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In Focus: Well wishes for the home with the wishing well

Top-ranked Sem wrestling falls to rival Blair

An overflow crowd packed the stands at Nanticoke Area High School a month ago to honor the school&#8217;s last state championship team.It was an overpowering machine that destroyed everyone it played during the 1989-90 girls basketball season.And in the middle of all that celebration, someone in the stands asked if this year&#8217;s Trojanettes had lost yet.He was told they had, which meant there would be no perfect season for Nanticoke Area 26 seasons after the last one.But that doesn&#8217;t stop Nanticoke Area from playing the perfect game.&#8220;We really get each other going,&#8221; said forward Gianna Roberts, a senior and a three-year starter on the team. &#8220;We all believe in each other.&#8221;Now they are starting to believe they can make a deep playoff run.The Trojanettes are 6-0 at the top of the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 standings, the only unbeaten team left in the league&#8217;s regular season.And the gap between them and everyone else in the conference is growing by the game.The Trojanettes can batter teams on the blocks, with Gianna Roberts and Chaquanna Zendarski - a big girl appropriately nicknamed &#8220;Chaq&#8221; - pulling down rebounds and scoring at will. They can punish teams from the perimeter with point guard Kayla Aufiero, who is turning into the kind of star in the clutch that Casey Comoroski once was 26 years ago at Nanticoke Area.They spend long stretches each night dominating opponents with defense, even ones as good as Holy Redeemer, because Katie Butczynski never stops chasing the ball and Amber Grohowski doesn&#8217;t know when to quit.And in the moments when all of that isn&#8217;t breaking games open, little Lisa Radziak comes off the bench and seems to nail every 3-point shot she takes.&#8220;I think we can get a shot at districts,&#8221; Aufiero said. &#8220;I feel like we can make a run at states. I definitely think we can go farther than we did last year.&#8221;A year ago, a young and balanced Nanticoke Area team won the school&#8217;s first league title in five years and celebrated that by cutting down the nets in its home gym. Then all that excitement was cut out with the heartbreak of the District 2 Class 3A playoffs, where the Trojanettes lost in the tournament semifinals and again in the third-place game and missed out on a PIAA playoff berth.They brought four starters back from that team who made it their mission to reach the state field.Then suddenly, that fearsome foursome was down to three.Point guard Riley Klepadlo, a junior scorer and the best player on Nanticoke Area&#8217;s team, suffered a torn ACL playing soccer, and her basketball season was over before it even began. She is forced to watch each game from Nanticoke Area&#8217;s bench.That could have devastated the Trojanettes. Instead, it drove them to the brinks of greatness midway through the year.&#8220;It definitely brought us down a little bit,&#8221; Roberts said. &#8220;We&#8217;re doing this for us and for her, so she gets to go through it with us &#8212; unfortunately on the sidelines.&#8221;Aufiero agreed, saying, &#8220;It was motivation. Everyone had to step up and take a bigger role.&#8221;Nobody in the league is contributing more to a team right now than Aufiero, who switched from off-guard to point guard after Klepadlo&#8217;s injury.She is averaging 13.7 points, most of them coming in the biggest moments of key games, is tied for third in the conference with 12 3-pointers and the other night against division rival Hanover Area, had five steals to help harass the Hawkeyes out of the gym.&#8220;I think Kayla understands she has to step up, after the loss of Riley,&#8221; Roberts said. &#8220;She&#8217;s doing it well.&#8221;The Trojanettes have been playing so well, no team has come within 20 points of them over their last five games as they&#8217;ve rolled up an average victory score of 59.6-33. This all started when Nanticoke Area opened league play with a 41-36 victory over Holy Redeemer, which hadn&#8217;t lost a WVC game in nearly three full years.&#8220;After the Redeemer game, we talked to the kids about not being able to take days off,&#8221; Nanticoke Area coach Alan Yendrzeiwski said. &#8220;Because everybody&#8217;s going to circle them.