The Susquehanna girls’ basketball team is joined by family members representing late Blue Ridge athletic director Jill Hoffman, for the trophy presentation after winning the championship of the Denise Reddon-Jill Hoffman Memorial Christmas Tournament. (Tom Robinson photo)
Tournament Most Valuable Player Rierdan Reyan is surrounded by Elk Lake boys’ basketball teammates as he holds the championship trophy from the Community Foundation Christmas Tournament
The Susquehanna girls won the championship for the first time, then the Elk Lake boys returned to the top Thursday night while claiming titles in Susquehanna County holiday basketball tournaments at Blue Ridge High School.
Susquehanna shut out Montrose in the first quarter on the way to a 41-22 victory in the final of the Denise Reddon-Jill Hoffman Memorial Christmas Tournament.
Tournament Most Valuable Player Rierdan Reyan scored 18 points, including the game-winning basket with 35 seconds left, when Elk Lake defeated Susquehanna, 56-54, in the Community Foundation of the Endless Mountains Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament title game.
The tournaments were conducted Wednesday and Thursday with four games each day at Blue Ridge.
REDDON-HOFFMAN MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT
Mackenzie Steele, Taylor Huyck and McKenzie Rhone led the defensive effort that carried Susquehanna to its first championship of the tournament.
“I was pretty excited for the girls,” Susquehanna coach Errol Mannick said.
Montrose was seeking its sixth championship in eight years since the tournament was first renamed in honor of Reddon, the former Susquehanna athletic director and coach.
The Lady Sabers opened an 11-0 lead after one quarter. They held the Lady Meteors without a field goal for the first 9:22.
Steele blocked 10 shots, grabbed 10 of her 13 rebounds on the defensive end and scored 8 points.
Huyck made 6 steals while scoring a team-high 12 points and grabbing 8 rebounds.
Rhone earned tournament Most Valuable Player honors, largely because of her defensive efforts. In the final, she was responsible for much of the work in limiting Harper Andre to 2 points after the Montrose scoring leader came in averaging a pair of 3-pointers and 10 points per game.
“She did a great job in the two days playing defense,” Susquehanna coach Errol Mannick said. “ … She did a superb job on Harper Andre.”
Rhone hit her only two shots from the floor while scoring 5 points.
Bethany Maby contributed 10 points to the win.
Montrose (3-5) was led by Lauren Andre with 12 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists. McKenzie Newhart made four steals and blocked two shots.
Susquehanna won its third straight to improve to 4-2.
The Lady Sabers grabbed 9 of the game’s first 11 rebounds and took an 8-0 lead on a Huyck 3-pointer with 2:57 left in the first quarter.
The Lady Sabers went their own stretch of 9:18 without a field goal while Montrose closed to within 13-10 on 6 points by Lauren Andre.
Rhone cut through the lane to score with two seconds left in the half, off one of Mackenzie Heath’s four assists.
“One thing that we’ve asked (Rhone) for is that she hasn’t put many points on the board for us the last few years,” Mannick said. “She’s played for us, defensively, since she was a freshman, quite a few minutes.
“I said to her, ‘nobody here expects you to drop 15 or 20,’ but you’ve got put four to six points on the board. She put five on the board two nights in a row and both times, they were at pretty crucial times. She scored that one right near the end of the half when we had sort of struggled offensively.”
Montrose never got any closer in the second half.
Steele blocked three straight shots in a 36-second stretch midway through the third quarter and four in less than two minutes total while Susquehanna was opening the lead to 30-14.
The Lady Sabers broke the game open for good when Maby scored four points and Huyck three in a seven-point streak to a 39-20 lead with 1:40 left.
Elk Lake scored 8 of the game’s final 10 points to beat host Blue Ridge, 43-35, for third place.
Eliza Bosscher scored 10 points in the game and Elk Lake (4-3) went 7-for-12 from the line in the fourth quarter.
Abby Hartman, who had a game-high 21 points, scored from the low post with 3:42 left to bring Blue Ridge within, 35-33.
The Lady Raiders, however, did not produce another field goal.
Mercedes Zajaczkowski hit three of four free throws in the next minute for a five-point lead. After Blue Ridge hit one free throw, Tamara Vada made a 3-pointer from the right corner for a 41-34 lead in the last two minutes.
Abby Johns had nine points for Elk Lake. Madison Tewksbury and Rose Warner each finished with seven points, including going 2-for-2 from the line in the last 4:57.
Gwen McConnell added 10 points for Blue Ridge.
Huyck scored 10 of her 11 points in the second half of Wednesday’s semifinal when Susquehanna overcame a three-point halftime deficit to defeat Elk Lake, 45-33.
Maby added 10 points in the win.
Warner had 9 of her 11 points while helping Elk Lake to a 19-16 halftime lead.
Montrose defeated Blue Ridge, 36-24, when Harper Andre hit four 3-pointers while scoring 16 points.
