Lady Hornets roll past Williamson to NTL Large School championship

By: Ed Weaver  /  February 7, 2018  /  Photo: Maureen Poirier

The Wellsboro Varsity Girls Basketball team captured the NTL Large School Division championship with a 69-32 win over Williamson on Tuesday, February 6.

"Winning the NTL Large School Championship is a great accomplishment for these girls," head coach John Davis said. "They put in the work during the off season for this moment. The girls definitely earned it. Thankfully there is plenty of basketball left, and we get to enjoy this group a bit longer."

The Lady Hornets jumped out to an early 17-6 lead but were outscored by Williamson 9-8 in the second to lead 25-15 at halftime.

Wellsboro, however, put the game away in the third quarter as they went on a 27-10 run keyed by 17 points from senior Tory Self to put Wellsboro in firm control at the end of the quarter with a 52-25 lead. Wellsboro's defense held Williamson to just 7 points in the final quarter, while the Lady Hornet offense added 17 more points.

Self scored a game-high 32 points, the 5th most by any Lady Hornet in Wellsboro girls basketball history (Kelly Mann is 4th all-time with 33 points against Lewisburg in 1989), and nearly had a triple-double with 12 steals and 7 assists. She also grabbed 4 rebounds on the night. Self has now scored 423 points this season with two regular season games remaining.

Senior Lizzie Poirier scored 13 to eclipse the 900-point mark (907), freshman Bailey Monks scored a career-high 7, sophomore Cathryn Brought added 6, sophomore Liza Manning scored 4, senior Mikel Shabloski finished with 3, and junior Dani Hunt and freshman Sarah Mosher scored 2 points each.

Poirier and Manning each grabbed 8 rebounds, Brought added 5 rebounds and 3 steals, and Monks contributed 6 rebounds.

"I am very happy with the way the girls have kept the momentum going after losing two quality players to injury," continued Davis. "Fortunately, we had girls step up when called upon. Liza and Lizzie both lead the team tonight in rebounding, Tory was a force on defense as well as offense, Mikel was her usual disrupting self on defense tonight; always had a hand on the ball for a deflection or steal. Cathryn had a great all-around game with playing great defense and hitting the boards hard and Bailey and Dani provided quality minutes of the bench when needed. It was a total team win tonight."

In the JV game the Lady Hornets fell to Williamson 34-27.

The win improves the Varsity team's record to 19-1 (15-0 NTL Large School Division) and is the best season under Coach Davis. The Lady Hornets have two games remaining on the season. They host Danville on Saturday afternoon, then look to complete their undefeated NTL season on Monday, February 12 at rival North Penn-Mansfield.