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BY JOHN GORDON jtgordon@leader.net
Thursday, February 03, 2000 Page: 27
Beth Poholidal made a court appearance Saturday with a rap sheet for
stealing basketballs. The court was the Wyoming Seminary Lower School
basketball court. The thefts perpetrated by the St. Nick’s-St. Mary’s
eighth-grader were four pivotal steals in a 2:55 span of the third and fourth
quarters. Poholidal converted the steals into key buckets in a decisive 17-2
run as St. Nick’s remained undefeated in the Wilkes-Barre Area 7th-8th Grade
Girls Basketball League with a 41-27 win over Sacred Heart. It was the second
loss for Sacred Heart. The game was a complete reversal of Friday night’s
contest between the two city parochial schools. Sacred Heart defeated St.
Nick’s 35-32 at Sacred Heart in East-West Parochial Girls Basketball League
action. In Saturday’s contest, St. Nick’s jumped to an 8-4 lead by the end of
the first quarter behind the shooting of Bridget Keating and Colleen Horn.
Both hit a pair of outside shots and tallied four points apiece in the opening
stanza. Keating finished the game with 10 points while Horn added six.
Maria Luchetti hit all four of Sacred Heart’s points in the first quarter
and had eight for the game.
The St. Nick’s lead widened to 14-4 with four minutes to go in the second
quarter after an 8-0 run. Helene Luchetti broke the Sacred Heart drought with
a pair of free throws at the 3:40 mark. She finished with five points.
Annaleigh Brace grabbed a rebound and had a strong putback to narrow the lead
to 14-9 with 2:05 to go in the first half.
April Lynch completed the 11-0 Sacred Heart run as she made a layup on an
impressive drive, putting her team in front for the first time 15-14 at
halftime. Lynch had eight points in the game and Brace’s bucket was her only
two points in the contest.
A 10-0 spurt by St. Nick’s at the start of the second half put the
Crescents back in front by a score of 24-17. Poholidal completed a 12-0 run by
making the first of four of her steals at midcourt and driving for an
uncontested layup and a 26-17 lead.
Sacred Heart’s Lynch cut the lead to 26-19 with a nice shot at the 1:10
mark of the third quarter. That was as close as they would get the rest of the
game.
Poholidal stole two more passes at half court in the final minute of the
third quarter and turned them into layups, giving her team a 30-19 lead
heading into the final period. “It was just anticipation that led to my
steals,” said Poholidal.
That same sense of anticipation led to the steal of an inbounds pass early
in the fourth and this time Poholidal used her speed and agility to maneuver
the length of the court and scoop in another transition layup.
Poholidal’s performance was swift and stunning as she nailed nine points in
each of the final two quarters to finish with a game-high 22 points. The
double deuce she recorded was balanced out by her teammates’ contribution of
19 points. “We simply played together as a team,” said Poholidal. ST.
NICK’S-ST. MARY’S (41) Poholidal 9 4-7 22, Keating 4 2-4 10, Drosey 1 1-4 3,
Horn 3 0-1 6, Dugan 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 7-16 41 SACRED HEART Lynch 4 0-2 8,
Miller 0 2-4 2, M. Luchetti 4 0-2 8, H. Luchetti 1 3-4 5, Choman 1 0-0 2,
Brace 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 5-12 27 ST. NICK’S 8 7 15 11 — 41 SACRED HEART 4 13
2 8 — 27 3-point goals: none