By Tom Robinson, NEPABasketball.com

All four returning first-team, all-state players in District 2 maintained their status with repeat performances while a coach was honored for taking a team from the bottom to the top of its division.

Moriah Murray and Ciera Toomey from Dunmore, Kylie Lavelle from Riverside and Kaci Kranson from Holy Cross all are repeat first-team selections on the Pennsylvania Sports Writers All-State Girls Basketball team that was announced Thursday afternoon.

Pittston Area’s Jeff Gregory was selected as Coach of the Year in Class 5A while Western Wayne’s Kaeli Romanowski received her first all-state selection.

Murray is the only four-time, first-team, all-state selection on any of the six teams – one for each Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association classification – making it in Class 4A along with teammate Toomey, a three-time, all-stater and two-time, first-team choice.

Lavelle is a three-time, first-team choice in Class 3A where Romanowski was chosen to the second team.

Kranson earned her second straight Class 2A first-team honor.

There are first-, second- and third-team selections in each class along with a Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.

Gregory was honored in just his second year as a girls head coach after previously serving as a boys head coach, girls assistant and college assistant.

The Lady Patriots went from last place in Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 in Gregory’s first season to first place this season, winning the division in a playoff, then advancing to the District 2 championship game and state tournament in Class 5A.

Pittston Area combined the stingy, man-to-man defense that Gregory had already begun to establish in his first season, with a restructured backcourt offensively and an ability to win close games. The Lady Patriots were 24-3 overall and 8-1 in games decided by seven or fewer points until dropping two straight close games in the district final and state tournament to end the season.

In all, Pittston Area went from 1-11 in the division and 4-13 overall to 12-2 and 24-5 in one season.

“Last year, I thought we played very good defense,” Gregory said. “We just couldn’t score. A lot of our games last year, especially as the season went on, stayed somewhat competitive, mostly because of our defense.”

Pittston Area allowed just six opponents to score 40 or more points this season while finding offensive consistency with Gregory making the key decision to place the attack in the capable hands of freshman Daniella Ranieli and allow Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 Player of the Year Kallie Booth to move back to her more natural position of shooting guard.

“If Daniella was a center or forward, we might still be the same team,” Gregory said, “but she was not just the perfect kid, but she played the perfect position for what we needed.

“She was a game changer for us.”

The ballhandling and clutch shooting of the Ranieli-Booth combination, as well as the ability to come up with defensive stops, were major factors in making Pittston Area such a tough team in close games.

While the coach guided a division champion, all the all-state players from District 2 led their teams to championships.

Murray and Toomey led Dunmore to Lackawanna League Division 3 and District 2 Class 4A titles.

Lavelle and Kranson were the leaders of District 2 Class 3A and 2A championship repeats while helping the Lady Vikes and Lady Crusaders finish second and third to Dunmore in Lackawanna Division 3.

With Romanowski leading the way, Western Wayne repeated its Lackawanna Division 2 championship and placed second to Riverside in District 2 Class 3A before posting a state tournament road victory.

Dunmore lost Toomey, a nationally ranked prospect and an early verbal commit to a University of North Carolina scholarship, to a season-ending knee injury in the district championship game.

Murray made sure the Lady Bucks kept going with three more postseason wins. She hit the game-winning shot and added the last-second, title-preserving blocked shot in the District 2 final, then scored 32 and 35 in the first two rounds of the PIAA Class 4A tournament.

The Drexel commit led Dunmore to a 95-5 record in her four years while scoring 1,595 points with the help of a school-record, 279 career 3-pointers.

“I’m definitely going to remember this season as one of the best,” said Murray, pointing to a season-opening trip to the Washington, D.C. area to take on top teams from other states, the comeback at the arena and another for an overtime win over Villa Joseph Marie in the second round of state play. “ … My senior year was an unforgettable one.”

This season, Murray averaged 17.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, 6.1 assists and 3.1 steals.

“Being it all four years of my high school really means a lot,” Murray said. “ … I only get better from my teammates and my coach, so without them, I wouldn’t be how I am right now.”

Toomey has also been an all-state player since her freshman year.

As teammates with Murray, they have never lost a division or district game (the team sat out district play last year because of a COVID outbreak).

“I’m really excited to receive this again and to able to get it with Mo also is always a real exciting and fun thing to look forward to,” Toomey said. “It’s just so cool that we both get to go through it together.”

Toomey shot 67 percent while averaging 18.5 points, 7 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots in just about 20 minutes per game as the starters often sat down early in blowout wins. She was selected District 2 Player of the Year by NEPABasketball.com

Lavelle, Murray’s future Drexel teammate, finished No. 2 on Riverside’s all-time scoring list with 1,910 career points. She averaged 2.51 points, 10.0 rebounds and 2.8 steals for the state quarterfinalists. It was Riverside’s first trip that deep into the state tournament since 1992.

“We’ve been talking about our senior year since seventh and eighth grade,” Lavelle said. “We always knew this would be the year we would go as far as probably could. We did that, so it kind of shows how our chemistry worked throughout the years.”

Kranson led all District 2 players in scoring during a record-setting season. She finished at 27.0 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.9 steals per game. Also a two-time, all-state softball player, she set a Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza championship game record with 33 points and became her school’s career scoring leader with 1,876 points.

“We lost a lot of great starters from last season, so it was kind of like a rebuilding year, but I feel like we worked really hard in the summer and during the season every practice, just so we could get better,” Kranson said. “I definitely think we did that and then we came out at the championship game at Mohegan Sun and I think we played our best game there.”

The four Lackawanna League Division 3 all-staters are joined by Division 2’s best player each of the past three seasons.

Romanowski, who recently committed to Elizabethtown, caps her career with a first all-state selection.

Western Wayne’s career scoring leader with 1,569 points averaged 20.1 points, 7.5 steals, 5.3 assists and 5.0 rebounds this season.

“For me to be able to get this award means everything for me and my teammates,” Romanowski said. “Without one another, we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything.”

All five all-state players from District 2 played together last summer, helping the NEPA Elite Clark 17U team repeat as Hoop Group Showcase League champion.

Two more NEPA Elite players from outside District 2 also made the all-state team.

Vatijah Davis from Pocono Mountain West made the second team in Class 6A. Olivia Smelas from Jim Thorpe made the third team in Class 4A.

MORE TO COME

Return to NEPABasketball.com for more coverage of the all-state selections.