Beach, North Pocono topple Pittston girls

Marty Myers, The Citizens' Voice, Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
·5 min read

Mar. 5—COVINGTON TWP. — North Pocono's defense had one task. Stop Pittston Area sophomore Kallie Booth.

The Lady Trojans made life very hard for the Lady Patriots sophomore guard, focusing their defensive effort on the team's lone double-figure scorer. While Booth finished with 17 points, four rebounds and two blocks, it wasn't nearly enough to prevent third-seeded North Pocono

from advancing to the District 2 Class 5A semifinals with a 53-31 victory Thursday night.

North Pocono senior guard Carena Colo drew the assignment of locking up Booth, holding her to five first-half points, and the Lady Trojans finished the half with a 10-0 run to take a 30-13 lead at the break.

"I'm very proud of her effort and dealing with that, and that's been her whole season," Pittston Area coach Jeff Gregory said. "People figure you out. They look at the statistics, figure out who the person is and she's had to deal with that night in and night out.

"It's excellent experience for her to realize you're going to be the marked young lady, every night we play. And for her to be able to handle that, and maybe open some things up for her teammates so we get them to contribute and help her out, that's where we've got to get better, providing her that supporting cast."

Booth found a rhythm in the third quarter when she scored 10 of her team's 12 points, slicing a lead that ballooned to 23 early in the third quarter to 39-25 when Taylor Baiera scored on a putback with 2:42 left.

"She's really good," North Pocono point guard Jenna Beach said of Booth. "She knows how to lead her team, so it was important for us to make sure we shut her down.

"We knew exactly what we needed to do and we executed it when we came out. We knew who their shooters were, who their scorer was, and exactly who to shut down. We came in and took care of business."

Part of that included Beach showing her own leadership, almost single-handedly putting together a 10-0 run in a span of 2:04.

Beach, who led the winners with 19 points and seven rebounds, buried a top-of-the-key 3 with exactly a minute left, then dished to Lylah Perea for a layup.

She found an opening seconds into the fourth and stuck a 15-footer, then swished another 3 from the key to bump the lead to an insurmountable 49-25.

Booth hit four of her final eight shots but there weren't enough offensive options once North Pocono stepped up the defensive pressure again in the fourth.

"We know we need to get some pieces to build around her," Gregory said. "We asked a lot of her this year and I thought she handled it very, very well for the situations we had to put her in. Some of those weren't exactly her position. She's a natural 2-guard and we have her playing point. We're looking forward to building around her for the next two years to move this thing forward."

On Thursday, it was North Pocono moving forward to play at Dallas in Monday's 7 p.m. semifinal. The Lady Mounts dispatched Wallenpaupack, 59-24, in another quarterfinal.

What North Pocono can build on is the balance that saw four players score between five and eight points in the first half.

"That's the way we've been playing all year," North Pocono coach Lauren Carra said. "There are some games we have someone with 20 points, but normally we're double digits with three or four kids, and this time of year is where that gets difficult to stop.

"We've gotten that offensive concept down and now we're starting to translate it to the defensive end and we're seeing it come together."

North Pocono 53, Pittston Area 31

North Pocono 53

Pittston Area 31

Pittston Area (4-13) — K. Booth 5 5-10 17, K. Tigue 1 4-4 7, A. Callahan 1 0-0 3, T. Baiera 1 0-0 2, A. Butcher 0 2-4 2, B. Lieback 0 0-0 0, M. DeMarco 0 0-0 0, J. Zaladonis 0 0-0 0, L. Zambetti 0 0-0 0, T. George 0 0-0 0. Totals: 8 11-18 31.

North Pocono (10-6) — J. Beach 7 3-6 19, M. Seidita 3 1-2 8, C. Colo 2 3-4 8, A. Goldenziel 2 3-4 7, S. Polishan 2 0-0 5, K. Mastillo 1 0-0 2, L. Perea 1 0-0 2, M. Betti 1 0-0 2, A. Maros 0 0-0 0, M. Goetze 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 10-16 53.

Pittston Area 5 8 12 6—31

North Pocono 12 18 14 9—53

3-point goals: K. Booth (PA) 2, A. Callahan (PA) 1, K. Tigue (PA) 1, J. Beach (NP) 4, M. Seidita (NP) 1, S. Polishan (NP) 1, C. Colo (NP) 1.

Pittston Area (31) — K. Booth 5 5-10 17, K. Tigue 1 4-4 7, A. Callahan 1 0-0 3, T. Baiera 1 0-0 2, A. Butcher 0 2-4 2, B. Lieback 0 0-0 0, M. DeMarco 0 0-0 0, J. Zaladonis 0 0-0 0, L. Zambetti 0 0-0 0, T. George 0 0-0 0, Totals: 8 11-18 31.

North Pocono (53) — J. Beach 7 3-6 19, M. Seidita 3 1-2 8, C. Colo 2 3-4 8, A. Goldenziel 2 3-4 7, S. Polishan 2 0-0 5, K. Mastillo 1 0-0 2, L. Perea 1 0-0 2, M. Betti 1 0-0 2, A. Maros 0 0-0 0, M. Goetze 0 0-0 0, Totals: 19 10-16 53.

Pittston Area 5 8 12 6 — 31

North Pocono 12 18 14 9 — 53

3-point goals: K. Booth (PA) 2, A. Callahan (PA) 1, K. Tigue (PA) 1, J. Beach (NP) 4, M. Seidita (NP) 1, S. Polishan (NP) 1, C. Colo (NP) 1.