&#8221;Mainly, opposing teams have just been running around in circles trying to find a way to stay in a game with Nanticoke Area. Hanover Area did for a while Thursday night, closing within four points by the middle of the second quarter, and by the end of the game the Trojanettes were emptying their bench again during a 73-36 victory.They beat Wyoming Area, their closest challenger in Division 2 at 5-1, by a score of 45-22 at the start of the month. And during the non-conference season, they beat Pittston Area, Wyoming Valley West and Crestwood - three top contenders in the league&#8217;s more-esteemed Division 1.Nobody&#8217;s putting Nanticoke Area in a state championship game because of a tremendous run halfway through the regular season, and nobody knows how far it can go.But in a gym where the old Trojanettes state champs stood at midcourt one more time, it&#8217;s starting to feel like 1989-90 all over again.Bouncing backThe sight of Maddie Ritsick being carried off the court during last season&#8217;s District 2 playoff opener had to be sickening for Crestwood fans, who had to wonder how the team&#8217;s scoring star would rebound from a torn ACL.Typically, it takes about two years for players to fully recover from injuries of that nature.But Ritsick only had one more season at Crestwood.And her tireless efforts to rehabilitate her knee in time for her senior season are paying big dividends.Ritsick used a 22-point performance in Crestwood&#8217;s victory over Tunkhannock on Thursday to become the school&#8217;s all-time leading scorer with 1,490 points, breaking the old mark of 1,487 held by former teammate and current East Stroudsburg standout Rebecca Rutkowski.Yet, that achievement was just the latest highlight of a season in which Ritsick overcame injury at lightning speed to find her old form that made her a two-time All-Pennsylvania Class 3A selection. She currently leads the entire Wyoming Valley Conference with 147 points in league play, and her average of 21 points through seven conference games leads Division 1 for the third straight season and ranks third among players from all divisions.That&#8217;s a tribute to the dedication and determination of Ritsick, who got past a frightening injury the way she goes right by most players trying to stop her.Give them spaceWhile Wyoming Valley West and Hazleton Area are locked in a battle to be No. 1, their star seniors are, too.Hazleton Area&#8217;s Mackenzie Yori has missed just three foul shots in seven league games. Erin Gibbons has missed just five for the Spartans. And not surprisingly, they&#8217;re the top two free-throw shooters in the WVC.Yori is hitting 89 percent of her foul shots (23-for-26) to rank first, while her Cougars are also in first place in Division 1 and tied with Pittston Area at 6-1. Gibbons is right behind at No. 2, hitting 83 percent (25-for-30) of her free throws for a Spartans team that&#8217;s in second place in Division 1 at 5-2.So those are the players neither team wants to foul down the stretch when they meet at 7:15 p.m. Thursday with first place on the line at Wyoming Valley West High School.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Nanticokes Gianna Roberts pivots toward the basket for a shot against Hanover ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 1-21-16</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_gianna.jpg</photo0><caption0>Nanticokes Gianna Roberts pivots toward the basket for a shot against Hanover ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 1-21-16</caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_chaq.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticokes Lisa Radziak goes up for a rebound along with Hanovers Genesis Rodriguez ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 1-21-16</div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/web1_chaq.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nanticokes Lisa Radziak goes up for a rebound along with Hanovers Genesis Rodriguez ---------------Fred Adams|for Times Leader 1-21-16</caption1><photoCredit1></photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Paul Sokoloskipsokoloski@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>Overall records in parentheses(Through Saturday&#8217;s Games)Division 1`W`L`GBHazleton Area (11-2)`6`1` &#8212;Pittston Area (10-3)`6`1` &#8212;Valley West (8-3)`5`2`1Crestwood (7-7)`4`3`2Dallas (10-4)`4`3` 2Berwick (8-6)`2`5`4Tunkhannock (5-7)`1`6`5Coughlin (2-10)`0`7`6Division 2`W`L`GBNanticoke Area (13-2)`6`0` &#8212;Wyoming Area (9-6)`5`1`1Hanover Area (7-5)`3`3`3Lake-Lehman (4-8)`3`3`3GAR (3-10)`1`5`5Division 3`W`L`GBHoly Redeemer (11-3)`5`1` &#8212;Northwest (5-8)`3`3`2Meyers (5-7)`2`4`3Wyo. Seminary (5-7)`2`4`3MMI Prep (0-11)`0`6`5Today&#8217;s GamesDallas at Hazleton AreaMeyers at Lake-LehmanNorthwest at Holy RedeemerWyoming Seminary at Hanover AreaWyoming Area at GARCrestwood at CoughlinWyoming Valley West at BerwickPittston Area at TunkhannockMMI Prep at Nanticoke AreaThursday&#8217;s ResultsNanticoke Area 73, Hanover Area 36Crestwood 70, Tunkhannock 28Meyers 62, MMI Prep 16Wyoming Valley West 57, Dallas 34Hazleton Area 71, Berwick 51Holy Redeemer 76, GAR 33Wyoming Area 74, Northwest 50Pittston Area 54, Coughlin 41Wyoming Seminary 46, Lake-Lehman 38Monday&#8217;s ResultsPittston Area 56, Dallas 50Wyoming Valley West 56, Crestwood 50Holy Redeemer 71, Wyoming Seminary 45Hanover Area 64, GAR 54Lake-Lehman 57, Northwest 46Wyoming Area 68, MMI Prep 12Hazleton Area 58, Coughlin 27Berwick 60, Tunkhannock 39Nanticoke Area 57, Meyers 37</factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</shirttailMeta></div>

Nanticoke Area re-living its girls basketball past