoring leader, as Montrose won at Blue Ridge, 58-33.
MORE
Wednesday’s scoreboard: Wednesday’s basketball scores – NEPA Sports Nation.
COMING UP
Return to Basketball – NEPA Sports Nation more-detailed reports on Wednesday’s action.
