STROUDSBURG — Mountain View rode its height advantage to a big first half by Addison Kilmer, then held off a fourth-quarter rally by Renaissance Academy to earn a 45-33 victory in the second round of the PIAA Class 2A girls basketball playoffs at Stroudsburg High School.
Kilmer scored her team’s first 15 points and finished with a game-high 25 on 10-for-19 shooting, including 5 of 11 from 3-point range. The 6-foot-1 junior also grabbed 10 rebounds and had one assist, two steals and three blocks to help the District 2 champion Lady Eagles (23-4) advance to Friday’s quarterfinals against District 11 champion Williams Valley, a 23-18 winner over Shalom Christian Academy.
“We wanted her to be aggressive. We’ve talked to her about being assertive,” Mountain View coach Corey Gesford said. “There’s a reason why she is as highly regarded as she is. There are times she has to understand how good she is and how important she is, not only to do things for herself, but what she creates for other people.”
After Kilmer hit her first of four 3-pointers in the opening half, Dallis Stewart scored consecutive baskets for Renaissance Academy to give it a 4-3 lead with 6:10 left in the first.
However, the Knights would not score again until Stewart hit a 3-pointer with 3:30 to go in the second quarter — a drought of 10:40, during which they shot 0 for 11 with seven turnovers.
In between, Mountain View went on a 14-0 run.
“Defense is our bread and butter,” Gesford said. “It was a change in philosophy from the past for the girls; a lot of different things they were asked to do from their youth days. It took a little while to adjust to that, but they’ve done a great job of playing team defense and helping each other out.”
Kilmer hit another three, scored inside, put back a rebound, then took a pass from Aubrey Sanders and beat the first-quarter buzzer for a 12-4 lead. She then opened the second quarter with a 3-pointer.
“My teammates found me really well,” Addison Kilmer said. “Any time we ran the floor in transition they found me and I knocked down the shot. I tried to do the same thing for them.”
Somebody other than Kilmer finally scored for Mountain View when Sanders hit two free throws on an intentional foul.
Following Stewart’s 3-pointer, Riley Turner hit the first of two free throws. Stewart rebounded a miss on the second and took it coast-to-coast for a layup. But Kilmer buried another 3-pointer to give Mountain View a 21-9 halftime lead.
Other Lady Eagles got into the scoring act in the third quarter. Ryleigh Kilmer and Emily Trichilo sandwiched 3-pointers around two baskets by Brooklyn Anderson and one by Sanders to comprise a 12-2 run that gave Mountain View a 33-16 lead. Addison Kilmer hit one more 3-pointer to send the Lady Eagles to the fourth with a 36-18 lead.
“We had other people step up and make plays, which we’ve asked them to do,” Gesford said.
Renaissance Academy (13-12), the District 1 champ, did not go away quietly. The Knights turned up their defensive pressure and it rattled Mountain View a bit, enabling them to go on a 10-2 run to pull within 38-28 with 5:13 left.
Brilan Biesecker hit a 3-pointer with 3:20 to go to cut Renaissance Academy’s deficit to 40-33 with 3:20 remaining.
However, Addison Kilmer scored off a rebound with 2:03 to go. Ryleigh Kilmer (2) and Trichilo (1) hit free throws in the final 70 seconds to secure the win and reach the state quarterfinals for a third straight season. The first two trips came in Class 1A.
“It means a lot,” Addison Kilmer said. “I’m super proud of my teammates for taking us back.”
Stewart finished as Renaissance Academy’s leading scorer with 19 points on 8-for-16 shooting.
“I can’t say enough about what Riley Turner did,” Gesford said. “We gave her the assignment to guard one of the better players we’re going to face in this playoff. No. 11 (Stewart) is a tough, tough matchup and she made her earn everything she had.”
Source: Berkshire mont