Sports

The Montrose boys and Elk Lake girls each defeated teams from Northeast Bradford to improve to 2-0 for the only unbeaten basketball records by Susquehanna County teams.

Montrose won 59-51 over Northeast Bradford Wednesday in its only game of the week.

Elk Lake opened its schedule Dec. 2 with a 47-15 rout of Tunkhannock, then won at Northeast Bradford, 50-35, Thursday.

Connor Flynn had seven of his 23 points in the fourth quarter when Montrose broke away from a tie to defeat Northeast Bradford.

The teams were tied 40-40 after three quarters.

Jack Russell added 16 points in the win.

Leah Traver scored 17 points and Madisyn Casselbury added 10 for Elk Lake against Tunkhannock.

The Lady Warriors shut out the Lady Tigers in the second quarter for a 28-5 halftime lead.

Traver led the way again against Northeast Bradford when she scored 21 points.

The Lady Warriors built a 46-27 lead by outscoring the Panthers in each of the first three quarters.

Marisa Horn and Kylie Shingler added eight points each.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Susquehanna and host Blue Ridge each split, beating Wyalusing Valley, but losing to Sayre, Friday and Saturday in the Susquehanna-Bradford County Challenge, a two-day boys' basketball event.

The Sabers opened their season with Friday's 57-40 loss to Sayre, but defeated Wyalusing, 51-46, Saturday.

Griffin Fisk made three 3-pointers while scoring 20 points to lead the Sabers in Saturday's win. Mason Keyes added 11 points and Hudson Stengel added eight points. Rykin Hobart grabbed nine rebounds.

Jordan Burke scored a team-high eight points against Sayre. Fisk added seven points while Jaxon Downton and Preston Wolf each hit two 3-pointers for six points.

Blue Ridge defeated Wyalusing, 78-48, then lost to Sayre, 57-43.

Paxton Pingarelli hit four, first-half 3-pointers, including three in the first quarter, on the way to 20 points in Friday's win.

The Raiders trailed by three points after one quarter before scoring 53 points in the middle quarters to take a 67-29 lead.

Brayden Smith also made four 3-pointers while scoring 14 points, 11 of which came in the second half. William Hobart scored all 12 of his points in the second quarter. Brendan Marvin added 10 points.

Pingarelli again led the scoring in Saturday's loss. He had 12 points while Gehrig Dibble added 11.

Earlier, Blue Ridge opened its season at Dunmore where it lost, 72-35, Wednesday.

Forest City picked up its first win, finishing second in the Finan Tournament at Honesdale.

The Foresters (1-2) defeated Carbondale, 53-42, in the Dec. 2 opening round, then lost the championship game the next night to the host Hornets,74-32.

Mountain View and Elk Lake each lost twice.

The Eagles (1-2) lost the championship game of their own tournament, 65-34, to Union-Endicott (NY) Dec. 2. They also lost to Tunkhannock, 46-36, Thursday.

Elk Lake played its first two games, falling to Nanticoke, 33-25, Wednesday ad Old Forge, 62-49, Friday. They were the first two games of John Warnero's second stint as head coach of the Warriors.

In girls' basketball, Mountain View had the only other county win of the week.

Even when they lost, the Lady Eagles (3-1) had reason to celebrate.

Junior Addison Kilmer scored the 1,000th point of her career during a 60-54 loss at Union-Endicott (NY) Dec. 3.

Mountain View then defeated Pocono Mountain East, 44-28, Saturday.

Kilmer scored 24 points, including 16 in the second half, against Union-Endicott and reached the milestone on a short jumper from outside the lane.

Aubrey Sanders and Ryleigh Kilmer added 13 points each. Sanders and both Kilmers hit three 3-pointers each.

Union-Endicott made 10 shots from beyond the arc.

The Lady Eagles held Pocono Mountain East without a field goal in the first quarter while taking an 8-1 lead.

Addison Kilmer and Ryleigh Kilmer scored 12 points each.

Mountain View is 3-1 overall.

Blue Ridge and Forest City lost twice each while Susquehanna and Montrose lost once.

All but Montrose were opening their seasons.

