By Tom Robinson, NEPASportsNation.com
HERSHEY – Ciera Toomey scored 14 points and grabbed 21 rebounds Thursday night as Dunmore grabbed the first girls team state championship in school history by ending River Valley’s 20-game winning streak with a 42-30 victory in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 3A basketball title game at The Giant Center in Hershey.
Tristan Canavan and Sophia Talutto added 10 points each as Dunmore led the entire way, just as it did for all five games of the state tournament.
The Lackawanna League Division 4 and District 2 Class 3A champion Lady Bucks shook off 3-pointers 25 seconds apart by Emilee Staats and Ava Persichetti to pull the Panthers within 27-23 with 4:50 left in the third quarter. They allowed just seven points over the final 12:50.
Toomey led Dunmore to a 38-25 rebounding advantage, including 17-5 offensively. She also had five steals and three assists along with blocking two fourth-quarter shots.
“From the second I stepped on the floor freshman year, this is what I dreamed of,” said Toomey, a University of North Carolina-bound senior.
Ava Persichetti scored 18 points to lead River Valley, but Cadie Lewis made the sophomore 1,000-point scorer work for those points. Persichetti finished 7-for-22 from the floor, including 2-for-8 on 3-pointers.
Dunmore, which had lost in its three earlier trips to the state final, finished 27-3.
