A team doesn’t win basketball games just by scoring a lot of points.
It takes defense. It takes fearlessness. It takes an ability to overcome the setbacks of the past. Most importantly, it takes teamwork.
The 2014-15 Republican-Herald All-Area girls’ basketball team portrays all of those qualities.
North Schuylkill’s Tiff Lapotsky, this year’s Player of the Year, exemplified those best. Time and time again, Lapotsky beat opponents with her offense, her defense, her sheer athleticism and her awareness.
All-Area Rookie of the Year Kayley Kovac of Jim Thorpe didn’t shy away from responsibility in her freshman season. Instead, she put up numbers it takes most players years to achieve.
Perhaps no one preached teamwork better than Mahanoy Area first-year coach Tom Scheeler, this season’s Coach of the Year. The odds were against his Golden Bears, and no one believed they could be a playoff team. Together, they proved everyone wrong.
The All-Area first team is chocked full of athletes who refused to be limited to one aspect of basketball.
Pottsville guard Sadie Cresswell was seventh in area scoring, first in 3-point shooting and third in free-throw shooting, as the Crimson Tide continue to build for the future.
Minersville’s Emily Mealey again averaged a double-double with 12.1 points and 11.5 rebounds, while guard Abby Schoffstall was the league’s second-leading scorer and averaged seven assists and four steals a game.
Abby Snitzer departs Shenandoah Valley as one of the school’s most dangerous shooters. She was the only player in the area to finish this season top five in scoring, 3-pointers per game and free-throw percentage.
Nativity’s Allison Warren was nearly unstoppable both on the perimeter and in the paint. Her versatility and skill led her to finish third in area scoring in addition to her 6.8 rebounds per game.
Expect more of the same in the years to come. Snitzer is the only senior on the first team, though Warren has recently moved out of the area. While the second team has three seniors known for their leadership — North Schuylkill’s Carly Gregas, Lourdes’ Bailey Trell and Marian’s Abbey Whildin — it also has two great juniors boasting the same quality — Blue Mountain’s Abby Fanelli and Williams Valley’s Rayanne Hawk.
Lapotsky provides
2 ways to win
Lapotsky used an old adage to describe her game.
“Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships,” she said. “I like to follow that because it’s so true.”
And she does both very well.
The junior guard finished the season fourth in area scoring, netting 15.8 points per game. She also had 6.3 assists, 3.6 steals and 4.2 rebounds a game to go along with a 3-point shooting accuracy she honed throughout the season. In addition, she was a third-team All-State selection in Class AA.
But most people say the best stats don’t show up on a scoresheet.
Not true.
Lapotsky defended six of the league’s top-25 scorers in 12 games this season, including the Schuylkill League and District 11 Class AA playoffs. During those games, she held those players — whose combined averages total 76.6 points — to an average of nine points in those games. North Schuylkill went 11-1 in those contests.
“I always call her a killer,” Spartans coach John Rizzo said. “She goes as far as any athlete I’ve ever coached. And I think the other kids around her feed off her.”
That much was apparent from North Schuylkill’s team statistics. The Spartans finished third in the league in defense, allowing 35.6 points per game.
“I think defense proves a lot about a player,” Lapotsky said. “It shows that they’re unselfish and they’re not all about the points and that they have a team effort all around.”
North Schuylkill certainly had that team effort this season, as Lapotsky had plenty of options when dishing the ball. Waverly Snyder was a long-range threat and Averi Jordan a versatile freshman.
But the biggest targets were senior forwards Carly Gregas and Nina Marone. Gregas, a second-team selection, averaged 10.8 points a game.
“Getting the ball to Carly is almost a guaranteed score,” Lapotsky said, also noting Marone’s posting abilities. “You can throw the ball off the backboard, you can throw it almost out of bounds and they’ll catch the ball. It’s like a quarterback and receiver.”
But if a particular possession failed, Lapotsky was the first player back on defense, striking at opposing point guards with a tenacious precision.
Lapotsky acknowledged it isn’t something that comes naturally. Defense needs to be learned, perfected.
“I think defense is something you have to work on. You have to take pride in defense,” she said. “It’s what Coach (Rizzo) always talks about, taking pride in defense. And I think it’s something you have to work hard for.”
That hard work paid off all year, but it was most apparent in the Schuylkill League championship.
