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Louisville’s Lamar Jackson wins Heisman Trophy

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Brody’s Closet: A new, child-friendly consignment shop in Kingston

PLYMOUTH &#8212; Gary Ferenchick wanted a quick start. And his Wyoming Valley West Spartans were happy to oblige.Especially senior point Erin Gibbons.Gibbons dropped 14 of her game-high 23 points in the first quarter as the Spartans jumped out to a 29-5 lead and never looked back en route to a 63-45 victory over Honesdale in the opening round of the Spartan Tip-Off Tournament.&#8220;We knew that they wanted to pound the ball inside, so I wanted to pressure their guards and take them out of the game that way,&#8221; Ferenchick said. &#8220;We wanted to jump out and get a lead. That was our goal. The kids have been working hard, and we have a lot of seniors. They were ready to go.&#8221;Even Ferenchick couldn&#8217;t have imagined how hot the Spartans would be in the opening eight minutes.Gibbons hit all but one from the floor. Valley West lofted up 22 shots, making 11 of them. And a furious, full-court press stunned the Hornets as the Lackawanna League team turned the basketball over nine times in the opening period.It wasn&#8217;t just Gibbons. Gabby Smicherko, who finished with 21 points and six rebounds, put three through the hoops. Reserve players Katie Johnson and Toni Amato each hit a wing 3-pointer off the bench.Yes, it was almost the perfect start of the high school basketball season, leading 29-5 after one quarter.&#8220;We came out on fire, but it seems like when we settle into something, it takes us off our game,&#8221; Ferenchick said. &#8220;We just had too many turnovers, and too many silly fouls. We went over it in the locker room. Honesdale kept at it, and never stopped playing. We did a good job, but I would have liked to do better, quarter by quarter, protecting the basketball.&#8221;The Hornets outscored the Spartans by six over the final three quarters, and showed balanced scoring with seven different players recording points.Yet, asking a team to make up a 24-point deficit after one quarter is quite the uphill battle.&#8220;That first quarter was the game,&#8221; Honesdale head coach Pilar Beam said. &#8220;I&#8217;m proud of how we played in the second through fourth quarters. It was just a bad first quarter, and we had 15 turnovers in the first half.&#8221;Valley West took a 38-17 lead into the break and put the game out of reach midway through the third.Gibbons&#8217; pull-up jumper, coupled with back-to-back, wide-open 3-pointers from Smicherko on the wing build the advantage back to 45-22.The closest the Hornets got in the fourth quarter was 14 (57-43) on Caroline Truman&#8217;s foul-line jumper with five minutes left. But six combined free throws by Gibbons and Natalie Gruver kept the Hornets at bay.&#8220;We don&#8217;t want to slow things down, and hold the ball where it takes us out of what we are doing. But we got a little too comfortable,&#8221; said Ferenchick, whose team was hit 9 of 26 from 3-point range. &#8220;On defense, we did what we wanted to do right from the start. The press is to try and force some steals. And it worked in the beginning. We want to keep it up-tempo and hope for the best.&#8221;Colleen Cwalina added nine rebounds in the win, while Honesdale was paced by Emily Theobold&#8217;s 10 points.&#8220;They had too many easy shots, especially from the 3-point line,&#8221; Beam said. &#8220;I should have gone to the man a little sooner. We just have to clean it up, and learn from this game.&#8221;Berwick Nespoli TournamentBerwick 57, Wyoming Seminary 30Reese Mensinger scored 22 points and Tori Talanca added 17 as Berwick won its Nespoli tournament.Julia Gabriel scored six points for Seminary.Hanover Area 44, Central Mountain 38In the other game at the Nespoli tournament, Victoria Benning led the way with 17 points.Teammate Mary Slusser finished with 13.Lady Cougars Tip Off Harrisburg 58, Hazleton Area 44Despite seven team 3-pointers, the Cougars fell to Harrisburg in the championship of the Cougars tip off tournament.Maddie Mrochko scored a team-high 15 points, while Kendra Pfeil added 14.Harrisburg was led by Dajahnae