Lauren Charlton

Lauren Charlton

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<p>Lauren Charlton</p>

Lauren Charlton

<p>Sam Yencha</p>

Sam Yencha

<p>Marissa Trivelpiece</p>

Marissa Trivelpiece

<p>Allycia Harris</p>

Allycia Harris

<p>Katie Starr</p>

Katie Starr

<p>Sarah Salus</p>

Sarah Salus

<p>Olivia Wolk</p>

Olivia Wolk

<p>Toni Amato</p>

Toni Amato

<p>Riley Baird</p>

Riley Baird

<p>Renny Murphy</p>

Renny Murphy

LAUREN CHARLTON

Dallas

6-0 Sr. F

Player of the Year

When Charlton stepped to the foul line for the final two free throws of her career, she nailed the 1,000th point of her high school career and a state playoff game was halted to honor that feat.

Then again, the Dallas star has always been a show stopper.

Whether she was swishing six 3-point field goals in an upset of Hazleton Area or tossing around six assists in a quarter to help her Mountaineers beat Wilkes-Barre Area, Charlton did whatever it took to help her team win while earning the 2020 Times Leader Girls Basketball Player of the Year award.

And Dallas did plenty of winning.

Led by Charlton’s scoring averages of 17 points per game and a 3-point clip that rounded out to 2.7 per game, Dallas won the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 title, made the District 2 Class 4A title game and made the program’s first PIAA Tournament appearance in 18 years.

The Mountaineers won there, too.

Behind a game-high 17 points from Charlton, who will play for the University of Pennsylvania next season, Dallas downed Shamokin in a state opener as the Mountaineers won their first PIAA playoff game since 2002. And Charlton’s free throw that made for a milestone had Dallas ahead by 10 points early in the fourth quarter in the second round before Lansdale Catholic rallied for victory.

That did little to sour a spectacular season by Charlton, who missed the final two weeks of her junior year and nearly half of her sophomore year with seperate shoulder injuries, only to come back for one last shot to show WVC girls basketball fans what they’d been missing.

TONI AMATO

Valley West

5-5 Sr. G

The glue to Valley West’s District 2 Class 5A semifinal run, Amato averaged 12 points and 1.6 3-pointers per game and shot a Division 1-high .828 from the foul line. She finished with a flourish, hitting five 3-pointers and scoring 28 points, including her career 1,000th in the Spartans’ regular-season finale against Division 1 champ Dallas.

RILEY BAIRD

Nanticoke Area

5-3 So. G

With Baird on the floor, a young Nanticoke Area team turned into a dangerous threat to deal with. Here’s why: Baird averaged 11.6 points and 1.6 3-pointers per game, stopping opponents from packing the inside against the Trojanettes height. Her two foul shots and game-high 12 points helped Nanticoke Area upset Lake-Lehman for a second time to reach the District 2 Class 4A third-place game, where Nanticoke Area sorely missed her in a loss to Berwick when illness kept Baird off the floor.

ALLYCIA HARRIS

Wilkes-Barre Area

5-10 Sr. F

Nobody in the league brought more electricity or determination to the floor than Harris, who carried Wilkes-Barre Area to an unbeaten non-conference season and into the first-year sports jointure’s first District 2/4 Class 6A semifinal game. Harris led the entire conference by averaging 19.5 points per game and added new highlights to her season-long reel just about every time out. She scored 33 points and ripped down 18 rebounds in a last-second loss to Williamsport in districts while providing more than 70 percent of team’s offense. With her timely steals and coast-to-coast dashes, that wasn’t an uncommon occurence.

RENNY MURPHY

Berwick

5-8 Jr. G

A smooth shooter from the perimeter, Murphy added punch to a Berwick team that reached the PIAA playoffs for the third time in four years. She averaged 12.2 points and tossed in 21 3-pointers during the regular season while providing a calming influence when games began getting tight. A 78 percent free throw shooter, she was among the steadiest from the foul line in Division 1. She also finished as Berwick’s second-leading rebounder, averaging more than three per game.