Lapotsky never left the shadow of Minersville guard Schoffstall, who at that point was averaging nearly 20 points a game. Every shot Schoffstall took, Lapotsky was there.
The offensively-gifted Schoffstall was no stranger to making difficult, acrobatic shots — she proved that all season, and later in the District 11 Class AA championship. But the night of the Schuylkill League championship, the balances were tipped in Lapotsky’s favor.
“Abby is a tremendous player and she can go off at any given point,” Lapotsky said. “She can change a game from being down by five to up by three. I knew that coming in there and I knew that I couldn’t let that happen.
“If I did, that’s OK, but I have to stop the rest of her game. She’s a phenomenal player.”
Lapotsky and the Spartans went on to win 49-41, claiming North Schuylkill’s record 14th Schuylkill League title and first since 2007.
The Spartans followed the championship with a run to the District 11 Class AA final and second round of the PIAA Tournament.
Lapotsky will be back next year, as well as Snyder and Jordan. Junior Rachel Bell and freshman Samantha Shinkus also saw good minutes this year and will come back, not to mention any freshmen North Schuylkill adds.
Having Lapotsky around, despite the losses of Gregas and Marone to graduation, will give the Spartans a big boost next year.
“We always call Tiff our quarterback,” Rizzo said. “Any team that has a good point guard understands that there’s always a possibility for the other kids around her to get better. Tiff, as a freshman, was making our juniors and seniors better at the time.
“To have her now as a junior and a future senior, we anticipate that continued success, where Tiff is not only going to get better as a player, but she’s going to make the other kids around her better,” Rizzo added. “As a coach, she makes me better because of her effort and intelligence and her overall work ethic.”
Kovac makes instant impact in rookie year
Rob Kovac recalled the first time he saw his daughter Kayley play basketball in a 2nd- and 3rd-grade league.
She didn’t play in the first game, which Rob said ended with a final score around 8-6.
She did play the next game, and Rob never forgot it.
“At halftime she had like 28 points,” he said. “She’s always had that knack to score the basketball. So, almost from Day 1, we knew the kid could score.
“Even through junior high, elementary, AAU, travel basketball, she’s always had a knack to put the ball in the basket,” added Rob, who is also Kayley’s head coach at Jim Thorpe. “I think we saw that translate to the high school level, as well.”
It translated very well.
Kayley finished her freshman campaign with the Olympians as the area’s leading scorer, netting 24.6 points per game (541 total points in 22 games) and 11.5 rebounds. She was also named third-team All-State in Class AAA.
And she didn’t waste any time making her mark on the Schuylkill League.
Kayley scored 23 points in the first game of the season, a 49-44 victory over a scrappy Schuylkill Haven team.
It was no fluke. She backed it up with point totals of 27, 21, 28 and 33 in her next four games.
The immediate impact was a result of tedious work during the summer to get Kayley and the rest of the young Olympians on the same page.
“We had a lot of open gym, played in the summer league, we worked on starting the offensive process to adjust with my teammates so we didn’t have the adjustment process to start the season,” Kayley said. “By the first game, we knew what we were doing and we knew how it was going to be.”
But both Rob and Kayley knew the season wouldn’t be a breeze. While Jim Thorpe started the season 6-2 overall, 3-0 in Division I, it relied primarily on underclassmen to score and it had yet to play North Schuylkill, Pottsville, Pine Grove and Blue Mountain.
“Without a doubt, the physicality between varsity basketball and junior high,” Kayley said was her biggest test of the year. “Even from our non-league games to playing North Schuylkill, Pottsville, the physicality was so much different. That’s something I really need to adjust to this year.”
The next challenge was dealing with defenses devised specifically to shut Kayley down. During the second round of league play, teams deployed zones — Box-and-1s, Triangle-and-2s, the works — to cut her out.
It did little to hinder Kayley. Her average stayed consistently between 24 and 26 points per game all season.
“It’s a tribute to her to still be able to put up those kind of numbers when you see those defenses,” Rob said.
But the specialized defenses did take their toll on the rest of the Olympians, who, after hitting the 7-3 mark Jan. 5, finished 3-9 in their last 12 games and were left outside the District 11 Class AAA playoffs.
To get there, both Rob and Kayley know her game will have to change slightly to help improve her teammates’ abilities.
