Charlton heats up, Dallas girls basketball pulls away from Pittston Area
YATESVILLE — They’re still in it.
And Lauren Charlton and Morgan MacNeely gave the Dallas Mountaineers reason to believe they’re here to stay.
Charlton scored more than half the team’s points Wednesday, MacNeely hit all of her eight points in a pivotal fourth quarter and Dallas opened the second half of its league schedule by pulling away from Pittston Area, 47-31 to remain in the chase for a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 girls basketball title.
“I feel we have a great group of girls, great chemistry,” Charlton said. “I think if any of us start scoring, it really just sparks everything.”
It was Charlton who pulled the trigger on the Patriots, scoring seven unanswered points after Pittston Area closed to within one in the final minute of the third quarter.
From there, Dallas outgunned the Patriots 25-10 to close out a victory that moved the Mountaineers to 12-3 overall and to 5-2 in the WVC Division 1, as they remained in a second-place tie with Berwick and just behind 6-1 Hazleton Area for the league lead.
Another defeat would have been damaging to Dallas’ title hopes, as Wednesday’s win also helped the Mountaineers shrug off a disappointing 51-46 loss to Wyoming Valley West on Monday and avoid back-to-back losses for the first time this season.
“It was definitely something where we kind of just came together,” Charlton said, “and we’re like, ‘We’ve got to get this one.’ Especially after the tough loss the other day.”
Charlton got through a tough shooting stretch to finish with a game-high 24 points — with 16 of those coming in the second half.
The senior University of Pennsylvania commit made just one of her first nine attempts from the field and had eight points three minutes into the second half, but heated up when things got hairy.
She converted five of her final six shots over the final 13 minutes — including a pair of 3-pointers — and wound up hitting nine of her 10 tries from the foul line for the game.
“I was definitely struggling,” Charlton said. “I’ve been taught just to keep shooting, even though you are struggling. My teammates were a big part of it, we feed off each other. We see the floor and work the ball.”
For a long while, the Patriots gave Dallas a real workout.
Pittston Area, which had its three-game winning streak snapped and fell to 9-6 overall and 4-4 in league play, leaned on Jada Sharp to push the Mountaineers into a corner.
Sharp scored 11 of her team-high 16 points in the first half as Pittston Area hung within 17-13, then hit a running five-footer with 58 seconds to play in the third quarter as the Patriots closed within 22-21.
That’s when Charlton took over.
She ended the scoring in the period with a bucket to give Dallas a three-point lead, then began the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer and a 15-foot jumper in traffic to give the Mountaineers more breathing room with a 29-21 advantage.
“She came alive more in the second half,” Dallas coach Kelly Johnson said. “You can’t let her get too many uncontested looks, because the ball’s going in the basket, for sure. I think that gave us momentum. It’s a special group of kids. They get along, they’re supportive of each other. They just want to win.
“They don’t like being pushed to the edge.”
Evidently not.
After Charlton’s spree, MacNeely flashed one of her own, converting a regular bucket followed by a 3-pointer as Dallas tore off 12 straight points after its lead dwindled to one while building a 34-21 advantage three minutes into the final quarter and pretty much icing the game.
Bella Hill made four foul shots from there to finish with seven points, and MacNeely wrapped up her eight-point finish over the final eight minutes with three foul shots.
“She is such a consistent player,” Johnson said of MacNeely. “She brings such calm and balance to the floor. She is a terrific defender and she sees the court and is able to distribute the ball.We encourage her to take the open shots when she gets them.”
Now back on the winning track, the Mountaineers can concentrate on getting into the heart of the Division 1 championship race.
“We don’t like to lose,” Johnson said. “That’s why that loss to Valley West stung so much. We’ve had tight games.
”Somebody always steps up to make a difference in the game when we’re getting pushed to the edge.”
Dallas 47, Pittston Area 31
DALLAS (47) — Morgan MacNeely 2 3-6 8, Haley Habrack 0 0-0 0, Lauren Charlton 6 9-10 24, Deanne Wallace 1 0-0 3, Claire Charlton 0 0-0 0, Bella Hill 1 4-5 7, Emily Weiland 1 0-0 2, Julia Kocher 1 0-0 3, Nadia Evanosky 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 16-21 47.
PITTSTON AREA (31) — Hannah Getz 2 0-1 4, Nicole Zampetti 2 0-0 4, Emma Coles 2 0-0 5, Lily Savoy 0 0-0 0, Jada Sharp 6 0-0 16, Kallie Booth 1 0-0 2, Sam Christian 0 0-0 0, Amanda Fath 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 0-1 31.
Dallas`13`4`7`23 — 47
Pittston Area`5`8`8`10 — 31
Three-point goals — DAL 7 (L. Charlton 3, Wallace, Hill, Kocher, MacNeely); PA 5 (Sharp 4, Coles).
