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As the driving force behind Holy Redeemer’s third straight trip to the state quarterfinals, Rebecca Prociak led the Wyoming Valley Conference in scoring.
Maddie Ritsick became Crestwood’s all-time leading scorer.
Now the two senior stalwarts have more in common than simply point production.
Prociak was selected to the All-Pennsylvania Class 2A Girls Basketball team and Ritsick made second-team all-state in Class 3A in a ballot of state media that was released Saturday.
“It’s crazy,” Prociak said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Maybe her selection wasn’t all that far-fetched.
Prociak averaged 24.5 points and 9.5 rebounds while leading Holy Redeemer to a WVC Division 3 title, a District 2 Class 2A title and to the PIAA Class 2A quarterfinals — where a Prociak-driven Royals team held one-point leads after the second and third quarters before suffering a nine-point defeat to heavily-favored and eventual state champ Neumann-Goretti.
It was Goretti’s closest margin of victory during the postseason and may have brought Prociak, a physical 6-foot center, recognition from the rest of the state. Her impressive 10-point, seven-rebound performance through double-teams that night certainly got their attention of Neumann-Goretti coach Andrea Peterson, who shared a hug and some words of encouragement with Prociak following that game.
“She just told me I had a great season, to hold my head up,” Prociak said. “She told me, ‘You’re a great player, your future’s really good.’ that meant a lot to me, coming from her, because she’s a great coach. “
Prociak’s season was so special, she was named the WVC Division 3 most valuable player by the league’s coaches and the Times Leader Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Now she’s among the top six first-team Class 2A players in Pennsylvania.
“It was, in all honesty, one of Rebecca’s goals right from the start of the season,” Holy Redeemer coach Chris Parker said. “She wanted to lead the league in scoring, she wanted to be the league MVP and she wanted to be first-team all-state.
“Every goal that kid set for herself, ultimately, she accomplished it.”
Ritsick completed quite an accomplishment herself.
The 5-11 forward broke a 31-year-old Crestwood record by scoring 1,486 career points. And 481 of them came this season after she rebounded from an ACL and meniscus tear in her left knee, suffered during the 2015 District 2 playoffs.
“It’s a great surprise,” said Ritsick, who was named to the all-Pennsylvania team for the third straight season to close her Crestwood career. “It feels good. I wasn’t expecting to get it all three years in a row.”
Especially not after suffering through knee surgery and the grueling rehab that followed it this past summer.
But Ritsick, headed to play for Division II University of Sciences in Philadelphia next season, simply changed her game to keep her effectiveness through her final high school season.
A tremendous transition player with the ability to consistently knock down the 3-point shot, Ritsick turned herself into more of a post player and led the Comets into the District 2 Class 3A quarterfinals for the first time in more than a decade.
And while Prociak proved the WVC’s top scorer, Ritsick wasn’t far behind. She averaged 19.4 points — a slight dip from the over 20-point average she finished with for her career — but contributed far more to a young Comets team in other areas. Ritsick finished fourth in the league in scoring average, hit 21 3-point field goals to wind up seventh and converted 73 percent of her free throws to place fifth.
“Maddie, she’s an all-around player,” Crestwood coach Ed Stepanski said. “She led the team in rebounding. She led the team in scoring, in three-point shooting and blocked shots. Plus, more importantly, she’s a great kid. The other kids feed off that stuff. She had such a presence on the court, I’ve seen girls drive down, and her (Ritsick) step out and they step back.
“She has a reputation.”
It didn’t take Prociak long to develop one.
Spending the past two seasons as a second option for Redeemer to two-time first-team all-state player Alexis Lewis, the WVC’s all-time scoring leader who’s now playing as a college freshman for Iona, Prociak stepped in to fill the Royals’ scoring void.
It led Redeemer to the school’s first district title in Parker’s five seasons as a head coach and propelled the team into its third consecutive state quarterfinal appearance. During her last of three seasons as a starter, the Royals rolled up a postseason record of 18-5, including an 8-3 mark in state play, while reaching two state semifinal games.
“Our team did so well. I was hoping to get nominated,” Prociak said of the all-state honor. “I knew since my point average was up there, I would have a good shot. I just left everything out there. I’m very happy. But I couldn’t have done any of it without my teammates.”
And maybe vice-versa.
“I think,” Parker said, “with everything she did this year for her teammates, for the program itself, and the hard work she’s put in — leading us in scoring, leading us in rebounding and being our go-to player all year long — she’s well-deserving. “
It’s possible nobody in the WVC deserved an all-state honor like Ritsick.
A third-team All-State selection as a sophomore and a second-team all-state as a junior, she became Crestwood’s first three-time All-Pennsylvania player in girls or boys basketball.
“I feel like I scored more under the basket this year,” Ritsick said, “as opposed to driving to the basket. Maybe it was because of my injury, I’m not sure. I’ve been working on my physical shape. Maybe during the season I wasn’t in the same shape I was in the previous seasons. I feel like everybody knows from past years I was able to drive. Now that I’ve scored in post play, it helps me for college next year.”