NANTICOKE — Surrendering 18 consecutive points is usually a sign of doom.
Yet, Crestwood overcame the offensive drought Thursday night in the Wyoming Valley Conference girls basketball semifinals at Nanticoke Area.
The Comets gained the lead on a rebound basket by Charlie Hiller with 26 seconds left to complete a fourth-quarter rally and a 48-45 victory over Lake-Lehman.
Jordan Andrews added a pair of free throws with 4.7 seconds left for Crestwood’s final points. A desperation 3-pointer by Lehman at the buzzer was well off the mark.
Crestwood (19-3) plays Hazleton Area (23-0) at noon Saturday for the championship at Wilkes-Barre Area. The game has been moved up two hours because of the threat of inclement weather. It will be moved to Sunday if postponed Saturday.
Lehman (17-6) will play Tuesday in the District 2 Class 3A playoffs against Carbondale Area.
Crestwood led 16-7 with 3:12 left in the first quarter, using its size advantage to get the ball inside to Hiller and Kate Gallagher. Abruptly, the bottom fell out of the offense.
Lehman’s Ella Wilson hit an outside jumper, triggering an 18-0 run that put the Black Knights ahead 25-16. During the run, Crestwood went away from the inside game and started firing up 3-pointers.
The Comets missed all five shots from behind the arc in the second quarter, something coach Mary Mushock-Namey believed swung the momentum.
“One-hundred percent,” Crestwood coach Mary Mushock-Namey said. “That’s something we talked about a lot over the past couple of weeks. We are a really good 3-point shooting team, but we’re starting to live and die by it. That’s not what we want when we have two 6-footers inside.”
Crestwood answered the 18-0 run by Lehman with a 10-0 run, cutting the deficit to 27-26 at halftime.
Lehman used a 6-0 run to end the third that extended into the fourth to take a 42-36 lead. Kathryn Morgan had four of the points.
Hiller finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kate Gallagher added 10 points for Crestwood.
Morgan had 16 points and nine rebounds. Wilson had 15 points and 11 rebounds.
WVC Girls Semifinals
Crestwood 48, Lake-Lehman 45
CRESTWOOD (48) — Kate Gallagher 2 6-6 10, Kendall Petrosky 3 0-0 7, Jordan Andrews 1 2-2 4, Jackie Gallagher 3 0-0 7, Charlie Hiller 6 1-4 13, Cameron Vieney 1 4-6 6, Norah Sklarosky 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 13-18 48.
LAKE-LEHMAN (45) — Delcia Biscotto 0 2-2 2, Ella Wilson 7 1-3 15, Kathryn Morgan 7 0-0 16, Olivia Oliver 2 0-0 5, Kinley Purdy 2 3-4 7, Olivia Corcoran 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 6-9 45.
Crestwood`16`10`10`12 — 48
Lake-Lehman`14`13`11`7 — 45
Three-point goals: CRE 2 (Petrosky, J.Gallagher). LL 2 (Morgan 2).
