Kylie Lavelle ended her pursuit of the 1,000-point mark, then went to work putting an end to Notre Dame Green Pond’s hopes of leaving Riverside with a victory Saturday afternoon.
Lavelle scored 32 points in the non-league game and the Lady Vikes pulled away for a 55-36 victory.
The 6-foot-1 junior reached the milestone with a basket that assured the Lady Vikes could make it to halftime with the lead.
Lavelle scored on a rebound of her own miss with 5.8 seconds left in the half for a 23-19 lead. She finished the half with 19 points.
Riverside then spread the scoring around more in the second half while outscoring the District 11 visitors, 33-17, to put the game away.
The Lavelle milestone started an 18-3 run to a 43-26 lead before Notre Dame, the defending Colonial League champion, scored at the third-quarter buzzer.
Lavelle finished with 32 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals. The returning first-team, all-stater and early Drexel University commit was 9-for-14 from the floor.
That was not all.
Lavelle spent the game guarding Antonia Bates, a 6-foot junior who is already verbally committed to play at Rutgers University.
“Antonia is one of the best players we’ve played against in the past few years and the game Kylie came up with was really special,” Riverside coach Jack Mekilo said. “She was 9-for-14 from the field and guarded a Division I Power Five recruit the entire time and held to four field goals, three of which were bombs from way beyond the arc.
“Everyone who watched the game saw something that doesn’t happen very often.”
Riverside, the No. 1 Small School girls team in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams, controlled the boards. Alese Karpinski grabbed 12 rebounds and Kayla Rose grabbed 9 while scoring 11 points.
“Kylie had 32, but we got contributions from everyone today and that was great to see against a quality opponent,” Mekilo said. “We were very efficient on both ends of the floor.”
Notre Dame’s basket at the end of the third quarter started a 10-4 surge to close within 47-36 midway through the fourth quarter, but Lavelle scored off the press-break to begin a streak of eight straight Riverside points to end the game.
The Lady Vikes are 11-1 overall.
