WILKES-BARRE — When it was finally over, the meatgrinder that turned a seemingly safe lead for Wyoming Valley West into an overtime thriller, Erin Gibbons could only shake her head and smile.
Somehow, a girls basketball game wound up in her hands again.
And as usual, she came through in the clutch.
Gibbons scored the final four of her team-high 22 points in overtime, Andi Blaski made three pivotal plays and top-seeded Valley West survived pesky Pittston Area and a gallant, late-game scoring spree from Taryn Ashby to escape with a 55-52 victory in a District 2 Class 5A semifinal game at Wilkes University’s Marts Center.
“I think I play my best under that pressure,” Gibbons, a senior point guard, said. “I was going to do whatever it takes to get to the Arena next week.”
Thanks to another round of playoff heroics from Gibbons — who shot Valley West to a comeback victory over Scranton during last season’s District 2 opener — the top-seeded Spartans improved to 20-4 and earned a date with No. 6 seed Abington Heights (13-11) at 6 p.m. in next Saturday’s district championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena.
Valley West locked down its first berth in a district championship game in four seasons when Gibbons barreled down the lane and hit a running layup for the first bucket of overtime, then secured the victory by dropping two foul shots with eight seconds to play to set the final score.
“Erin and all our seniors stood up,” Valley West coach Gary Ferenchick said. “I’m so proud of them.”
Pittston Area, the tourney’s No. 6 seed, showed some pride of its own while making the Spartans sweat.
The Patriots, who finished their season at 14-10, fell behind by 10 points after a quarter and were trailing by eight midway through the third period.
But Ashby wouldn’t let Pittston Area’s season die there.
She drilled a 3-point field goal to close the gap to five points with 4:12 remaining in the quarter and, less than two minutes later, hit another trey to pull Pittston Area within four.
Ashby was far from done.
She nailed her third 3-pointer with 2:08 to play in regulation to cut Valley West’s lead to 48-45, and her free throw with 29 seconds remaining ultimately sent the teams to another four minutes of play tied at 48-48.
And Ashby scored all four Pittston Area points in overtime to finish with a game-high 25 while giving the Patriots one final chance at a tie — before Valley West’s defense forced a long, off-balance 3-point attempt that missed its mark as the clock expired.
“What a game,” Ferenchick said. “We started out very well, I thought things were really clicking for us. Then we didn’t take care of the basketball.”
Valley West seemed determined to take car of business early.
The Spartans stormed to a 19-9 lead after a quarter, as Gibbons scored eight points in the first eight minutes and 6-foot center Colleen Cwalina added seven points and six rebounds in the opening period.
“We prepared all week for this game,” Gibbons said. “We had it.”
Just as quickly, the Spartans nearly lost it.
Ashby scored six points in the second quarter and Kirsten Durling added the first four of her 11 as Pittston Area chopped Valley West’s 10-point lead in half by intermission.
Gabby Smicherko popped in six of her 12 points in the third quarter and Gibbons also added six in the period to keep Valley West on top, but the Patriots were closing fast.
Leah Hodick scored the final six of her 11 points in the fourth quarter and, when she wasn’t hitting big shots late, Ashby helped hold Valley West to four points over the final eight minutes of regulation to force overtime.
“We realized we had a lead, and let up a little bit,” Gibbons said. “We had to get it going. But we pulled through.”
Blaski came through with a couple critical plays in overtime. She scored on a cutting layup, added a free throw to give the Spartans a three-point lead, and came up with a steal that thwarted a Pittston Area scoring attempt under the basket to keep Valley West on top.
“Andi Blaski, from day one, she’s had a nose for the basketball,” Ferenchick said.
With under 10 seconds on the clock, Gibbons could practically smell the title game.
She stepped to the foul line and smoothly sank two free throws to secure a spot of the Spartans in the final.
“I think there’s always nerves,” Gibbons said. “But we were confident. We knew the season wasn’t over. We made ourselves nervous.
“But we got it together at the end.”
Wyoming Valley West 55, Pittston Area 52
PITTSTON AREA (52) — Kirsten Durling 5 0-0 11, Leah Hodick 3 5-6 11, Alexa Noone 2 0-0 5, Andrea Ruby 0 0-0 0, Taryn Ashby 6 10-12 25, Cherokee Musto 0 0-0 0, Mary Silinskie 0 0-0 0, Portia Weidlich 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 15-18 52.
WYOMING VALLEY WEST (55) — Erin Gibbons 7 8-8 22, Andi Blaski 4 1-2 9, Natalie Gruver 0 0-0 0, Gabby Smicherko 5 1-3 12, Colleen Cwalina 3 3-3 9, Toni Amato 1 0-1 3. Totals 20 13-17 55.
Pittston Area`9`12`17`10`4`—`52
Wyoming Valley West`19`7`18`4`7`—`55
Three-point goals — PA 5 (Ashby 3, Noone, Durling); WVW 2 (Smicherko, Amato).
