Senior starter Lia Keefe (15) and Lake-Lehman will be looking for their second win of the season against District 2 champ Dunmore in today’s state quarterfinals.
Fred Adams | For Times Leader
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A 3-pointer from an unlikely source catapulted the Lake-Lehman girls basketball team into the PIAA quarterfinals for the first time in the program’s history.
The unfamiliar territory will come with a familiar opponent — Dunmore.
District 2 third seed Lehman (25-5) will play District 2 champion Dunmore (24-3) at 7 p.m. Friday at Scranton High School in a Class 3A quarterfinal game.
“I like it, I like it,” Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said. “I’m sure they would love to play us.”
One of Dunmore’s three losses this season was to Lehman. The Black Knights prevailed 51-40 in overtime on Jan. 28. The Bucks’ other losses were 42-36 to Mount Carmel on Dec. 17 and 52-33 to Scranton Prep on Dec. 29.
District 4 champ Mount Carmel plays District 3 champ Lancaster Catholic in a quarterfinal game, with the winner playing the Lehman-Dunmore winner on Monday. Scranton Prep plays in a 4A quarterfinal game Saturday.
Dunmore has been a frequent visitor to the state quarterfinals. The Bucks have been there five times in the last six seasons, including 2019, which resulted in an appearance in the 3A championship game.
Lehman finally made it to the quarterfinals after falling just short in 1984, 2019 and 2022. Four other trips to states resulted in first-round exits. The Black Knights defeated District 3 runner-up Columbia 50-48 in the second round Wednesday on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer Molly Jenkins, who had one other 3-pointer the entire season and just three for her career.
The victory had a major red flag. Lehman turned over the ball 24 times against Columbia’s 1-2 midcourt trap.
“It’s tough,” Lavan said. “They have those fast hands up there. I thought we could have done a little better job getting the ball off the top. We sort of kept it up there a few times and got in trouble.”
Lehman also saw an eight-point lead midway through the fourth quarter turn into a deficit.
As for the Jan. 28 matchup, Dunmore led for just 38 seconds, but battled back to force overtime. Lehman dominated the extra four minutes.
However, a couple items must be noted about Dunmore back then. Sophia Talutto, Dunmore’s super-active guard, was playing for the first time after being sidelined for two weeks with an ankle injury. Ciera Toomey, a 6-foot-4 North Carolina recruit, played less than three minutes and didn’t score. Toomey was playing for only the second time since an ACL injury in the 2022 District 2 Class 4A title game that required surgery.
Toomey’s playing time has steadily increased. She had 14 points and dominated the boards in a 52-34 second-round victory over District 12 champion Imhotep. Talutto had 15 points.
OTHER GAMES
Five other District 2 teams — all from the Lackawanna League — will be playing Friday and Saturday. Two games will be held locally.
Here is a rundown of those games:
• Class 2A Girls — Montrose vs. Faith Christian Academy, 7 p.m. Friday at Wyoming Area High School.
• Class 5A Boys — Abington Heights vs. Imhotep, 7 p.m. Friday at Easton Middle School.
• Class 2A Boys — Holy Cross vs. Dock Mennonite, noon Saturday at East Stroudsburg South High School.
• Class A Girls — Mountain View vs. Christian School of York, 1 p.m. Saturday at Wyoming Area High School.
• Class 4A Girls — Scranton Prep vs. Trinity, 1 p.m. Saturday at Martz Hall, Pottsville.