The Wyoming Area girls basketball season ended with two straight losses, but also two giant steps forward for the program.
In the 50th year of state girls basketball tournaments in Pennsylvania and eight season of District 2 championship games at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza, the Lady Warriors participated in each for the first time ever.
Wyoming Area’s 14-11 season was highlighted by earning the home court in the District 2 semifinals with the second-best power rating of District 2’s seven Class 4A teams, then using that advantage to help battle past Valley View in the semifinal.
The semifinal victory is what sent the Lady Warriors to the arena to face current state semifinalist Scranton Prep and into the state tournament where their season ended March 11 in a 52-39 loss at Jersey Shore.
“The overall experience was good for our younger girls and I’m glad that our seniors got a chance to do it,” first-year Wyoming Area head coach Mark Casper said. “They earned it.
“It was nice to get them to the arena.”
A senior-dominated team had made progress for the program in its earlier seasons under former coach Chad Lojewski and took another step when Casper moved up from the role of assistant coach.
Anna Wisnewski, Halle Kranson, Jocelyn Williams, Olivia Allen, Olivia Rome and 1,000-point scorer Morgan Janeski played the bulk of the varsity minutes with sophomore guard Krea Bonita seeing the most playing time among the underclassmen.
“We’ll lose 98 percent of everything,” Casper said, “98 percent of our scoring, 98 percent of our rebound, 98 percent of our assists, 98 percent of our steals.”
While acknowledging that time will be needed to replace what is lost, Casper is hopeful that what was gained during the breakthrough season will carry the Lady Warriors through the lineup changeovers ahead. The arena and state playoff trips could pay immediate dividends as the team heads into the offseason and a chance to begin developing the players who will vie for the open varsity minutes.
Casper said he could sense increased enthusiasm for that process since last weekend’s completion of the season and during Wednesday’s season-ending banquet.
That overall interest in and within the program carries the team into the offseason.
“If I had to script this year, I would not have scripted it any different,” he said.
Jersey Shore 52, Wyoming Area 39
Peyton Dincher scored 25 points to lead host Jersey Shore to the first-round PIAA victory.
Dincher created a fast start, after which Wyoming Area played evenly with Jersey Shore, even cutting into the deficit at times.
Jersey Shore led 6-0 early, 12-5 after one quarter and 23-10 midway through the second.
Morgan Janeski led Wyoming Area with 11 points. Jocelyn Williams added nine points. Olivia Allen grabbed a team-high five rebounds.
Allen had six points in the second quarter and the Lady Warriors finished with a 7-2 run to cut Jersey Shore’s halftime lead to 25-17.
Wyoming Area got as close as 31-27 with 3:17 left in the third quarter, but this time it was Jersey Shore that ended the quarter by scoring seven of the last nine points.
Dincher scored 14 of her points in the second half. She made two 3-pointers while scoring nine in the third quarter, then went 5-for-6 from the line in the fourth.