SARAH SALUS

Lake-Lehman

5-8 Sr. G

The only returning starter from last season’s state playoff run, Salus was key in leading Lehman to the overall WVC championship as a wild card. She led the WVC Division 2 by scoring an average of 18.2 points per game and was one of the top 3-point shooters while leading Division 2 for most of the season before finishing fourth with an average of 1.5 treys per game. Even more importantly, her steady ballhandling and calming influence were critical to a young Lehman lineup.

KATIE STARR

Berwick

5-11, Jr. F

A tenacious paint player on both offense and defense, Starr showed Berwick the way back to the PIAA Tournament by delivering big plays at the most critical times. She averaged 15.3 points during the regular season and pulled down 279 rebounds through 26 games for the Bulldogs while regularly finishing with a double-double every night. Starr also led the team with 66 steals and blocked 44 shots as a dymanic two-way inside force.

MARISSA TRIVELPIECE

Hazleton Area

6-0 Sr. F

The unquestioned leader of a Hazleton Area team that strung together another 20-win season, Trivelpiece took Hazleton Area to its second straight District 2/4 Class 6A title and back to the state playoffs. She averaged 15.5 points and showed an uncanny knack for blocking shots while averaging nearly three per game. She was perfect in the district title victory over Williamsport, going 3-for-3 from the field with all 3-point shots and hitting both of her free throws.

OLIVIA WOLK

Hazleton Area

5-7 Jr. G

One of the most explosive outside players in the WVC, Wolk averaged 12.5 points in Hazleton Area’s balanced scoring attack and proved one of the coolest custmers at the foul line, where she converted 71 percent of her free throws. Her sneaky ability to score points in bunches often opened up options on the inside for the Cougars and her quickness on defense proved pivotal to Hazleton Area’s reknowned press.

SAM YENCHA

Holy Redeemer

5-7 Sr. G

In a second-round 478-39 state playoff loss to Imhotep that went down to the final minutes and with her banged-up team relying on her for points, Yencha scored 20 of them to produce more than half of the Royals’ offensive output. But playing the part of team leader is typical for Yencha, who averaged 17.5 points to charge Redeemer’s third straight unbeaten WVC Division 2 season and ensured a trip to the District 2 Class 3A finals and into the PIAA playoffs was part of all four of her high school seasons.

KELLY JOHNSON

Dallas

Coach of the Year

There were a lot of buts, doubts and what-ifs after Dallas allowed a 10-point lead to slip away in the final seven minutes of a 61-53 loss to Lansdale Catholic in the second round of the PIAA Class 4A playoffs. But what if Dallas didn’t have Kelly Johnson to mold one of the most cohesive units in the WVC? Would the Mountaineers have even made it that far? Probably not. A long-time proponent of ball-sharing and team chemistry, Johnson took a Dallas team expected to be somewhere in the middle of league pack and built the Mountaineers into a WVC Division 1 champion. Along the way, she guided Dallas to its first District 2 title appearance and first state playoff win since 2002 and made the Mountaineers believe they had a chance to beat even the best every single night.

Second Team

Name`School`Grade`Pos.`Avg.

Kyra Antolick`Hazleton Area`Sr.`F`6.1

Lauren Casey`Nanticoke Area`Jr.`C`11.3

Claire Dougherty`Lake-Lehman`S0.`C`12.5

Bella Hill`Dallas`Jr.`G`7.5

Madison Hooper`Hanover Area`Sr.`G`15.0

Trinity Johnson`Valley West`So.`C`12.3

Liv Moore`Sr.`Holy Redeemer`F`8.2

Chase Purdy`Lake-Lehman`So.`F`9.5

Ally Vezendy`Wyoming Sem`Sr.`G“13.8

Deanna Wallace`Dallas`Jr.`G`8.4

Honorable Mention

Crestwood — Helena Jardine, Jr. F. Dallas — Claire Charlton, Jr. C. Holy Redeemer — Karissa Spade, Jr. G. Nanticoke Area — Emily Cullen, Jr. F. Northwest Reagan Harrison, Sr. G. Pittston Area — Emma Coles, Sr. F; Jada Sharp, Jr. G. Wyoming Area — Cassidy Orzel, Sr. F; Nicole Silinskie, Sr. G. Wyoming Sem Alex Wesneski, Sr. G.