“The next step in the process for Kayley is to start to make her teammates better,” Rob said, mentioning his other daughter, Payton, and Jordan Waselus specifically. “We think those kids are going to become complementary scorers to go along with Kayley.”
It will also help getting Alexys Naranjo back after losing the sophomore midseason due to injury.
“Next year when she (Naranjo) is back, hopefully she’ll take some of the scoring responsibilities for me away,” Kayley said, also noting the improvement of sister Payton, Waselus and Kaitlyn Ohl. “Toward the end of the season, they started to come into their roles as varsity basketball players. Hopefully next year they’ll continue that progress.”
Kayley aided that development during the course of the year as her other numbers began rising. She finished averaging 3.2 steals and 2.9 assists.
And there’s still a lot more time to continue that development. Payton and Waselus will both be sophomores, and Ohl and Naranjo both juniors next season.
“Kayley was definitely our leader,” Rob said. “She kind of spearheaded the resurgence our program is having.”
Scheeler changes
mindset at Mahanoy
Tom Scheeler was very clear the first time he addressed his players at Mahanoy Area.
“I haven’t been part of too many losing teams with the boys. I didn’t plan on being part of many losing teams with the girls,” the first year girls’ coach, and long-time boys’ assistant, said. “I don’t accept that. I can’t accept that.”
Shortly after, his girls didn’t accept that either.
Scheeler, the third coach in as many seasons for the Mahanoy Area girls’ program, wanted his team to see that simply because the Golden Bears had six straight losing seasons, didn’t mean they had to accept that as their fate again.
A good eighth-grade class was supposedly on the way, and the consensus was Mahanoy could ride out one more season.
“People around here were talking about teams coming up, that we had a lot of good younger kids,” he said. “I just tried to get the point across, I didn’t want to wait for the younger kids. I don’t believe that we had to wait for the younger kids.”
So they didn’t.
Mahanoy Area finished the season 13-11, its first winning season since 2008. The Bears not only made the District 11 Class A playoffs — also for the first time since 2008 — but came within six points of a state playoff berth after having eventual champion Shenandoah Valley on the ropes in the semifinals.
And they did it all with the area’s best defense — allowing just 31.8 points a game. And after losing last season’s leading scorer to graduation and senior leader Maddie Lawrence at the beginning of this season due to injury. And without a single player averaging double-digit points.
The belief started during the summer league in Tamaqua.
“We were competitive with Shenandoah Valley, Nativity and North Schuylkill to a point,” Scheeler said. “I think the girls, at that point, started to realize that we could play.”
Mahanoy then started the regular season with three straight wins. Its first three losses were only by a combined 10 points.
“I told them, if we can hold teams around 30, we’re going to be in every game and have a chance to win every game,” Scheeler said.
They followed through. The Bears only suffered four double-digit losses, which is the same number of times they allowed more than 45 points.
“We wanted teams, when they came in, to know that they were going to have to work for everything,” Scheeler said. “Even if they beat us, it wasn’t going to be blowouts. And the girls, from Day 1, they gave me everything.”
Megan Babinsky and Laura Bisco spearheaded Mahanoy Area’s defense on the point.
Kelsey Conroy occupied the post. She also made the game-winning block against Tri-Valley, a team that beat Mahanoy twice during the regular season, in the district quarterfinals.
Megan Bisco led the offensive production with 8.4 points a game, while Conroy added 8.2.
The wins started piling up. Mahanoy Area got its ninth win of the season Jan. 24 against Weatherly. Five days later, it earned a tough win against Schuylkill Haven. Then, on Feb. 5, the Bears qualified for districts with a win over Nativity.
“From the day I was hired and after that, I looked at the schedule and said, ‘OK, where do we get 11 wins at?’ ” Scheeler said. He noted the biggest wins were against Williams Valley, Nativity and two tough ones over Schuylkill Haven.
But Mahanoy doesn’t plan on being a one-and-done Cinderella. Babinsky, Megan and Laura Bisco, Conroy, Kiera Van Horn and Jayda Byrne are all back next year.
“I talked to the girls about this already. I said, ‘Listen, we’re not going to sneak up on anybody next year,’ ” Scheeler said. “I don’t know how they’re going to react yet. It’s a position they haven’t been in. Teams are going to be looking at them and talking, saying they’re pretty good.