The Lady Meteors led just 15-13 at halftime before Andre hit three of her 3-pointers in a 10-point third quarter that helped Montrose to a 33-17 lead.
Hartman led Blue Ridge (0-7) with 11 points.
The complete all-tournament team was not determined as of Thursday night.
COMMUNITY FOUNDATION CHRISTMAS TOURNAMENT
Susquehanna fought back from an 11-point, second-half deficit to grab the lead in the final minute.
Reyan made sure the comeback stopped there.
After putting Elk Lake back in front on a drive to the basket with 35 seconds left, Reyan drew an offensive foul.
Susquehanna had five possessions after Mason Deakin gave the Sabers the lead with 46 seconds left, but could not score again as the Warriors came up with the game’s final three points.
Nate Preston added the final point by making one of two free throws with 22.7 seconds left.
The Warriors were just 3-for-10 at the line in the final 3:57 and 17-for-34 for the game.
“It was getting very frustrating,” said Reyan, who also led the team with four assists.
Elk Lake had done enough damage in the second quarter and early stages of the third to win the title it had also captured for three straight years from 2011 through 2013.
Hunter Bomboy added 14 points and 3 steals in the win.
Deakin led Susquehanna with 22 points and 6 assists. Bryce Baldwin made his first six shots, all in the first half, and finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Sabers coach Lawrence Tompkins pointed to turnovers – and the easy transition baskets they led to – particularly in the second quarter as the difference in the game.
Elk Lake outscored Susquehanna, 14-4, in transition in the first half and forced the Sabers into 25 turnovers for the game.
Drew Arnold dove on the floor to win the race to a loose ball he created, completing a steal, then flipped the ball to Bomboy with 2:35 left in the first quarter, erasing the last Susquehanna lead until Deakin put the Sabers ahead for 11 seconds in the final minute.
Reyan gave Elk Lake the lead on a double-pumping drive to the basket in transition with 1:48 left in the first quarter and the Warriors built the advantage from there.
Elk Lake (3-4) scored 21 second-quarter points, 8 by Reyan and 6 by Bomboy, for a 37-29 halftime lead. The Warriors took the game’s biggest lead at 43-32 on a Nate Preston drive with 6:25 left in the third quarter.
Deakin scored the game’s next four points, then six more in the fourth quarter to bring Susquehanna (3-5) back with help from Alex McHugh, who came off the bench to score all nine of his points in the second half.
Elk Lake’s Joe McAleer, who grabbed eight rebounds, and Susquehanna’s Deakin joined Reyan on the all-tournament team.
Brennan Gilhool hit six straight shots while scoring 15 of his 19 points in the second half to lead Montrose to third place with Thursday’s 55-37 victory over winless Blue Ridge.
Gilhool made the all-tournament team along with Sam Cosmello, who led Blue Ridge with 16 points and 5 steals.
Evan Snyder added 10 points and 4 assists for Montrose while Jacob Peck had 7 points and 13 rebounds and Tyler Rebello had 6 points, 7 rebounds and 4 steals.
Montrose outrebounded Blue Ridge, 14-6 in the first quarter and 50-37 for the game.
Peck had seven points when Montrose ran off the final 11 of the third quarter to break the game open, 43-23.
Elk Lake reached the final with a 53-46 win over Blue Ridge.
Reyan scored 14 of his 21 points in the middle quarters to turn a 9-7 deficit into a 40-31 lead.
McAleer added 10 points.
Kaleb Folk hit three 3-pointers while scoring 15 to lead Blue Ridge (0-7). Cosmello added 13.
Susquehanna needed overtime to get past Montrose, 50-44, in the semifinal.
Free throws were the difference in the game late.
Deakin went 8-for-9 from the line in overtime to finish with 18 points. McHugh added 10 points.
Montrose (3-4) went 5-for-18 from the line, including 2-for-6 in the fourth quarter and 0-for-2 in overtime.
Gilhool led the Meteors with 13 points while Tyler Rebello added 10.
WEEK IN REVIEW
Montrose finished seventh out of 26 teams in the Tunkhannock Kiwanis Wrestling Tournament, which was also held Wednesday and Thursday.
Tunkhannock outscored West Scranton, 165 ½-150, for the team title.
The Meteors posted 122 points.
Blue Ridge was 22nd with 34 points and Elk Lake was 25th with 19 points.
Joe Hester led the Meteors, picking up his second tournament title of the season by beating Luke DiGiovanni from Cranford, N.J., 9-6, in the 126-pound final.
Adam Roe reached the final for Blue Ridge, placing second at 145.
Cole Aukema added a third-place finish for Montrose at 170. Andrew Rosevear was fourth at 113, Makeela Fabrizio was sixth at 145, Robert Gregory was sixth at 285, Chucky Rohan was seventh at 132 and Bryan Ryan was seventh at 182.
