MONTROSE - On the night when Dallas Ely became the all-time leader in points by a Montrose girls’ basketball player, she put on another display that proved she is so much more than just a scorer.
Ely scored 30 points in three quarters, pushing her career total to 1,395, while giving the Lady Meteors sole possession of the Lackawanna League Division 3 lead with a 54-28 rout of visiting Forest City.
“I’m not just a shooter,” Ely said after breaking the mark of 1,390 set by Ellen Mulligan in 1980. “Sometimes it’s hard to realize that, but I try to play an overall team game.
“The goal is just to win, it’s not just scoring.”
The senior guard used her quickness to make Forest City passes in her direction unwise, coming up with a game-high six steals. Ely turned three of those steals into breakaway layups.
Ely led all players with four assists, three of which were of the dazzling variety that led to the easiest baskets of the night for her teammates.
In her spare time, Ely grabbed six rebounds and blocked a shot, swatting a 3-point attempt into the bleachers.
“I have to shake my head sometimes,” Forest City coach Carl Urbas said. “She really does it all; plays defense, rebounds, …
“She’s one of the best players the league has had in a long time.”
Ely proved that point immediately in a game that matched teams that were not only 4-0 in the division this season, but had equal 13-1 marks before playing in the all-season title game last season.
“We knew we had to come out and win,” said Ely, who hit a 3-pointer 10 seconds into the game and scored 10 points in the first four minutes to stake the defending champion Lady Meteors to a 14-2 lead. “I knew I’d have to step up and play and everyone would.
“We knew it was the night for a big win.”
Montrose maintained its lead until Ely stepped back and nailed a long 3-pointer at the first-quarter buzzer for a 21-6 advantage.
“Her range is phenomenal,” Urbas said.
Ely added six more points in the second quarter and Sara Krupinski finished the half 5-for-5 for all 11 of her points while also grabbing seven of her game-high eight rebounds.
Montrose scored the final nine points of the half, including six by Ely, for a 34-12 lead.
It was more of the same to start the second half.
Ely hit 3-pointers from each wing in the first 1:34, tying Mulligan’s record and making the lead 40-14.
“I found out a couple days ago that they figured out what the record was,” said Ely, who has made an official recruiting visit to West Chester and has also made a stop at Kutztown, another NCAA Division II school that plays in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.
The record-breaker came with 2:52 left in the quarter when Ely tracked down a long offensive rebound, drove into the lane and pulled up to hit a 10-footer. She completed her scoring with two minutes left on another long 3-pointer that helped Montrose build the lead to 50-23 after three quarters.
Myra Lattimore contributed six rebounds, Ashlee Lattner and Nicki Lewis three assists each and Meghan Gilhool three blocked shots as Montrose won its eighth straight to improve to 9-2 overall.
Cassandra Bendyk led Forest City (4-5 overall) with 11 points and six rebounds. Carly Erdmann added nine points, all in the second half.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Host Elk Lake and Blue Ridge both had losing records Saturday in the Zurn-Bush Memorial, a dual-meet wrestling tournament.
Lake-Lehman repeated the team championship with a 55-21 victory over Scranton Prep.
Mason Maye went 4-0 with two pins and two forfeits at 120 for Elk Lake. The Warriors defeated Sayre, 39-33, for their only victory.
Earlier in the week, Elk Lake picked up its first Lackawanna League Division 2 victory by beating Blue Ridge, 32-25.
Austin Bomboy had a pin and Maye a technical fall for Elk Lake.
Dalton Church, Tom Maby and Nick Schell each had pins in less than a minute for Blue Ridge.
In girls’ basketball, Montrose and Forest City set up their showdown with Jan. 9 victories.
Montrose blasted Mountain View, 63-25, with Ely scoring 26 points, all over the first three quarters.
Ely had 20 in the first half to help the Lady Meteors to a 41-11 advantage.
Erdmann had 26 points to lead Forest City to a 50-32 victory over Lackawanna Trail.
The Lady Foresters outscored the Lady Lions in every quarter. Erdmann scored 11 of her points in the fourth quarter.
In boys’ basketball, Montrose won twice to remain in first place at 5-0.