“But there’s a lot of good teams out there,” Scheeler added, pointing out Lourdes, Nativity, Marian and Minersville, which also bring back a lot of talented players. “It’s going to be interesting. It’s going to be really interesting.”
2014-15 Republican-Herald All-Area Girls’ Basketball Team
PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Tiffany Lapotsky, jr., North Schuylkill — 15.8 ppg, 6.3 assists per game, 4.2 rebounds per game, 3.6 steals per game, 1.1 3-point field goals per game
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Kayley Kovac, fr., Jim Thorpe — 24.6 ppg, 11.5 rebounds per game, 3.2 steals per game, 1.3 blocks per game, 2.9 assists per game
COACH OF THE YEAR
Tom Scheeler, 1st season, Mahanoy Area — Top defense in Schuylkill League, District 11 Class A semifinalist, snapped streak of six losing seasons
FIRST TEAM
Sadie Cresswell, jr., Pottsville, 15.0 ppg
Emily Mealey, soph., Minersville, 12.1 ppg
Abby Schoffstall, soph., Minersville, 17.4 ppg
Abby Snitzer, sr., Shenandoah Valley, 15.7 ppg
Allison Warren, jr., Nativity, 16.0 ppg
SECOND TEAM
Abby Fanelli, jr., Blue Mountain, 12.3 ppg
Carly Gregas, sr., North Schuylkill, 10.8 ppg
Rayanne Hawk, jr., Williams Valley, 13.4 ppg
Bailey Trell, sr., Lourdes, 14.4 ppg
Abbey Whildin, sr., Marian, 12.6 ppg
HONORABLE MENTION
Carmella Bickel, soph., Lourdes; Megan Bisco, fr., Mahanoy Area; Aubrey Blasiak, fr., Lehighton; Taylor Brown, sr., Upper Dauphin; Paige Doyle, jr., Tri-Valley; Rachel Edge, fr., Pine Grove; Brenna Karnish, soph., Marian; Adrienne Kroznuskie, soph., Minersville; Hannah Nestor, sr., Williams Valley; Reagan Newswanger, jr., Tri-Valley; Emma Schweigert, sr., Schuylkill Haven; Kate Whelski, jr., Williams Valley
INDIVIDUAL
Points per game
Player (school) Pts. GP PPG
Kayley Kovac (JT) 541 22 24.6
Abby Schoffstall (Min) 506 29 17.4
Allison Warren (Nat) 353 22 16.0
Tiff Lapotsky (NS) 458 29 15.8
Abigail Snitzer (SV) 425 27 15.7
Carmella Bickel (Lrd) 411 27 15.2
Sadie Cresswell (Pot) 359 24 15.0
Bailey Trell (Lrd) 402 28 14.4
Rayanne Hawk (WV) 349 26 13.4
Rgn. Newswanger (TV) 303 23 13.2
Abbey Whildin (Mar) 314 25 12.6
Abigail Fanelli (BM) 283 23 12.3
Kate Whelski (WV) 319 26 12.3
Emily Mealey (Min) 350 29 12.1
Adrn. Kroznuskie (Min) 319 29 11.0
Carly Gregas (NS) 312 29 10.8
Paige Doyle (TV) 241 23 10.5
Taylor Brown (UDA) 237 23 10.4
Aubrey Blasiak (Leh) 222 22 10.1
Hannah Nestor (WV) 227 23 9.9
Emma Schweigert (SH) 212 22 9.6
Shelby Berger (Wea) 174 18 9.5
Brenna Karnish (Mar) 225 24 9.4
Keegan White (SH) 205 22 9.3
Rachel Edge (PG) 211 23 9.2
3-point FG per game
Player (school) 3s GP 3PG
Sadie Cresswell (Pot) 71 24 3.0
Abigail Snitzer (SV) 71 27 2.6
Bailey Trell (Lrd) 69 28 2.5
Macey Markovich (PV) 54 22 2.5
Adrn. Kroznuskie (Min) 59 29 2.0
Shelby Berger (Wea) 31 18 1.8
Carmella Bickel (Lrd) 47 27 1.7
Aubrey Blasiak (Leh) 35 21 1.6
