By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com

DUNMORE – The result was the one Scranton Prep wanted.

Just getting together to play the game, however, was something that both sides agreed was worth doing.

There was recent evidence and there were other reasons to believe that both teams could have gone deep into the season without a loss if they just avoided each other. But, they got together two days after their seasons finally opened to test early-season progress and prepare for what lies ahead.

Rachael Rose and Cecelia Collins each scored 20 points while making major defensive contributions Saturday night when the Classics rallied past host Dunmore, 50-45, in one of the most-anticipated – and least-attended – non-league games in the history of District 2 girls basketball.

With fans banned from the gymnasium because of coronavirus precautions, the two successful and talented teams put on a show for an audience following the game on the Internet via livestream and in front of bleachers primarily occupied by dozens of cardboard cutouts, many of them featuring pictures of dogs.

“We would have liked to have had not cardboard cutouts watching the game, but real people,” Scranton Prep coach Bob Beviglia said, “but I think the people who got the livestream, they got a show.”

Dunmore coach Ben O’Brien was impressed with the play of both teams.

“I was happy we were able to come together and get the game,” he said. “I thought it was a great high school basketball game; a lot of terrific players on the floor; people making big shots for both teams.”

The Lady Bucks had a couple of untimely sloppy possessions while behind late, but otherwise the play on the court defied the disruptions all Pennsylvania high school teams have faced. The starts and stops included three-plus weeks around the holidays when extracurricular activities were forbidden by Gov. Tom Wolf.

“For two teams that didn’t have scrimmages and had the long layoffs, I think it was a high-level game,” O’Brien said. “I think both teams played well.”

The game featured three committed National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I players and a sophomore who already has nine Division I offers.

Seniors Rose (University of South Carolina Upstate) and Collins (Bucknell) put Scranton Prep over the top, taking over in the fourth quarter.

Rose made five steals, along with four assists and four rebounds.

“We obviously wanted to win this game, but we know there are so many bigger things ahead of us and I think this game got us in shape for the league and districts and everything that comes ahead for us,” Rose said. “They are very good competition for us.

“It was a battle the whole game.”

Collins led the team with eight rebounds and five assists. She made four steals, three of them in the fourth quarter when Dunmore committed half of its dozen turnovers.

“Our defense brought us back this game,” Rose said. “We pride ourselves on defense every year. It’s what we work on the most in practice.

“We started getting steals and then we got out in transition and were able to knock down shots.”

The Lady Bucks carried a seven-point lead into the last six minutes, but Scranton Prep outscored Dunmore, 15-3, the rest of the way.

That started with a 13-0 run in which Rose hit two 3-pointers and Collins added five points, including a 3-pointer. The run began on an 18-footer by Meredith Purcell.

“Purcell hits a huge shot,” Beviglia said. “ … I thought we were dead in the water. She makes that shot, we get a stop and we make another basket.”

Moriah Murray, who is already committed to Drexel as a junior, led Dunmore with 14 points and 5 assists. Ciera Toomey, the sophomore with college recruiters in pursuit, had 10 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

Dunmore’s Mia Blume added nine points on three second-half 3-pointers.

The game matched the top two Big School girls teams in the My City Mortgage Super Six Power Rankings of District 2 teams.

Both won division and district titles last season and were alive in the quarterfinals when the state tournament was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic. Each team has lost just once in the previous two regular seasons with those losses coming in games against each other.

They took each other’s best shots before Rose and Collins led the last run.

Maria Belardi hit a 3-pointer from the left corner on Scranton Prep’s first possession and Murray immediately answered with a 3-pointer from the left wing less than 15 seconds left.

Before the game was 4½ minutes old, Dunmore’s Elisa Delifino and Anna Talutto as well as Scranton Prep’s Rose had hit 3-pointers to create lead changes.

Rose, Collins and Belardi hit from long distance in a span of 1:13. That allowed Scranton Prep to finish the first quarter 5-for-6 on 3-pointers and started an 11-2 run that carried into the second quarter and gave the Classics a 19-11 lead.

The shooting from outside the circle was impressive, but so was the defense being played inside of it.

A tip-in by Collins was the only two-point field goal in the first quarter.

