PIAA QUARTERFINALS: Dunmore girls leave no doubt in quarterfinal romp
Mar. 18—SCRANTON — Dunmore's Tristan Canavan talked about finding the gray area in Lake-Lehman's 2-3 zone.
By the time the night was over, there was no gray area anywhere, on offense, on defense and especially on the scoreboard.
Led by 16 points from three-time all-state performer Ciera Toomey and 14 from Canavan, the Lady Bucks dominated in the paint and romped to a 58-19 win over Lake-Lehman in Friday's PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal at Scranton high School.
Dunmore will square off with Lancaster Catholic, a 47-21 winner over Mount Carmel, on Monday at a site and time to be determined.
Lake-Lehman won the nonleague contest in January, 51-40, in overtime, but Toomey played only three minutes as she started to rehab her torn ACL, leading scorer Sophia Talutto was in her first game back after an ankle sprain, and Canavan scored just six points.
This time, Canavan had that by the end of the first quarter.
"The gray area was always open down low," Canavan said. "When Amanda (Dempsey) drives, I'm wide open. Not many people know how to defend that. It's out of the way when you drive in.
"It's a very big start. It brings up the whole offense and defense."
Protecting the rim was one of the things Lake-Lehman (25-6) didn't do well.
"We mentally made mistakes," Lady Black Knights coach Charlie Lavan said. "We go over that stuff all the time. You've gotta have your head on a swivel. We didn't do that. Canavan had 10 of her points, they were right around the rim.
"And with Toomey, we didn't box her out, and they're good ballplayers. You don't take care of the Ps and Qs with them, you get walloped. That was probably the biggest mistakes we made, not boxing out, letting that back end open."
It didn't help that Lake-Lehman's Liz Keefe had to be helped off the court just two minutes in with an apparent knee injury.
"She's our leader, our catalyst, makes us go, our spark plug," Lavan said. "But we're playing one of the best teams in the state. They're good and they played well."
Keefe was injured as she appeared to land on Toomey's foot while closing out on a jump shot, a moment that resonated with Toomey.
"It sucks to see Keefe go down," Toomey said. "That hits home. I can't lie. She's a great player so that made things kind of tough from the beginning for them. To recover from that and take off, it's difficult."
Especially with Toomey and Canavan going 11 for 11 inside the arc in the first half.
"We've been doing a lot of post work this year, just working with us, Lucy Monahan and Jackie Brown," Toomey said. "To put up those kinds of numbers, you've got to work to get there. And I think that showed tonight."
After Keefe left, it took another four minutes before Lake-Lehman scored, Ella Wilson nailing a 3 off Brenna Hunt's dish.
By that time, the Lady Bucks (25-3) established their inside dominance, up 12-5 after a quarter, all scored by Dunmore's post players. That created opportunities elsewhere.
"They're so worried about Ciera, then our other players are going to make them pay because Ciera's going to find them, or somebody's going to find them wide open," Dunmore coach Carrie Toomey said. "You have to have a complete squad to feel comfortable."
Cadie Lewis helped put the Lady Bucks at ease, and put away Lake-Lehman with three 3s in the second quarter, a big part of her 12-point night.
"I think the key to this game was to come in more confident," said Lewis, who finished with five assists. "I had too many turnovers the last time we played Lehman so I thought if I could come in confidently, we're able to find (Toomey and Canavan), and I think our guards felt the same way. If we were able to find them, they were going to knock down the shots.
"We had so many girls step up tonight. It was just so much fun to play out there. When I'm knocking down shots I think it brings up our energy but, Tristan and Ciera on the inside, they got us going from the start."
Toomey never let up, finishing with nine rebounds, seven blocks, three assists and two steals, part of a defensive effort that held Lake-Lehman to 20% shooting (5 for 25).
Canavan did her part, too, collecting nine rebounds and four steals, and missed just one shot.
"We knew that they were going to be tough," Ciera Toomey said. "Ella Wilson is a great shooter. Obviously they had a couple of really tall people. So to come in, we knew we were going to have to help and just be unselfish on the defensive end, which sounds kind of crazy.
"We knew we had to kind of cheat off. I knew if T (Canavan) needed help behind I could help her. We focused on that alot. For only having one day to prepare, I'd say we dealt with them well."
Coupled with Keefe's injury, Lake-Lehman couldn't match up, outscored, 40-9, over the game's final 20 minutes, spoiling Lake-Lehman's first trip to the state quarterfinals.
"It's terrible to end this way, but sports are cruel sometimes and you've got to learn to deal with that," Lavan said. "A lot worse things in life than what happened tonight."
Dunmore 58, Lake-Lehman 19
Dunmore 58
Lake-Lehman 19
Lake-Lehman (25-6) — B. Hunt 3 0-0 7, E. Wilson 1 2-2 5, D. Biscotto 1 0-0 3, M. Breslford 1 0-0 3, H. Kline 0 1-2 1, M. Jenkins 0 0-0 0, H. Chipego 0 0-0 0, G. James 0 0-0 0, O. Corcoran 0 0-0 0, K. Morgan 0 0-2 0, O. Oliver 0 0-0 0, H. Wallace 0 0-0 0, A. Perlis 0 0-0 0, L. Keefe 0 0-0 0, A. Battin 0 0-0 0. Totals: 6 3-6 19.
Dunmore (25-3) — C. Toomey 8 0-0 16, T. Canavan 6 2-2 14, C. Lewis 4 1-2 12, S. Talutto 4 0-0 9, S. Summa 1 0-0 3, L. Conte 1 0-0 2, L. Monahan 1 0-0 2, A. Dempsey 0 0-0 0, M. Valvano 0 0-0 0, C. Waters 0 0-0 0, E. Brier 0 0-0 0, J. Brown 0 0-0 0, A. Pacewicz 0 0-0 0, A. Dempsey 0 0-0 0. Totals: 25 3-4 58.
Lake-Lehman 5 8 2 4—19
Dunmore 12 20 15 11—58
3-point goals: D. Biscotto (LL) 1, B. Hunt (LL) 1, E. Wilson (LL) 1, C. Lewis (DUN) 3, S. Summa (DUN) 1, S. Talutto (DUN) 1.
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