Faith Shiffer (PG) 37 23 1.6
Rgn. Newswanger (TV) 33 23 1.4
Kate Whelski (WV) 37 26 1.4
V. Whitecavage (Mar) 30 21 1.4
Megan Bisco (MA) 30 22 1.4
Allison Warren (Nat) 27 22 1.2
Selina Albert (Lrd) 32 28 1.2
Tiff Lapotsky (NS) 31 29 1.1
Abbey Whildin (Mar) 28 25 1.1
Abigail Fanelli (BM) 26 23 1.1
Ashley Strausser (Nat) 24 21 1.1
Amanda Farr (SH) 25 22 1.1
Hannah Nestor (WV) 24 23 1.0
Free-throw percentage
(Minimum 50 attempts)
Player FTM FTA FT%
Adrn. Kroznuskie (Min) 76 96 .792
Hannah Nestor (WV) 54 69 .783
Sadie Cresswell (Pot) 44 57 .772
Abigail Snitzer (SV) 64 85 .753
Abigail Fanelli (BM) 57 76 .750
Allison Warren (Nat) 103 138 .746
Rachel Edge (PG) 55 75 .733
Kyra Schenk (Pot) 50 69 .725
Aubrey Blasiak (Leh) 47 65 .723
Bailey Trell (Lrd) 62 88 .705
Kate Whelski (WV) 68 98 .694
Jordyn Simons (Nat) 73 107 .682
Kristina Nieddu (SV) 96 141 .681
Autumn Walker (UDA) 36 53 .679
Haley Nestor (WV) 71 105 .672
Keegan White (SH) 39 58 .672
Paige Doyle (TV) 67 100 .670
Abby Schoffstall (Min) 95 144 .660
Erin Ebling (BM) 38 58 .655
Carmella Bickel (Lrd) 54 83 .651
Emma Schweigert (SH) 41 63 .651
Marcella Creasy (SV) 42 65 .646
Skylynn Faust (Leh) 40 62 .645
Nina Marone (NS) 38 59 .644
Rayanne Hawk (WV) 57 89 .640
TEAM
Scoring offense
School Pts. GP PPG
Minersville 1,662 29 57.3
North Schuylkill 1,549 29 53.4
Williams Valley 1,368 26 52.6
Pottsville 1,235 24 51.5
Jim Thorpe 1,087 22 49.4
Lourdes 1,338 28 47.8
Shenandoah Valley 1,240 27 45.9
Marian 1,139 25 45.6
Pine Grove 1,034 23 45.0
Nativity 980 22 44.5
Tri-Valley 1,013 23 44.0
Blue Mountain 996 23 43.3
Schuylkill Haven 947 22 43.0
Mahanoy Area 1,022 24 42.6
Lehighton 930 22 42.3
Upper Dauphin 957 24 39.9
Weatherly 735 20 36.8
Hamburg 807 22 36.7
Panther Valley 646 22 29.4
Tamaqua 633 22 28.8
Scoring defense
School Pts. GP PPG
Mahanoy Area 764 24 31.8
Shenandoah Valley 868 27 32.1
North Schuylkill 1,032 29 35.6
Pottsville 856 24 35.7
Lourdes 1,016 28 36.3
Blue Mountain 837 23 36.4
Tri-Valley 918 23 39.9
Marian 1,023 25 40.9
Pine Grove 951 23 41.3
Hamburg 932 22 42.4
Minersville 1,233 29 42.5
Nativity 948 22 43.1
Williams Valley 1,127 26 43.3
Schuylkill Haven 964 22 43.8
Lehighton 1,066 22 48.5
Tamaqua 1,096 22 49.8
Upper Dauphin 1,229 24 51.2
Panther Valley 1,148 22 52.2
Jim Thorpe 1,157 22 52.6
Weatherly 1,137 20 56.9
Free-throw percentage
School FTM FTA FT%
Shenandoah Valley 244 367 .665
Williams Valley 277 421 .658
Nativity 248 381 .651
Lourdes 199 306 .650
Blue Mountain 243 385 .631
Minersville 326 517 .631
Schuylkill Haven 132 212 .623
North Schuylkill 306 499 .613
Pottsville 226 371 .609
Pine Grove 204 337 .605
Upper Dauphin 197 330 .597
Weatherly 85 144 .590
Marian 272 470 .579
Tri-Valley 194 341 .569
Mahanoy Area 143 255 .561
Lehighton 196 353 .555
Tamaqua 98 187 .524
Hamburg 134 269 .498
Jim Thorpe 245 499 .491
Panther Valley 88 203 .433