COLLEGE CORNER
David Corbin, a junior from Mountain View, is a 6-foot-3 junior forward on the Lebanon Valley men’s basketball team.
Corbin has started six of the last seven games for the Dutchmen, who are 8-6.
In 12 games, including seven starts, Corbin is averaging 2.5 points and 2.5 rebounds. He also has four assists and two blocked shots. He is 8-for-23 (34.8 percent) from the floor and 14-for-24 (58.3 percent) from the line.
Corbin played in 11 games and compiled 10 points and 14 rebounds during his first two seasons at Lebanon Valley.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The first half of the Lackawanna League basketball season comes to a close this week.
The girls finish on Wednesday with Montrose playing at Lakeland, which was tied for second with Forest City at 4-1 going into Monday’s games.
Lakeland is at Montrose in a boys’ game Thursday that also could decide the first-half championship.
TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
Sponsors Didn’t Want Kurt Busch
Richard Petty said the reason Kurt Busch wasn't hired to drive his No. 43 was personality.
“Nobody at the time wanted to pay the bill for him,” said Petty. “That's how simple it was. Everybody has to protect their brand. Smithfield Farms has a pretty laid back, pretty good down-home persona in the general public. If they had taken him on it would have changed their ... they just didn't like the personality.”
Richard Petty, 2011
Busch, who was released from Penske Racing after a disastrous 2011 season that led the 2004 Cup champion to seek professional help for anger issues, ultimately signed with Phoenix Racing.
Petty said Smithfield Foods, which he introduced Thursday as a primary sponsor for the No. 43, was among those that wouldn't come on board if Busch was involved. Petty said Best Buy, which left the No. 43 to join Roush Fenway Racing as a sponsor, had the same concern.
Despite his anger and rebellious attitude, Busch can handle a race car and he showed it this past week during preseason testing. He had the fastest time of any driver. His top speed of 206.058 miles per hour around the 2.5-mile track was the best lap turned by any driver.
In between talking about how much fun he's having "old school" racing and how he needs to learn how to handle adversity better, Busch let it be known that he's focused on 2013.
“Yes, 2012 is going to be a unique year for somebody such as myself,” Busch said at Daytona. “But to take a step back for me personally and look at all of this, this is what I need. And all along we're going to keep our eyes on the prize in 2013.”
According to Busch, he could have several quality options. He said he talked to a number of team owners about 2012, including Richard Childress, Michael Waltrip and Richard Petty.
“It was weird to hear his (Richard Petty’s) comments yesterday because he was ready to throw me in the car and we would have been down the road,” Busch continued. “But the contracts just didn't align on where they were and where I wanted to be, and so I talked with [James] Finch, made the deal happen.”
Busch and his Phoenix Racing team has picked up one sponsor, TAG Heuer Eyewear. They will be the primary sponsor on the No. 51 Chevrolet for the Feb. 18 Budweiser Shootout at Daytona, where Busch is the defending winner. Additionally, they will serve as an associate sponsor on the No. 51 Chevrolet during the Daytona 500 on Feb. 26 and again on March 11 for the Kobalt Tools 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Busch’s hometown track.
Listening to Busch, it's clear his plan is to be with Finch - a single-car owner who gets support from Hendrick Motorsports - for only one year. Then it's on to bigger and better things. But to get that opportunity, Busch realizes he has to change. Busch said he plans to use 2012 as a platform to reintroduce himself to sponsors - to get in front of as many of them as possible and show them that he's more than just a hothead.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see how things go between Busch, Finch, and the rest of the NASCAR nation.
NASCAR has mandated that drivers and spotters will not be allowed to communicate with other drivers over their in-car radios in an ongoing effort to eliminate tandem racing at restrictor plate tracks. The decision was confirmed Thursday as teams prepared for the first of a three-day test at Daytona International Speedway, a tune-up for the Feb. 26 Daytona 500. Over the past few years, as teams have refined their ability to team up with other cars to create more speed, drivers and spotters have had the ability to talk to multiple teams over their radios. They used it to coordinate which cars would pair up and to help drivers switch from pusher to pushee. By eliminating such communication, NASCAR hopes teams will have a more difficult time making deals and remaining in pairs. The driver pushing especially needs this communication because he has little to no visibility. It was so refined that one spotter would communicate for both drivers even if one of the drivers wasn't with his organization. This is NASCAR's latest rule change to address the two-car tandem.
