When it came time to work through a tie game, on the road, in the final minute against a 10-win opponent with the division lead at stake, the North Pocono girls basketball team was ready.
Toughened up by a grueling schedule in the first six weeks of the season and prepared from the practice time they put in at the foul line, the Lady Trojans thrived with the game on the line.
Kylie Mastillo and Abby Lenchitsky combined to go 7-for-8 on free throws in the last 49 seconds, allowing North Pocono to hand Wallenpaupack its first Lackawanna League loss, 43-38, in a Division 2 game Monday night.
The teams now share the division lead with 4-1 league records, two games in front of two-time defending champion Western Wayne.
North Pocono, which started the season 0-6 and 1-7, has won four straight road games and five out of six overall to improve to 6-8.
“We went through that so that when we got to league play, we were prepared,” North Pocono coach Lauren Carra said.
After losing to Nanticoke in the opener, the other seven losses by the Lady Trojans were all against teams with at least 10 wins and no more than two losses. Four of the opponents are division leaders currently positioned to be top seeds in district tournaments.
“Those really hard, heavy-hitting teams we played at the beginning of the year, if you go back and look at the boxscores, we were in those games,” Carra said of losses to Pittston Area, Scranton Prep, Gwynedd-Mercy Academy, Notre Dame Green Pond, Wilkes-Barre Area, Dunmore and Montrose, teams with a combined 83-11 record. “It was a quarter here and a quarter there where we kind of fell apart.
“Now, the kids are starting to turn a corner and are putting together four full quarters in league play.”
After outscoring Wallenpaupack in each of the first three quarters, North Pocono hit a rough stretch in the fourth, but it lasted minutes, not the entire quarter.
The Lady Buckhorns erased a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit, making it all the way back from being down 12 in the third.
Wallenpaupack tied the game twice in the last three minutes, but North Pocono used clutch free throw shooting to make it through scoring just one field goal in the last seven minutes.
The Lady Trojans broke the press and the Wallenpaupack momentum for a Mastillo layup and 36-34 lead with 2:16 left.
Wallenpaupack’s Grace Steffen worked inside to tie it for the last time 17 seconds later.
Lenchitsky went to the basket and was fouled with 49 seconds left. She made the first to put North Pocono ahead to stay and her miss on the second attempt was the team’s last of the game.
Mastillo got on the floor for a loose ball in the scramble for the rebound of Lenchitsky’s miss and converted that into two free throws.
Aviona Rosenthal found Paulina Schmidt for her only basket with 31 seconds left, bringing Wallenpaupack to within 39-38.
Lenchitsky hit both ends of a one-and-one with 11 seconds left.
After a Wallenpaupack turnover, Mastillo provided the clinchers by making two more with four seconds left, completing an 11-for-15 (73.3 percent) team effort from the line.
“The free throw line was definitely an enemy of ours at the beginning of the season,” Carra said, “but they have put a lot of work in at the free throw line.”
Polishan finished with a game-high 16 points.
Mastillo added 12.
Only four players scored for North Pocono with Amaya Monacelli adding eight and Lenchitsky seven.
Carra credited Monacelli and Celia DeCesare with handling the game’s most important defensive assignments.
“The two of them together did a fantastic job,” the coach said. “They did exactly what we asked.”
Ella Smith led Wallenpaupack with 15 points, including 7 in the fourth quarter. Steffen added 11.
North Pocono’s defensive work showed through early when it held Wallenpaupack without a basket for a stretch of 5:59 in the first quarter.
After Steffen opened the game with a baseline jumper, North Pocono scored the next seven points, including 3-pointers by Polishan and Monacelli.
Wallenpaupack scored the last 7 of the quarter for a 9-7 lead. Steffen converted her own rebound, then Smith scored 5 points in the last 14 seconds, including a 3-pointer to beat the buzzer.
North Pocono opened the second quarter with an 8-1 run to a 15-10 lead on four points each from Mastillo and Polishan.
Polishan threatened to break the game open in the third quarter when her three 3-pointers in a span of 3:22 accounted for a 9-1 run to a 28-16 lead.
Monacelli hit two free throws with 1:45 left in the third to match the biggest lead at 30-18.
Wallenpaupack began working its way back from there.
The Lady Buckhorns scored the last five points of the quarter on a Stefen basket and Lexi Kapschull 3-pointer.
Wallenpaupack’s transition game kicked in during the 10-0, fourth-quarter run to force a 34-34 tie.
Smith took a defensive rebound coast-to-coast, Erika Badner had a breakaway off a steal, Smith hit two free throws, then Smith and Badner each got layups off of steals.
That’s when North Pocono settled down, broke the press for Mastillo’s layup and controlled the ball enough late to make repeated trips to the foul line.
“This is the more important time of the year when you’re getting into league play and getting into districts,” Carra said. “We weren’t going through a weak schedule in the beginning. We wanted to take those hard hits in beginning, so we would be prepared for this time of the year.”
Wallenpaupack fell to 10-4 overall. The Lady Buckhorns came in on a four-game winning streak and with a 6-1 in the previous seven games, losing only to unbeaten Pittston Area.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was created from the reporting of Paul Gerrity.
