YATESVILLE – Pittston Area withstood a torrid shooting start by Berwick, then shut down the Lady Bulldogs in the second half of the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 girls basketball opener.
The Lady Patriots allowed just three points for nearly 15 minutes to start the second half Monday night, turning a small deficit into a runaway, 52-33 win.
The game, the first league contest anywhere in District 2 basketball this winter, matched the division’s last two champions.
Berwick, the 2020-21 champion has had its lineup seriously hampered by injuries, but when Rachel Whitenight went 4-for-4 from 3-point range, the Lady Bulldogs took a 24-22 halftime lead.
“They shot the ball extremely well,” Pittston Area coach Jeff Gregory said. “I thought Berwick played great in the first half.”
Pittston Area used a balanced attack, both in terms of who scored and where on the floor the points came from, to shake off Berwick’s 6-for-8 start from beyond the arc.
The Lady Patriots outscored the Lady Bulldogs, 27-3, until the last 1:15 of the game.
Kallie Booth led the way with 15 points, four assists and four steals.
Sophomore forward Grace Callahan went 5-for-6 while adding 10 points and five rebounds, four of which came on the offensive end.
“I thought Grace was great tonight,” Gregory said. “She made some baskets for us early in the first half that we needed because we were struggling to get going.”
Maddie Karp and Ava Callahan each had nine points and seven rebounds. Karp, who had six of her rebounds on the offensive end, also had four steals. Ava Callahan had a game-high six assists.
All-star guard Daniella Ranieli was held to one point before scoring six in the fourth quarter.
“We definitely got some help from our role players, as we would call them,” Gregory said. “I say that to our kids all the time. ‘We know who they’re going to come and try to take away’. That’s why when our role players step up, we become that much better of a basketball team.
“Tonight, in the first half, that’s what kept us in the game.”
Berwick’s lead peaked at four with 3:45 left in the second quarter.
Its 24-22 advantage lasted just 15 seconds into the second half.
Ava Callahan nailed a 3-pointer on the first possession. Booth then deflected a pass in the backcourt, allowing for Karp to get it and set up Booth to make one of two free throws.
Pittston Area scored the first 10 points of the half, seven of them by Callahan, then 17 more in a row after Berwick’s Carly Ochs banked in a long 3-pointer.
In the middle of that 17-point run, the Lady Patriots blew the game open, doubling their lead with nine straight points in 1:22.
Booth converted a drive into a three-point play with 1.2 seconds left in the third quarter, then found Karp for another to start the fourth.
Ranieli’s first basket of the night, a 3-pointer, completed the burst to a 45-27 lead with 6:40 left.
Pittston Area improved to 6-0 overall, tied with Wilkes-Barre Area for the best record in District 2 with the win. The Lady Patriots, however, are second, behind Scranton in the power rankings race for top seed among the nine teams pursuing eight playoff berths in District 2 Class 5A.
