Wyoming Area Girls Basketball Roundup: Janeski reaches 1,000-point mark in first of week’s two wins

Mark Casper chooses his words carefully.

With a team built around Morgan Janeski, a recent 1,000-Point Club addition with concerns about keeping her teammates involved offensively, Casper knows to avoid the word “selfish”.

Instead, he encourages Janeski to be “hungry”.

“Morgan is very humble,” Casper said in a telephone interview Monday night after Janeski scored 14 points, grabbed nine rebounds and hit the 1,000-point milestone during a 48-9, Senior Night rout of visiting Hanover Area. “I love the humility she has. We changed the word we use. We’re not going to say ‘selfish’, but we have to be ‘hungry’.”

Casper turns to that word on occasion when the Wyoming Area offense needs a boost.

“Maybe in the course of a game, I’ll say, ‘get hungrier’,” the first-year head coach said.

Even then, Janeski is not inclined to try to personally take over a game. But she knows the message is to look to put up a shot rather than kicking the ball out to a teammate.

“We need her to score and actually, she’s great at drawing fouls, too,” Casper said.

“There’s really not a weak spot in her game.”

Casper gives an example that goes beyond scoring and rebounding.

“What she does defensively is she saves me timeouts by directing people on the floor,” he said. “She’s very heady, very knowledgeable, high basketball IQ.”

Janeski remembers watching former Wyoming Area standout Sarah Holweg reach 1,000 points.

“I thought that was amazing, but I didn’t think I’d ever get there,” she said.

Once Janeski learned in recent weeks that she was close to the milestone, she decided it was important not to change her game chasing points.

“I tried not to let it change my game at all,” Janeski said. “I wasn’t changing how I played or how I passed the ball around.

“I knew it was realistic and if I played the way I had been playing, I would hit it.”

Doing so left Janeski feeling grateful.

“I just want to thank anybody that’s ever coached me, come to floor to practice with me or passed me the ball at any point,” she said.

Janeski was among eight Wyoming Area players who were clearly ready for Senior Night. She got the basket she needed and the team’s third of the night just 1:11 into the game.

The Lady Warriors shut out the Lady Hawkeyes, 24-0, in the first quarter and kept going. They were up 29-0 before allowing Hanover Area’s first score.

Halle Kranson, another senior, added nine points. Olivia Rome and Jocelyn Williams, two more seniors, added eight points each.

Oliva Allen, Samantha Taylor, Ashley Thomas and Anna Wisnewski were the other seniors honored, along with team manager Madelyn Keating.

Wyoming Area 50, Wyoming Seminary 35

Wyoming Area used a similar formula to take control early in Wednesday’s WVC Division 2 finale.

The Lady Warriors scored the game’s first nine points, gave up one basket and scored the next eight. They led 19-4 after one quarter.

Wyoming Seminary made the game more competitive before a 10-0, third-quarter run increased the lead to 41-20.

Morgan Janeski again led the way, finishing with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Jocelyn Williams added 13 points.

Williams, Halle Kranson, Olivia Rome and Anna Wisnewski grabbed four rebounds each.

Wyoming Area finished 7-5 and tied for third out of seven teams in Division 2.

The Lady Warriors (13-9 overall) are second of seven teams in District 2 Class 4A and, barring major upsets, likely to hold that position when the Lackawanna League finishes up its schedule in the next five days.

With Hanover Area opting out of the playoffs, the second seed will get a quarterfinal bye in the six-team tournament.

Wyoming Area is likely to host a semifinal against the Berwick-Valley View winner.