There were only 32 cars that participated in last week’s test at Daytona. That number does not include some teams that folded during the offseason (such as Red Bull), some smaller outfits (such as Front Row Motorsports) and some that decided not to test (such as JTG Daugherty Racing).
NASCAR President Mike Helton said he didn't think the number of teams participating in the test portended short fields for the regular season.
“I think there is a good deal more activity out there than is represented by testing and some of the other things,” he said, “And the fact that there will be in excess of 43 cars trying to make the Daytona 500 ... and we've been through cycles, particularly when we get to the June, July stretch, where we may only have 43 cars show up at the race track. But I don't see us going below 43 this year. I may be surprised, but I think just knowing the chatter and the conversations that we've had with race teams and organizations that either have participated or are going to participate, that we'll have full fields.”
Geoff Bodine, 1986 Daytona 500 winner, said Wednesday he still hopes to have a deal in place to compete in this year’s Daytona 500 on Feb. 26, as well as the invitation-only Budweiser Shootout that will be held eight days earlier.
“We are cautiously optimistic we will be racing at Daytona,” Bodine said. “We have the sponsorship. We'll be all right. The wheels are in motion and hopefully soon we will be making some announcement.”
Prior to 2011, Bodine had made just one Cup start since 2004. Bodine said he has sponsorship for a minimum of 15 Sprint Cup races from Luke & Associates, a Florida-based health care provider to the U.S. military. He and Luke & Associates had hoped to hook up with a team before the end of the year, with the sponsor also seeking an ownership role.
Racing Trivia Question: Who won the 1949 NASCAR championship, which was the first for the fledgling organization?
Last Week’s Question: Richard Petty has 200 career Cup wins, the most of any driver. Who is number two? Answer. David Pearson is second with 105 wins.
You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.
Brooke Darling helped the Elk Lake softball team pile up wins for four seasons with her pitching ability.
As a senior, Darling greatly added to her offensive contributions to help the Lady Warriors carry an unbeaten record all the way through Lackawanna League Division 3 and District 2 Class AA championships until an extra-inning loss in the state quarterfinals.
Darling’s efforts make her the 2011 Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Year.
The Elk Lake graduate is a freshman at Columbia University where she is awaiting her first season as an National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I athlete.
“Brooke is a competitor,” Columbia University coach Kayla Noonan said in a press release. “She will find a way to get you out.
“It is hard to teach that kind of tenacity to a pitcher. She will move around the circle with confidence and an unparalleled work ethic that will mesh well with her teammates.”
Darling helped Elk Lake to a District 2 championship as a sophomore then struck out 29 in a 16-inning state playoff game loss to Pine Grove at Mid Valley. She continued to add to her pitching versatility and produced four perfect games while striking out 305 as a junior before the Lady Warriors suffered their only loss in the District 2 championship game to eventual state champion Nanticoke.
With her pitching repertoire complete, Darling was able to concentrate on improvements at the plate going into her senior season. That effort paid off as Darling batted .456 and led the Lackawanna League in doubles.
“We worked on hitting a lot more because I wasn’t developing any new pitches,” Darling said.
As a pitcher, Darling went 18-1 with an 0.31 earned run average. She moved up to first-team, all-state on the Pennsylvania Softball Coaches Association team after two years as a second-team choice.
Elk Lake avenged the loss to Nanticoke, beating the defending state champions in the district final.
“Winning districts the way we did was really exciting,” she said.
The improvement at the plate might not be much of a factor in college. As one of three pitchers at Columbia, her time playing offensively may be restricted to help avoid injury, Darling said.
Darling was a County Transcript Athlete of the Month in June of 2009 and April of both 2010 and 2011. A National Honor Society member at Elk Lake, she is studying biology at Columbia.
Brooke is the daughter of Terry and Lori Darling of Springville.
