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EXETER — Those fluid 3-point shots she’s continually swished throughout her splendid career have made Reese Mensinger a marked player lately.
So she used the opening of her final District 2 girls basketball playoffs to make another mark.
Mensinger scored a game-high 17 points Tuesday and made sure her teammates received their fair share, too, driving and dishing her way through Lake-Lehman’s defense Tuesday while leading Berwick to a 61-48 victory in a Class 4A district quarterfinal game at Wyoming Area Secondary Center.
“They’re playing box-and-one and trying to shut me out,” Mensinger said. “I focus a lot on passing. I focus a lot on getting to the rim more, to make myself more dangerous.”
This new, more versatile version of Mensinger may be even more maddening to defenses than the pure perimeter shooter who dominated Berwick’s run to the District 2 title game and second round of the PIAA playoffs last year.
“Reese Mensinger got off (shots) against us and that really hurt us,” said Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan, whose team finished 13-10. “If you let Mensinger loose, whether it be for a 3-pointer or in transition, she’s going to beat you.”
Now, Berwick is hoping to once again beat top-seeded Scranton Prep — which knocked off Tunkhannock in another Tuesday quarterfinal — in a rematch of last year’s district semifinal on Friday. Berwick rode that 2017 upset to a District 2 silver medal in the Class 4A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena and an automatic state playoff berth a year ago, something the Bulldogs have hopes of duplicating this week.
“It’s definitely an amazing feeling,” Mensinger, a senior, said. “We want to be back at Mohegan Sun.
“This is one step to get there.”
Mensinger’s stepped out early to rip an NBA-range 3-pointer early. But Lehman recovered to take a 12-9 lead into the second quarter, thanks to six of Madison Borum’s 12 points.
That’s when Mensinger flashed other methods of making her presence felt.
The 5-foot-6 guard kept driving a lane filled with 6-footers, and drawing fouls. She hit five of her six free throws in the second quarter and lifted Berwick into a 29-18 halftime lead.
She also showed off a dynamic ability to find open teammates.
Just before halftime, Mensinger beat a converging Lehman defense with a bounce pass to Sierra Miedaner for a layup that beat the buzzer and sent the Bulldogs into the locker room with an 11-point edge.
And in the fourth quarter, Mensinger helped thwart a couple of Lake-Lehman rallies with eye-catching assists to Megan Dalo and Katie Starr. While the Black Knights concentrated on Mensinger, Starr finished with 15 points, while Dalo wound up with 13.
“Everybody tries to take Reese away,” Berwick coach Bill Phillips said. “We’ve probably seen eight or nine teams play a box-and-one on us. She saw it last year. She had a tremendous passing game tonight.”
The Bulldogs, though, didn’t pass up a chance to play some suffocating defense.
The game turned when Berwick held Lehman without a basket for nearly 10 minutes, a stretch covering most of the middle quarters which left Berwick with a 40-19 lead.
“Our kids take great pride in our defense,” Phillips said. “It’s a game of runs. We went on a couple more longer runs than they did.”
Now, the Bulldogs (16-7) are in a stretch where they’ve won seven of their last eight games, and running back to the district semifinals. They’re also guaranteed at least two more games — either in a second straight district title showdown or in a third-place game for a state playoff berth.
“We feel like we’re in a very similar situation as we were last year, with our momentum,” Phillips said. “Our kids have been talking about getting back to where we were last year.”
Nanticoke Area 57, Valley View 34
Lisa Radziak buried six 3-point field goals and scored 22 points as the defending District 2 Class 4A champion Trojanettes recovered from Saturday’s WVC Division 2 championship loss to Holy Redeemer by romping past Valley View.
Nanticoke Area improved to 20-3 and will face Wyoming Area in Friday’s district semifinals in a rematch of Wyoming Area’s upset win in the WVC regular-season finale that forced the Trojanettes into a league championship playoff game.
Radziak drilled three treys and scored 11 points in the second quarter as Nanticoke Area extended its four-point lead to 35-18 by halftime.
Katie Butczynski scored six points in the first and last quarter and finished with 14 points in the victory and Maddy Grilz returned to the Trojanettes lineup with a 3-pointer in the second period after sitting out the last week with concussion symptoms.
