COVINGTON TWP. — Wyoming Area could not solve North Pocono’s defense Friday afternoon, falling to the host Lady Trojans 43-14 in a James Akens Memorial Tip-Off Tournament to open the girls basketball season.
“North Pocono is very good,” Lady Warriors coach Mark Casper said. “They moved the ball well. They were in our grill.
“They were playing man-to-man. We didn’t react to it properly.”
Wyoming Area managed just four field goals, only one in the first 14:20 and none in the last 12:10.
Abby Sterba had three of those baskets on the way to a team-high nine points. Freshman Jailynn Park had the other.
“The bottom line is we’ve only practiced six times,” Casper said. “We’ve got to clean all that stuff up, but we’ll get there.
“North Pocono is a good team. They took it to us.”
Ella Clementoni led the Lady Trojans with 14 points, including nine in a 13-1 start over the first six minutes when she turned three steals into breakaways and drove for a three-point play.
Amaya Monacelli had eight rebounds to lead North Pocono to a 34-27 advantage on the boards.
The Lady Warriors turned the ball over 26 times, but also forced 20, led by Krea Bonita’s three steals.
The biggest difference was in the ability to finish offensively.
North Pocono shot 40 percent from 3-point range and better than that overall. Wyoming Area missed all eight of its shots from beyond the arc and hit just 12.5 percent overall along with 37.5 percent (6-for-16) on free throws.
Kayli McHugh made all three of her shots while adding eight points for the Lady Trojans. She hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter sandwiched around another by fellow reserve Julia Biko for nine points in 90 seconds to cap an 11-0 run to a 25-5 lead.
Aminah Dixon came off the bench to lead Wyoming Area in rebounds with seven. Kendall Day blocked three shots.
Park and Sterba scored on runners 53 seconds apart late in the half to make it 25-9, but Wyoming Area was unable to build any momentum from there.
North Pocono reached the running clock of the Mercy Rule by building the lead to 30 points in the last minute of the third quarter.