Chris Kinder led Elk Lake, placing fifth at 160.
Blue Ridge’s Nathaniel McArthur was seventh at 120.
In boys’ basketball, Wyalusing scored the only eight points of overtime Dec. 26 to beat Mountain View, 58-50, for the championship of the Forest City Rotary Tournament.
All-tournament choice Kyle Streich had 22 points for the Eagles in the loss.
Alex Showalter, another all-tournament pick, and Mikey Schermerhorn had 17 points each Dec. 23 in a 49-46 win over Western Wayne to put the Eagles in the final.
Winless Forest City fell to Wyalusing, 58-54, and Western Wayne, 64-46.
Jordan Non scored 21 points in the loss to Western Wayne and made the all-tournament team.
In girls’ basketball, Forest City lost to Wallenpaupack, 68-38, and Western Wayne, 33-30, at the Honesdale Jaycees Tournament.
Mackenzie Hartman had 16 points for Forest City in the consolation game loss to Western Wayne and made the all-tournament team.
BASKETBALL PREVIEW
The Foundation Tournament final matched the defending Lackawanna League Division 4 champions against the team considered most likely to take away their title.
After sweeping the District 2 Class A titles last season, both Susquehanna teams are regarded as the top threats to the defending champions – the Elk Lake boys and Forest City girls.
Elk Lake’s Reyan and Susquehanna’s Deakin are both returning first-team division all-stars.
Kobe Jayne and Nate Preston also return to the starting lineup for Elk Lake.
Susquehanna returns its inside game with Eric Lee and Bryce Baldwin.
“If we turn the ball over 20-25 times a game, we’re not going to win the division,” Tompkins said following the tournament championship game loss to Elk Lake. “But, if we don’t turn the ball over 20-25 times a game and we play like we’re capable of doing, I feel like we should be considered one of the top teams in our division.”
All seven teams in the division enter Friday’s league openers with losing overall records after what was, in some cases, ambitious December scheduling.
While Elk Lake, Montrose and Susquehanna managed three wins each, the other four teams combined to go 1-23.
Peck and Gilhool are both returning starters at Montrose.
Streich, Showalter and Schermerhorn all return from a state qualifying Class 2A team at Mountain View, making the Eagles another potential threat.
Cosmello is the only returning starter at Blue Ridge.
Non leads a young Forest City team. Dakota Knehr-Cook is also back for the Foresters, who are playing under a new coach, Sean Mangan.
The Forest City girls also have a new coach, Mike Courtright.
Hartman, Skylar Fortuner and Maggie Kowalewski all return for the Lady Foresters, setting up the possibility of another season-long battle with Susquehanna.
Last season, the teams met five times with Forest City winning the all-season division title in a playoff before Susquehanna won the District 2 championship game.
Steele, Huyck and Maby return, along with several other players who were part of a deep rotation last season when Susquehanna won its first state tournament game in school history.
Elk Lake and Montrose are the other potential contenders.
The Lady Warriors joined Susquehanna as the only teams with winning December records.
Elk Lake reached the state tournament in Class 2A last season in Kevin Tewksbury’s first year as head coach.
Bosscher, Warner and Johns return from the seven-player rotation of a team that graduated its top four scorers.
Former boys’ coach Todd Smith returns to the sideline as Montrose girls’ coach.
The Lady Meteors started 3-5 and should improve with guard Annalise Ely’s impending return from a broken ankle. Harper Andre and Radvile Vaiciulyte join Ely as returning starters from a team that reached a second-half playoff game against Forest City last season.
The other three teams are a combined 2-17.
Mountain View does return more experience than many of its division rivals, making the Lady Eagles the most likely to contend from that group.
Abby Hartman is the only returning starter at Blue Ridge, which lost guard Kalynne Myers to a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her knee during volleyball season.
THE WEEK AHEAD
When the Lackawanna League held its wrestling tournament in December, Montrose and Honesdale were the top teams from Division 2, tying for fourth place in the team standings.
With Division 2 action set to open Wednesday, those top teams will go head-to-head in a match that has the potential to ultimately decide the title.
Montrose and Blue Ridge are both at defending champion Honesdale and will wrestle each other as part of the league’s double-dual scheduling format.
Mountain View is at Valley View where it will also wrestle Lackawanna Trail while Elk Lake is at Scranton Prep where it will also face Western Wayne.
In girls’ basketball, the Lackawanna League Division 4 season opens Thursday with Mountain View at Elk Lake, Blue Ridge at Montrose and Lackawanna Trail at Forest City.
Susquehanna opens divisional play Monday, January 8 at Montrose.
In boys’ basketball, the division openers are Friday when Elk Lake plays at Mountain View, Montrose plays at Blue Ridge and Forest City plays at Lackawanna Trail.
Susquehanna’s opener is at home Tuesday, January 9 against Montrose.
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.