Brannon&#8217;s 22 points.Abington Hts. 47Lake-Lehman 34Hannah Kawalski led the Comets with 11 points.Lake-Lehman&#8217;s Savannah Purdy scored nine points, while Hailey Kubiski, Sarah Salous and Corrina Scoblick each scored six points.GIRLS BASKETBALLValley West 63, Honesdale 45Honesdale `5`12`19`9 &#8211; 45Valley West `29`9`17`8 &#8211; 63HONESDALE (45) &#8212; Caroline Truman 4 1-2 9, Corinne Casazza 4 1-2 9, Emily Theobold 4 1-4 10, Sara Keast 2 2-2 8, Karli Martin 0 0-0 0, Camden Bannan 0 0-3 0, Courtney Varcoe 3 0-2 7, Alexa Jones 1 0-1 2. TOTALS: 18 5-15 45.VALLEY WEST (63) &#8212; Erin Gibbons 7 6-6 23, Andi Blaski 1 0-0 2, Natalie Gruver 0 2-4 2, Gabby Smicherko 8 2-4 21, Colleen Cwalina 1 0-0 2, Nicole Boutanos 0 0-0 0, Katie Mackiewicz 0 0-0 0, Toni Amato 3 0-2 8, Katie Johnson 2 0-4 5. TOTALS 22 10-20 63.Three-point field goals: HON 4 (Keast 2, Varcoe, Theobold); WVW 6 (Gibbons 3, Smicherko 3, Amato 2, Johnson).BERWICK NESPOLI TOURNAMENT Berwick 57, Wyoming Seminary 30SEMINARY (30) &#8212; Mary Theresa Lehman 1 1-3 4, Annemaaike Reitsma 0 1-2 1, Parsons 0 2-4 2, Dina Kilyanek 0 1-2 1, Wesneski 2 0-1 5, Julia Gabriel 2 2-4 6, Brenna Satkowski 1 1-2 3, Vezendy 2 0-2 4, Julia Iskra 2 0-0 4. Totals 10 8-20 30.BERWICK (57) &#8212; Reese Mensinger 7 5-8 22, Tori Talanca 6 5-11 17, Maddy Lanning 0 0-0 0, Whitney Switzer 0 0-0 0, Abbey Burt 2 0-0 6, Sierra Miedaner 1 0-0 2, Megan Dalo 0 0-0 0, Haley Owens 0 0-0 0, Mikayla Davis 0 0-1 0, Mallory Pinterich 1 0-0 2, Alexa Wall 0 0-0 0, Roni Isenberg 3 2-2 8. Totals 20 12-22 57.Seminary`6`4`11`9`&#8212;`30Berwick`17`14`21`5`&#8212;`57Three-point goals &#8212; SEM 2 (Lehman, Wesneski); BER 5 (Mensinger 3, Burt 2).Hanover Area 44, Central Mountain 38CENTRAL MT. (38) &#8212; McCaleb 4 0-0 10, Wetzel 2 0-0 4, Fletcher 4 0-0 8, Bauer 0 0-2 0, Pringle 1 2-4 4, Eckley 5 1-2 12, Burrows 0 0-0 0, Moyer 0 0-0 0, Dolan 0 0-0 0, Flanagan 0 0-0 0 . Totals 16 3-8 38.HANOVER (44) &#8212; Victoria Benning 6 5-6 17, Mary Slusser 5 3-4 13, Atherton 0 0-0 0, Emily Bobos 1 0-2 2, Sara Whitesell 3 1-5 7, Madison Hooper 1 0-0 2, Sara Tyzinski 1 1-3 3. Totals 17 10-20 44.Central Mt.`9`10`10`9`&#8212;`38Hanover`9`14`11`10`&#8212;`44Three-point goals &#8212; CM 3 (McCaleb 2, Eckley)Cougars Tip Off TournamentHarrisburg 58, Hazleton Area 44HARRISBURG (58) &#8212; Kira Merritt 4 0-2 8, Brianna McCollough 2 3-4 7, Ahmya Woodward 6 2-4 16, Kayklin Johnson 0 0-0 0, Malia Warden 0 0-0 0, Jazmine Wright 2 1-2 5, Jasmine Mathis 0 0-0 0, Alaya Walker-Cowan 0 0-0 0, Dajahnae Brannon 11 0-2 22, Jasmine Sloane 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 6-14 58.HAZLETON (44) &#8212; Kendra Pfeil 6 0-0 14, Marissa Trivelpiece 2 0-0 5, Mia Cundro 0 0-0 0, Maddie Mrochko 5 2-4 15, Ashley Albrechta 0 0-0 0, Alexis Sheeto 0 0-0 0, Destiny Huston 0 0-0 0, Erika Book 0 1-2 1, Katie Lipinski 0 0-0 0, Virginia Yurchak 2 0-0 4. Megan Trivelpiece 2 0-0 5, Erin Potoskie 0 0-0 0, MacKenzie Jones 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 3-6 44.Harrisburg `17`6`25`10`&#8212;`58Hazleton`11`7`15`11`&#8212;`44Three-point goals &#8212; HAR 2 (Woodward 2); HAZ 7 (Pfeil, Ma. Trivelpiece, Mrochko 3, Me. Trivelpiece).Abington Hts 47, Lake-Lehman 34ABINGTON (47) &#8212; Hannah Hughes 0 0-0 0, Hannah Kawalski 4 2-3 11, Nicole Nealon 2 2-3 7, Ellie Wright 0 0-0 0, Olivia Baker 2 0-0 4, Maria Tully 2 0-0 6, Sarah Murray 0 0-0 0, Grace Evans 1 0-0 3, Erin Albright 0 3-5 3, Sharon Houlihan 0 1-2 1, Nicole Getz 0 2-2 2, Alessia Brunori 3 0-4 6, Paris Koehler 2 0-0 4. Totals 16 10-19 47.LEHMAN (34) &#8212; Hailey Kubiski 1 3-8 6, Sarah Salus 1 3-8 6, Jess Salus 1 0-0 3, Jodie Salanksy 0 0-0 0, Corrina Scoblick 3 0-0 6, Janelle Cawley 1 0-2 2, Courtney Henninger 0 0-0 0, Savannah Purdy 4 0-0 9, Hunter Kline 0 0-0 0, Sydney Lamoreux 0 0-0 0, Madison Borum 4 0-0 8. Totals 14 3-13 34.Abington`6`12`19`10`&#8212;`47Lehman`5`9`4`16`&#8212;`34Three-point goals &#8212; AH 5 (Kowalski, Nealon, Evans, Tully 2); LL 3 (S. Salus, J. Salus, Purdy).<style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Tom FoxFor Times Leader</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @tlsports</shirttailMeta></div>

HS GIRLS BASKETBALL: Big 1st quarter sparks Wyoming Valley West’s win over Honesdale