Salus and Lake-Lehman beat Wyoming Area, set up girls basketball showdown

EXETER — Little more than a minute into the game, Chase Purdy stepped outside and swished a 3-point field goal for the night’s first points.

It was only a warning shot of things to come.

Purdy’s long-range jumper ignited a hot-shooting night where every Lake-Lehman starter hit a 3-pointer, Sarah Salus finished with 25 points and the Black Knights secured a spot in the league playoffs by burning Wyoming Area 70-41 in a Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 girls basketball game at Wyoming Area High School.

“It’s really good,” Salus said. “Other teams can’t stop just one person. They have to defend everyone.”

By the end, Wyoming Area had trouble stopping anyone.

Purdy wound up with 15 points, while fellow Lake-Lehman starters Claire Dougherty and Hailey Kline each came up with 11 to go with Salus’ game-high total.

All of them hit 3-pointers, and guard Madison Brdaric made it the whole starting lineup converting from deep when she hit a trey of her own in the third quarter.

“We all work on our shot a lot in practice,” Purdy said.

That includes 6-foot post players Claire Dougherty, a sophomore, and freshman Hailey Kline.

“I practice it just as much as they do,” Dougherty said, nodding toward Purdy and Salus. “Our size is definitely a great balance. If you get the ball inside, it opens it up for the 3-ball. When they have to defend the 3, they can’t defend it inside, as well.”

That inside-out game put Lehman in the WVC overall league playoffs for the first time, after the Black Knights barely missed out on power ratings when the four-team tourney debuted last season.

This time, the Black Knights left no doubt while knocking Wyoming Area to 6-5 in Division 2 — and out of contention for an overall league crown. Lehman improved to 10-1 in conference play and can finish no worse than second in Division 2 of the WVC.

Wyoming Seminary, which enters the final three games of the WVC season at 7-4, could feasibly finish tied with the Black Knights, but Lehman would get the tiebreaker based on sweeping the two games between the teams this year.

This year’s WVC tournament will include the top two finishers from both Division 1 and Division 2.

“We’re in!” exclaimed Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan.

But the Black Knights have bigger things on their minds.

They’ll try to tie 11-0 Holy Redeemer for first place when the teams meet at Redeemer on Monday and force a playoff for first place in Division 2.

“That’s what we’ve been working toward this year,” Salus said.

To prepare for it, Lehman worked on a few things Thursday.

Salus scored eight points in the opening quarter and Purdy hit five as the Black Knights jumped out to a 15-7 lead.

They boosted it to 14 points early in the second quarter, only to have Wyoming Area respond with a 10-2 run that closed the gap to 26-20 with Nicole Silinskie’s runner down the lane 3:20 before halftime.

“Wyoming Area’s a tough team,” Lavan said.

But Purdy drilled her third trey of the night, Kline and Brdaric added 3-pointers and Lehman out-gunned Wyoming Area 23-9 in the third quarter to take a 23-point lead into the fourth.

“After halftime, that was it,” Lavan said. “We came out focused. This is the second game in a row where we came out with a big third quarter.

“Every coach loves a big third quarter.”

Salus scored the first seven points of the fourth quarter before heading to the bench as Lehman’s starters played sporadically over the final eight minutes — with their attention already turned to the approaching battle with Redeemer for first place in Division 2.

“I think it’s time for us to win it,” Purdy, a sophomore, said. “I was kind of just practicing for it. In the game against Redeemer, I’m going to have to hit threes. I’ve got to be ready for the Redeemer game.”

Lake-Lehman 70, Wyoming Area 41

LAKE-LEHMAN (70) — Chase Purdy 6 0-0 15, Sarah Salus 11 1-2 25, Hailey Kline 5 0-0 11, Claire Dougherty 5 0-0 11, Madison Brdaric 1 0-0 3, Autumn Savitsky 0 2-2 2, Krista Scoblick 0 0-0 0, Marissa Brdaric 0 0-0 0, Gia Keefe 1 1-2 3. Totals 34 4-6 70.

WYOMING AREA (41) — Nicole Silinskie 7 1-2 18, Cassidy Orzel 2 0-0 6, Mackenzie Nocchi 1 0-0 3, Maria Amato 3 0-1 6, Morgan Janeski 1 0-0 2, Halle Kranson 0 0-0 0, Anna Wisnewski 2 0-0 4, Kaityln Slusser 0 0-0 0, Erika Holweg 0 0-0 0, Alana Aufiere 1 0-0 2, Ashley Songaila 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 1-3 41.

Lake-Lehman`15`18`23`14 — 70

Wyoming Area`7`17`9`8 — 41

Three-point goals — LL 8 (Purdy 3, Salus 2, Dougherty, Kline, Madison Brdaric); WA 6 (Silinskie 3, Orzel 2, Nocchi).