Mia Snyder reached a personal milestone early in the game, then combined with a strong closing team effort defensively to help Montrose match its best state tournament finish ever with a 45-29 victory over Faith Christian Academy Friday night in a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 2A girls basketball quarterfinal at Wyoming Area.
Snyder scored the 1,000th point of her career while helping Montrose build an 18-7 lead after one quarter.
Faith Christian held Montrose to 10 points in the middle quarters and closed to within 2 on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
The Lady Meteors responded by holding the Lions to three points over the final 7:45 and scoreless for the last 5:20.
Snyder, who scored all six of Montrose’s third-quarter points, had eight points in the closing, 17-3 run. She finished with 21, as the only double-figures scorer in the game.
After entering the game 4 short of 1,000, Snyder went right to work, hitting a 3-pointer to open the scoring.
Snyder hit two free throws with 4:06 left in the first quarter, reaching the milestone with the first, and added two more points before the quarter was over.
Paley Adams, who did not score again, also had seven points for Montrose in the quarter.
The teams combined for just seven points in the second quarter with the Lady Meteors expanding the lead to 22-10.
The lead peaked at 28-15 in the third quarter before Faith Christian scored 11 straight points.
Snyder made all four of her fourth-quarter free throws. Substitute guard Gracie Dalton was 3-for-4 while scoring five of her seven points in the quarter.
Faith Christian made three 3-pointers during the third quarter, but just five total field goals in the other three quarters combined.
The Lions, champions of the Bicentennial Athletic League and District 1 Class 2A, finished 21-7.
Lackawanna League Division 4 champion and District 2 champion Montrose (23-4) advanced to play District 6 champion Homer Center (23-7) Monday at 6 p.m. at Central Mountain High School in Mill Hall.
The Lady Meteors, who have never been to a state final, have made it to the semifinals in their last two tournament appearances. They last reached the tournament in 2012.