Blue Ridge lost to Greene (NY), 45-23, Dec. 3 and Northeast Bradford, 54-32, Saturday.

Forest City was beaten by Delaware Valley, 54-26, Dec. 2 and Tunkhannock, 52-29, Saturday.

Old Forge topped Susquehanna, 50-40, Saturday.

Montrose dropped to 0-3 when it fell to Holy Cross, 38-25, Saturday.

In wrestling, Elk Lake opened its season by going 2-3 in the Gary Woodruff Duals at Wyalusing Valley.

Blue Ridge suffered two non-league losses earlier in the week, but beat two of their divisional opponents at the Woodruff Duals, topping Elk Lake, 42-30, and Scranton Prep, 39-30.

Montrose lost its first six matches, including five at Montrose.

COLLEGE CORNER

Colton Stone, a freshman tight end from Susquehanna, made his college debut for the Bloomsburg University football team during a 20-10 victory over Shippensburg University.

The Huskies, a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II team, finished their season 4-3 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference and 6-5 overall.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The Montrose boys' basketball team, which entered the week leading the power ratings race for the top seed in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs, will travel to play the other unbeaten teams in the race.

The Meteors play Friday at Dunmore, which started the week 3-0 and in second. Then, they play at Riverside, which was 2-0 and in third, Dec. 16.

In girls' basketball, Mountain View meets Monsignor McClancy (NY) Sunday in the Top Tier College Showcase at 11:00am at the Lackawanna College Student Union Center in Scranton.

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.

Ryleigh Kilmer began the month helping Mountain View break through in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association girls' volleyball state tournament.

She ended it by getting the Lady Eagles off to a strong start in pursuit of eventually finding more success in the girls' basketball state tournament.

Kilmer is one of the captains on each team. For her contributions while handling those roles, she has been selected as the Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month for November.

"I take that role very seriously on volleyball and basketball," Kilmer said of being captain. "I try to uplift and encourage all of my teammates out there. It got tough, there were close games and with us having a young team (in volleyball), sometimes it was difficult for us."

Kilmer praised her younger teammates for their development along the way in a 19-5 season. The Lady Eagles won 12 out of 13 in the stretch that included winning the District 2 Class A title and avenging a season-opening loss to defeat District 4 champion Northeast Bradford in the first round of the state tournament.

"We hadn't really set any goals for ourselves past winning the district championship," Kilmer said, pointing out how discouraging it was to open the season with a thorough, three-set beating by the Panthers. "…We had just grown a lot as a team. We had learned throughout the season to support each other and have each other's back."

Kilmer, the team's season leader in digs, had 14 in the five-set win over Northeast Bradford and 12 in the season-ending, three-set loss to Linville Hill in the state quarterfinals. She also had eight assists, 13 service points and three aces in the state win.

Just three weeks after volleyball ended, Mountain View avenged two other losses.

After finishing last when the Lambert-Simons Tournament made its debut a year ago, the Lady Eagles opened this season by winning their tournament with victories on the last two days of November.

Kilmer made the all-tournament team with the help of a game-high 22 points and four 3-pointers in a 45-30 victory over Western Wayne. She hit three of four free throws when the Lady Eagles pulled out a 37-34 victory over Nanticoke in the final.

Mountain View reached the state semifinals in Class A two years ago and the state championship game last season with Kilmer's sister Addison earning state Class A Player of the Year honors. This year, the Lady Eagles are a Class 2A team.

"Balance and diversifying our scoring," Ryleigh Kilmer said of the concentration of this year's basketball team. "We have a lot of threats. It's important for us to create open looks, but also finish them, make shots.

"We have to make teams feel like they have to guard everyone."

Ryleigh Kilmer made her way onto the varsity in both sports as a freshman, breaking into the basketball starting lineup midway through the season and starting in both since.

The Athlete of the Month Award continues a successful year for the Kilmers. Addison received the award in February and their brother, Bronson, was selected for baseball in July.

Ryleigh, Bronson, Addison and Harlee, an eighth-grader on the junior high girls' basketball team at Mountain View, are the children of Matthew and Ashley Kilmer of South Gibson.