Lake-Lehman guard Lia Keefe sails into the lane for a shot in Saturday’s WVC championship victory over Pittston Area.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman guard Lia Keefe and Pittston Area guard Kallie Booth go after a loose ball in the fourth quarter on Saturday.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman’s Molly Jenkins and Pittston Area’s Ella O’Brien fight for control of the ball in the fourth quarter.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Lake-Lehman guard Ella Wilson (center) has the ball stolen by Pittston Area’s Killie Booth (right) as Patriots guard Ava Callahan comes in from the left.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
Pittston Area’s Leah Zambetti (left) and Lake-Lehman’s Lia Keefe chase a loose ball down the court on Saturday night.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
PLAINS TWP. — Ella Wilson did not need long to put Friday’s 0-for-10 shooting performance behind her.
Wilson buried a 3-pointer from the right wing on the opening possession, just 18 seconds into the game, and Lake-Lehman was off and running to a 45-19 romp over Pittston Area in the Wyoming Valley Conference Tournament girls basketball championship game.
“It felt so good,” Wilson said. “I need that to get me going.”
The freshman guard made other contributions to Friday’s semifinal victory, including nine rebounds.
For Saturday’s final, she added scoring, going from a scoreless semifinal to a final in which she scored more than any other two players combined.
“I didn’t think about it,” said Wilson, who also grabbed five rebounds, made five steals and dished out three assists in the title game. “I didn’t let (Friday) night affect me. I just went out to shoot the ball how I know how to.”
Wilson hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter and made two more in the second, finishing the half 4-for-5 from long distance on the way to a game-high 20 points. She wound up 6-for-8 from the floor, 5-for-6 on 3-pointers and 3-for-3 from the line.
Lake-Lehman scored the game’s first seven points. It went on to build leads of 12-4 after one quarter, 31-9 at halftime and 41-12 after three quarters.
After winning the title at the buzzer in the last WVC Tournament, held in 2020 before taking last season off for the pandemic, the Black Knights avoided the drama this time.
“We wanted this for the girls, number one, because we didn’t have it last year,” Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said. “Just give us the opportunity to get in there and it ended up working out for us.
“They played a heckuva game.”
The Black Knights combined 55 percent shooting from the floor (11-for-20) in the first half with giving the shorter Patriots fits with the ground their tall and mobile defenders cover in the 2-3 zone.
“We cover a lot of ground,” Lavan said. “We go over those screens up top. We practice them all the time.
“We go over that bump down where overloads can kill you. We executed it completely. We do it all the time in practice, ‘close out, GO’.”
Lake-Lehman held Pittston Area to 1-for-11 on 3-pointers in the first half.
The defense did not allow any Patriot t score more than once.
Claire Dougherty followed up her 20-point semifinal effort in the 42-34 victory over Wilkes-Barre Area by scoring 11 more in the final.
Hailey Kline went 3-for-4 from the floor, with a 3-pointer, and added eight points.
Lia Keefe had four assists while Brenna Hunt had three assists and three steals.
While Pittston Area will still be the top seed for the District 2 Class 5A playoffs Lake-Lehman moves into a District 2 Class 4A playoff field that features two highly regarded teams that went undefeated in the Lackawanna League while winning division titles – Dunmore and Scranton Prep.
“This makes all the hard work worthwhile,” Lavan said. “This will give us a lot of confidence going into districts, knowing that we can play at a high level like this.”
WVC Girls Championship
Lake-Lehman 45, Pittston Area 19
LAKE-LEHMAN (45) — Hailey Kline 3 1-2 8, Brenna Hunt 2 0-0 4, Claire Dougherty 4 3-3 11, Ella Wilson 6 3-3 20, Lia Keefe 1 0-0 2, Melanie Selner 0 0-0 0, Molly Jenkins 0 0-0 0, Krista Scoblick 0 0-0 0, Abby Matysik 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 7-8 45.
PITTSTON AREA (19) — Daniella Ranieli 1 0-0 3, Kallie Booth 1 0-0 2, Ava Callahan 1 0-0 3, Amanda Fath 1 0-0 2, Ava Butcher 0 0-0 0, Leah Zambetti 0 0-0 0, Taylor Baiera 1 0-0 2, Maddie Karp 0 2-2 2, Ella O’Brien 1 0-1 2, Rowan Lazevnick 0 0-0 0, Ali Butcher 1 0-0 3, Grace Callahan 0 0-0 0, Katilin Chernouskas 0 0-0 0, Abigail Chernouskas 0 0-0 0, Nora Callahan 0 0-0 0. Totals 7 2-3 19.
Lake-Lehman`12`19`10`4 — 45
Pittston Area`4`5`3`7 — 19
Three-point goals — LL 6 (Wilson 5, Kline); PA 3 (Ranieli, A. Callahan, Ali Butcher)