Dunmore was not even getting shots.

In the first 13:30, Dunmore tried 14 shots from beyond the arc and one 18-footer that Toomey hit. They did get to the line twice when drawing fouls going to the basket, but the Classics forced everything else the Lady Bucks did to come from the perimeter.

Scranton Prep stretched its lead to 26-16 and had possession with 1:11 left when Beviglia decided to pull Dunmore out of its zone.

“We had two bad possessions at the end of the first half,” Beviglia said. “We had it to 10 and we thought if they had to come and chase us, it was to our advantage.

“They did a great job in their man-to-man defense. They bothered us and we got a little bit stagnant.”

Dunmore scored the last four points of the half to start its rally.

Collins had done well defending the 6-foot-3 Toomey at the high post, and, along with help, often forced her to kick the ball back out when she was able to catch it.

Dunmore used screens to force two switches off the ball, getting Toomey a low post mismatch that she converted into the team’s first inside basket 30 seconds before halftime.

Toomey scored the last four points of the half, beginning a 20-4 run in just 5:15.

The Lady Bucks made their first six shots of the second half, four of them 3-pointers. Murray hit two and Delfino broke a tie with one from the left corner before Blume capped the run for a 36-30 lead with 3:15 left in the third quarter.

After Dunmore made its first four 3-point shots of the third quarter, Scranton Prep made its first three of the fourth, all during the 13-0 run.

“The key is we have to get out in transition and when we can do that, our guards are smart enough to make plays,” Beviglia said.

Rose brought the Classics within one from the left wing, Collins put Scranton Prep ahead to stay from the left corner with 4:45 left and Rose hit the next basket from the right corner.

Collins twice anticipated passes for key steals, one for a breakaway and 48-42 lead with 50.9 seconds left and another to set up the clinching free throws with 4.9 seconds left.

“It’s the same kids, they come up big over and over and over again,” Beviglia said.

In between the Collins steals, Blume had hit a 3-pointer with 37.3 seconds left and made a steal to give the Lady Bucks a chance to go for the tie.

“Shot-making got us going, then I think turnovers for us and shot-making for them got them going,” O’Brien said. “Two great teams like that, teams are going to make their run. They just happened to make the last run, the decisive run, this time around.”

The performances were worthy of a bigger stage and louder gym, but the teams succeeded in showing why they are so highly ranked and regarded while the top players showed why they have collected all-state honors and college offers.

“Rachael and Cecelia are catching balls and there is no hesitation,” Beviglia said. “Step right to the 3-point line and not just have the guts to take them, but make them.

“When is it going to be before this area sees four players on the court with this much talent? I think probably a long time.”

The Numbers Game

Scranton Prep, which was unbeaten last season, improved its overall winning streak to 29 games. The Classics have won 44 straight regular-season games since losing to Dunmore in the Lynett Memorial Tournament in December, 2018.

Dunmore is 56-3 since the start of the 2018-19 season with two losses coming to Scranton Prep and the other coming in the 2019 state championship game.

Neither team committed a turnover in the first quarter. Dunmore wound up with 12 and Scranton Prep 6.

Scranton Prep was 9-for-19 (47.4 percent) on 3-pointers while Dunmore was 11-for-27 (40.7), which produces the same as shooting better than 70 and 60 percent from inside the arc. … Scranton Prep’s Rose was 4-for-7, Collins was 3-for-5 and Belardi was 2-for-3. … Delfino was 2-for-3, Anna Talutto 2-for-4, Blume 3-for-8 and Murray 4-for-10 for Dunmore.

Toomey and Murray were the only Dunmore players to attempt shots from inside the arc while the other four Lady Bucks combined to go 7-for-15 on 3-point attempts.

Toomey led Dunmore to a 28-26 rebounding advantage. Dunmore’s Delfino and Scranton Prep’s Lizzie Neville had five each.

There were six lead changes and two ties.

MORE: Saturday’s roundup of other girls games. https://nepabasketball.prestosports.com/2020-21/articles/GirlsRoundup012421.

BOYS: The Saturday boys roundup. https://nepabasketball.prestosports.com/2020-21/articles/BoysRoundup012421.