BERWICK – One way or another, Kirsten Durling kept making big plays.
And those plays pushed Pittston Area to one of its biggest victories in the young Wyoming Valley Conference girls basketball season.
Durling scored 16 of her 28 points as Pittston Area rallied in the second half, then made four steals in the final two minutes Monday as the Lady Patriots swiped away a 50-38 victory against Berwick in a WVC Division 1-2 battle between division co-leaders at the Berwick Middle School.
“I knew we had to come in here and get it done,” said Durling, whose 10 points in the third quarter helped the Patriots pull away in a game that was tight throughout. “Of course, I felt a little pressure.
“But with my team, I knew we all had each other’s backs.”
It was Durling, though, who stepped to the forefront.
Durling’s 12 points in the opening half kept Pittston Area hanging around in a game Berwick’s defense was starting to dominate, and her scoring spurts through the second half gave the Lady Patriots enough control to remain tied with Wyoming Valley West in the WVC Division 1 lead at the time.
Defense may have been the most dynamic part of Durling’s contribution.
Durling turned a steal with 1:50 left into a pair of free throws that took Pittston Area’s lead to 48-39. From there, she swiped away two consecutive Berwick possessions — and essentially the Bulldogs’ victory hopes — and turned one into a layup that gave the Patriots a 13-point lead with 79 seconds remaining.
“Kirsten has awesome hands,” Pittston Area coach Kathy Healey said. “Her arms are so long. She doesn’t always use them as much to her ability as she could. But her steals (Monday), they were at crucial times.”
The Bulldogs, who were moved to Division 2 this season, lost a share of that division lead.
Facing their old rivals from Division 1, they stormed out of the gates with eight consecutive points and had the upper hand through much of the first half.
Reese Mensinger, who finished with a team-high 15 points, popped for eight in the first quarter to give Berwick a 16-13 lead, then combined with Tori Talanca for nine points in the second quarter that sent the Bulldogs into halftime with a 28-26 advantage.
“It’s hard to play in here,” Healey said. “I don’t know if it’s the bus ride or what it is.”
In the middle of the third quarter, Pittston Area figured it out.
The Lady Patriots pulled out a full-court press which bothered Berwick’s passing lanes. They ultimately held the Bulldogs to 10 points through the entire second half.
“That kind of jump-starts us sometimes,” Healey said. “It worked.”
Not that the Lady Patriots were overly confident the defensive change would flip a switch.
“We didn’t know, exactly,” Durling said. “We just tried different things. It just happened to work.”
Like a charm.
Pittston Area defensive stalwart Taryn Ashby and Durling locked down the perimeter, preventing Berwick from nailing a 3-pointer the Bulldogs desperately needed in the closing minutes,
Alexa Noone finished with 11 points in the win.
And, Durling kept extending Pittston Area’s lead with a timely touch.
She turned a quick burst out of a patient passing game into a pull-up 10-foot jumper for a nine-point Pittston Area lead early in the final quarter; slithered in for a sudden layup with 2:33 to play; then polished off her season-high scoring night with four points in the final 1:50 to keep Pittston Area safe.
“I couldn’t have done it without my teammates,” Durling said. “They were pushing me to do my best. We kind of had to keep each other focused.”
Nanticoke 72
Pittston Area 40
YATESVILLE — That badgering, bothersome defense playing four quarters at breakneck speed did it again for the undefeated Nanticoke Area Trojanettes.
And, it left one more opponent frustrated and frazzled.
Chalk up yet another one to Nanticoke’s full-court press, which forced 23 turnovers Thursday and turned a showdown of Wyoming Valley Conference division leaders into a punishing 72-40 victory over host Pittston Area.
“Our press got us the win,” said Trojanettes guard Kayla Aufiero, who scored 19 points and sparked a defensive surge that made 16 steals and moved Nanticoke Area to 13-0 overall as the Wyoming Valley Conference’s lone unbeaten team.
That success on the press may have been a mild surprise, considering Pittston Area is typically a sure-handed team that’s known for springing its own press to change the outcomes of games.
But Riley Klepadlo made seven steals, Aufiero swiped five more passes, and the Trojanettes used their swarming pressure to turn a one-point deficit entering the second quarter into a 20-point lead after the third period.
“It’s been causing problems for everyone,” Nanticoke Area coach Alan Yendrzeiwski said. “We’ve got to do it a little differently than we’ve done in the past. We don’t have a tremendous amount of size. But we have speed.”
It showed.
Nanticoke used the win to hold on to a tie for the Division 2 lead with Holy Redeemer.
Pittston Area fell one game behind Wyoming Valley West in Division 1.
The Lady Patriots had plans to end Nanticoke Area’s season-long celebration. They quickly fell behind 11-5 before rallying to take the lead in the final 90 seconds of the first quarter, going ahead 12-11 on Kirsten Durling’s 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Nanticoke made sure it was short-lived.
The Trojanettes kept trapping Pittston Area ballhandlers from the second quarter on and limited the Patriots to eight points in the second and third quarters.
The big problem? Pittston Area couldn’t get the ball to 6-foot center Leah Hodick, who scored nine points in the first half but finished with 12 for the game.
The week ahead
Pittston Area has consecutive road WVC Division 1-2 crossover games Monday at Lake-Lehman and Thursday at Tunkhannock.