Abby Pidgeon scored 10 points for Valley View, which was held to a combined 10 points in the middle quarters.
Wyoming Seminary 47, Elk Lake 23
Alex Wesneski scored 12 points and the Blue Knights raced out to lead of 16-5 after the opening quarter and 24-6 at halftime while cruising to a District 2 Class 2A quarterfinal victory.
The Blue Knights improved to 14-9 overall and will battle defending District 2 champion Old Forge, 10-12, which earned a first-round bye as the bracket’s No. 2 seed.
Elk Lake’s Tamara Voda and Eliza Bosscher combined for 12 points.
District 2 Class 4A quarterfinal
Berwick 61, Lake-Lehman 48
LAKE-LEHMAN (48) — Sarah Salus 5 0-0 13, Corinna Scoblick 4 5-6 13, Savannah Purdy 3 3-6 10, Jodie Salansky 0 0-0 0, Madison Borum 4 4-4 12, Hunter Kline 0 0-1 0. Totals 16 12-17 48.
BERWICK (61) — Megan Dalo 6 1-1 13, Reese Mensinger 5 6-8 17, Roni Isenberg 3 1-2 7, Renny Murphy 1 2-2 5, Katie Starr 6 3-5 13, Mallory Pinterich 1 0-0 2, Sierra Miedaner 1 0-0 2, Jadyn Michael 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 13-18 61.
Lake-Lehman`12`6`12`18 — 48
Berwick`9`20`15`17 — 61
Three-point goals — LL 4 (Salus 3, Purdy); BER 2 (Mensinger, Murphy).
District 2 Class 4A quarterfinal
Nanticoke Area 57, Valley View 34
VALLEY VIEW (34) — Tori Duffy 1 0-0 2, Mia Rudalavage 1 1-2 3, Jenn Nguyen 3 0-0 6, Arianna Nardelli 1 0-0 2, Abby Pidgeon 4 2-5 10, Brittney Charles 2 1-2 5, Skylar Bianchi 1 0-0 2, Julie Maddage 1 0-0 2, McKenzie McHale 0 0-0 0, Megan Zabielski 0 0-0 0, Faith Kendricks 1 0-0 2, Jaden Swartout 0 0-0 0. Totals 15 4-9 34.
NANTICOKE AREA (57) — Alyssa Lewis 2 5-8 9, Amiah Lukowski 1 0-0 3, Jennifer Kurkoski 0 0-0 0, Maddy Grilz 1 0-0 3, Lisa Radziak 8 0-0 22, Emily Hauer 0 0-0 0, Katie Butczynski 3 8-8 14, Jil Baron 3 0-0 6, Lauren Casey 0 0-0 0, Bella Czeck 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 13-16 57.
Valley View`11`7`3`13 — 34
Nanticoke Area`15`20`11`11 — 57
Three-point goals — NAN 8 (Radziak 6, Lukowski, Grilz).
District 2 Class 2A quarterfinal
Wyoming Seminary 47, Elk Lake 23
WYOMING SEMINARY (47) — Alex Wesneski 3 6-11 12, Julia Gabriel 2 2-4 6, Ally Vezendy 2 2-2 6, Olivia Meuser 3 0-0 6, Paige Parsons 2 1-3 5, Ava Buffalino 2 0-0 4, Kate Getz 2 0-0 4, Julia Iskra 1 0-1 2, Mia Raineri 0 2-2 2, Mia Magnotta 0 0-0 0, Emily Matthews 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 13-23 47.
ELK LAKE (23) — Tamara Voda 2 2-2 6, Eliza Bosscher 2 2-6 6, Abby Johns 2 1-2 5, Rose Warner 1 0-1 3, Mercedes Zajaczkowski 1 1-2 3, Charity Kasson 0 0-0 0, Kelsey Day 0 0-0 0, Kimmy Mosier 0 0-0 0, Madison Tewksbury 0 0-0 0, Sadie Bosscher 0 0-0 0, Brooke Arnold 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 6-13 23.
Wyoming Seminary`16`8`14`9 — 47
Elk Lake`5`1`10`7 — 23
Three-point goals — ELK 1 (Warner).
