Holy Redeemer’s Mia Ashton gets pressured by Lake Lehman’s Molly Jenkins (left) and Ella Wilson during the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 championship game on Feb. 10. Redeemer and Lehman meet for a fourth time at 6 p.m. Saturday at Dallas High School in the WVC Championship game.
Fred Adams file photo | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman vs. Holy Redeemer — Round 4.
Neutral observers who will plunk down $5 for the Wyoming Valley Conference girls basketball championship game will probably like to see a game akin to Round 1 or 2. Lehman fans would prefer Round 3.
Whatever transpires will start at 6 p.m. Saturday at Dallas High School.
Division 2 champion Lake-Lehman brings a 20-4 overall record into the game. Division 2 runner-up Redeemer is 15-9.
The game will have no bearing on the District 2 power rankings, which are based solely on regular-season games. Therefore, Lehman will be the second seed in the D2-3A tournament while Redeemer will be the third. (That also means they can met for a fifth time).
The teams split their first two meetings, with Redeemer winning 48-43 on Jan. 3 and Lehman prevailing 59-50 on Jan. 24. That led to a special playoff game for the Division 2 title that wasn’t so special for Redeemer.
Lehman jumped out to an unexpected 20-0 lead on the way to a 60-46 win. The perfect storm arose from Lehman hitting just about every shot (8-0f-12 in the first quarter) while Redeemer’s misses snowballed. Although there is no archival evidence, it’s probably safe to say it was the worst start to a game ever in Redeemer’s 16-year history.
Redeemer coach John Jezorwski, though, was able to put a positive outlook on the loss. Once the 20-0 aberration subsided, the Royals outscored Lehman and the game resembled the first two matchups.
“We’re not afraid of anybody. We’ll play anybody,” Jezorwski said. “You take that first four minutes out of that last game, we beat them the rest of the game. They blitzed Hazleton (in the semifinals). Hopefully, they don’t blitz us up at Dallas. If they come out and make four of their first five 3-pointers and we miss our first six shots, well then its going to be a long day.
“But if we get the flow and play our game, we’ll give them a good game.”
Redeemer enters off a huge win over Division 1 champion Pittston Area in the semifinals. The Royals won 63-59 in overtime, handing Pittston Area only its second loss in 23 games. Mia Ashton scored 21 points and Jillian DelBalso added 19. Meghan Albrecht added 24.
The Royals’ defense did a strong job slowing down Pittston Area’s dynamic backcourt duo of Daniella Ranieli and Kallie Booth. While they combined for 43 points, Redeemer made Booth earn most of her 21 from the foul line and limited them to a lone field goal in overtime.
Another fast start, albeit unlike the Redeemer game, helped Lehman dispose of Division 2 runner-up Hazleton Area 61-43. The Black Knights jumped to a 7-0 lead and rode a double-digit lead throughout most of the first half. They then hit their first four shots of the third quarter — two apiece by Ella Wilson and Brenna Hunt — to pull away for good.
“I got five kids who play their hearts out,” Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said. “They give you 120%. Everything we do they are totally into. It makes it nice.”
