By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com
WILKES-BARRE TWP. – Wilkes-Barre Area coach Mary Mushock-Namey told Wolfpack guard Vanessa Luna that she would need attack the basket in the District 2-4 Class 6A Subregional girls championship game.
Luna did.
Like never before.
The senior scored a career-high 21 points, 16 of them in the second half when the Wolfpack ran away from Hazleton Area for a 47-33 victory at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
“We didn’t shoot it great, but we try to only take layups,” said Luna, who was 7-for-11 from the floor in the second half and 9-for-17 in the game. “They’re a fast team; we’re a fast team.
“We came in here thinking it was anybody’s game.”
Luna made sure it went Wilkes-Barre Area’s way, completing a three-game season sweep of Hazleton Area, the top seed and defending champion. The regular-season meetings had been two- and four-point games.
This one changed in a second half that featured Luna running the floor and pushing the pace on the fastbreak with a literal assist from Gloria Adjayi.
Adjayi, the junior center who was the leading scorer in the first two meetings between the two teams, put her inside dominance to a different use. Her long outlet passes kept Luna and the other guards running.
“In practice this week, we stressed that,” Mushock-Namey said. “We stressed to Shelby (Ardo-Boyko) and Gloria both. ‘Get that ball out and Vanessa’s going to run the floor.”
Luna made the most of the 39-27 rebounding advantage and the opportunities it helped create.
She did half the scoring in a 16-2 third quarter that opened the lead to 37-18.
“She looked like she was in her own world out there,” Mushock-Namey said. “I actually texted her this morning and said, ‘there’s one thing I need you to do today and that’s attack the basket’. She did.”
Wilkes-Barre Area scored the first 11 points of the second half with Luna or Adjayi having a hand in all the points.
“That third quarter, we stayed in zone,” Mushock-Namey said. “We went 2-3 and 1-3-1 again; we switched it up. I think we just got after it a little bit more than we did in the beginning, boxed out the right way, gathered it and just ran the floor.”
Adjayi had four of her defensive rebounds and four of her assists in the second half. She finished with 9 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocked shots.
Ardo Boyko hit her first four shots while adding 11 points.
Hannah Cook made five steals.
Hazleton Area did not have a field goal between Brooke Boretski 3-pointers with 35 seconds left in the first half and 15 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Boretski and Carley Krizansky finished with eight points each to lead the Lady Cougars.
The Wolfpack scored the game’s first four points and never trailed.
Ardo Boyko made her three shots from the floor and was 3-for-4 from the line while scoring nine points to lead the team to its 21-16 halftime lead.
Wilkes-Barre Area, in just its second season as a team combining players from Coughlin, GAR and Meyers, won the program’s first title.
“This feels awesome,” Mushock-Namey said. “I hope it sets the foundation for when the schools come together this summer.”
