WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Three years in the making, Lake-Lehman’s first basketball game at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza comes tonight when the girls play Scranton Prep for the District 2 Class 4A championship at 6 p.m.
“When four of them started as sophomores, I could see they were going to come together and we were going to have a chance to do something special,” Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said Tuesday when the team got a sneak peek at the arena in its basketball set-up during a press conference for the series of 11 championship games in three days. “And, we’re here.
“Our goal was to get here and to get to the state tournament.”
When Lake-Lehman defeated Berwick, 36-26, Friday, it accomplished both goals, securing a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association berth as one of the district’s top three teams.
“Both those goals were accomplished,” Lavan said. “Now, we go after this.”
The Lady Knights are well aware it will not be easy.
They lost to Scranton Prep, the defending champion and tournament top seed, 50-32, at home Dec. 12.
Scranton Prep went unbeaten in Division 1 of the Lackawanna League for the second straight season. The state-ranked Classics are 23-1 and have won 17 straight since losing to unbeaten Dunmore in the Lynett Memorial Tournament in December.
Rachael Rose, who earned all-state recognition as a freshman, runs the Scranton Prep offense and leads the team in scoring.
The Classics make up for a lack of size by using defensive quickness and a commitment to boxing out, then protecting the ball well once they have possession.
Madison Borum leads Lake-Lehman in scoring, combining with Savannah Purdy for about 25 points per game.
Corinna Scoblick is the third senior starter. Junior Sarah Salus and freshman Claire Dougherty complete the lineup.
Lavan brought the entire team to the press conference, giving them a chance to see the surroundings in which they will play the program’s most important game since the 2011 district final loss to Dunmore.
“We told them take a look at the rims, take a look at the floor, walk around on it a little bit, see how everything feels to, so basically you have a little bit of knowledge,” Lavan said. “When you walk in here, there’s no big surprises.”
Then, the team went back to preparing.
“Basically, we’re doing our regular game prep, sticking to what we’ve always done, sticking to what works,” Lavan said. “We’re not going to make any big changes in how we prepare.”
The Lady Knights will, however, try to find a way to change the outcome.
Rose had 21 points and three steals in the first meeting. Cecelia Collins, another sophomore guard, had 15 points and five assists.
“We learned an awful lot,” Lavan said. “They’re a very good basketball team with a high basketball IQ.
“There are some things we’ll try to take away that they were successful with last time.”
Scranton Prep overcame a two-point halftime deficit against Nanticoke to reach the final with a 50-31 win Friday at Carbondale.
Rose scored 23 of her 26 points in the second half of that win. Kathleen Rose, Rachael’s older sister, added 14.
Lake-Lehman got to the final by holding Berwick to 17 points through three quarters.
Borum led the team in scoring in both district wins. She had 18 in the 53-28 quarterfinal romp over Valley View and 10 against Berwick.
