Williams Valley 1,000-point girls' scorers that attended Monday's 60-year celebration include, from left: Sage Smeltz, Kate Whelski, Rayanne Hawk, Christina Thompson, Becky Savage and Sandi Carl (Photo by Leroy Boyer)

Miller’s 17 points lifts Williams Valley girls past Pine Grove

TOWER CITY — Mallory Miller said she felt inspired by the 80 former players who attended Monday’s celebration to honor 60 years of basketball at Williams Valley.

Miller and her Vikings teammates then went out and played their best game of the season.

Miller drained five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 17 points as Williams Valley shocked Pine Grove 44-22 in a non-league contest.

Quin Smeltz added nine points and eight rebounds as Williams Valley (6-2) led from start to finish and snapped Pine Grove’s four-game win streak.

“We definitely wanted to impress the people here,” Miller said. “They were big-time growing up in high school and it was important we made them proud.

“It’s amazing. It means so much,” Miller continued. “I’m so proud of our entire team. Everyone played a key role in winning tonight.”

Williams Valley invited all its basketball alumni to Monday’s celebration, which featured a boys/girls doubleheader. The night also included special blue T-shirts worn by the alumni, coaches and current players in attendance, and youth games during halftime of both two varsity games.

Williams Valley’s gymnasium was full with basically a standing-room only crowd.

Minersville downed Williams Valley 67-58 in the boys’ game as Shazier Bethea scored a game-high 21 points and Chase Zimerofsky and Jordan Bowers each tallied 17. Gabe Rodriguez led the Vikes with 17, while Evan Achenbach had 15 and Bryce Zilinski tallied 11.

The Miners (8-1) led 28-25 at halftime and 47-40 entering the fourth. After Williams Valley (4-4) sliced the deficit to 53-48 with 4 minutes left, Bethea hit a key 3-pointer and the Miners iced it from the foul line, shooting 12-for-18 from the line in the closing minutes.

The ceremony was held in between the varsity games as athletic director Ben Ancheff read off the history of the boys’ and girls’ programs and the Williams Valley Basketball Boosters honored the school’s 1,000-point scorers. The alumni were staged by decade across the court, then gathered underneath one of the baskets for a group photo.

Williams Valley has had 18 boys’ players score 1,000 points or more, the first being Howard Keen (1,443) in 1966 and the latest being Alex Achenbach (1,209) in 2024. Jason “OJ” Grow is the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer with 1,885 points.

The Williams Valley girls’ program has had 10 players score 1,000 points or more, with six of them in attendance Monday. That group included the first one, Sandi Carl (1,131, 1976), and the latest one, Sage Smeltz (1,040, 2025). Jordin Schaffner is Williams Valley’s all-time leading girls’ scorer with 2,632 points, set in 1999.

The ceremony delayed the start of the girls’ game until roughly 8:15 p.m. but that didn’t deter the Vikings, who came out ready to go.

Williams Valley was patient on offense, working the ball around the perimeter until the Vikings were able to get a good look at the basket.

Miller hit a pair of 3-pointers in the opening frame to give the Vikings a quick 8-2 lead and the Vikes never looked back.

Williams Valley led 11-3 after one quarter, then went on a 13-0 run in the second period to build a 24-7 halftime lead. Miller hit two more 3-pointers in the second quarter, while Smeltz had seven of her points in the first half.

Williams Valley connected on six of its seven 3-pointers in the first half, shooting 6-for-17 from 3-point range in the first 16 minutes.

“When we’re open for a 3 we’re told to take it. Tonight they fell,” Miller said. “At practice we’ve been working on our defense. On offense we’ve been putting in plays, watching film, doing what we need to do to improve every game. That was a big thing in this game.”

Williams Valley’s zone defense was a bigger story in the win, hounding Pine Grove in the offensive end and never letting the Cardinals score off transition. The Vikings prevented the Cards from getting the ball inside to center Hollyn Sampson and consistently cut off passing lanes to force turnovers.

Pine Grove shot 2-for-16 from the field in the first half and 8-for-40 for the game. The Cardinals (6-3) committed 13 of their 21 turnovers in the first half.

“We’re finally start to gel a little bit,” Williams Valley coach Shane Zellers said. “We haven’t been playing our best basketball. We’re getting those four seniors to gel with Presley (Shomper), the freshman, and they’re all playing new positions on defense.

“When we can take away the 3-point line, we can get in passing lanes and get deflections and steals, we’re going to be tough to beat.”

It all added up to a big win in front of a big crowd for Williams Valley, one that the Vikings hope serves as a springboard toward a Schuylkill League playoff run when the calendar flips to 2026.

“We came out with a lot of big-time energy tonight … the packed crowd I’m sure helped,” Zellers said. “It was cool. Having the 1,000-point scorers back, having the girls see them come back … it was definitely a cool night.”

Game Summaries

Boys’ Basketball

Minersville 67, Williams Valley 58

MINERSVILLE (67) — Rogers 3 4-10 11, Zimerofsky 6 3-3 17, Fessler 0 0-0 0, Bethea 7 3-6 21, Bowers 5 4-4 17, Mealey 0 0-0 0, Plesnarski 0 1-2 1. Totals 21 15-25 67.

WILLIAMS VALLEY (58) — Rodriguez 6 0-0 17, Ch. Dickerson 2 0-0 6, Rautzahn 0 0-0 0, Achenbach 7 0-1 15, Kandybowski 3 0-0 7, B. Zilinski 5 0-1 11, K. Zilinski 1 0-0 2. Totals 24 0-2 58.

3-point FGs: Rogers, Zimerofsky 2, Bethea 4, Bowers 3, Rodriguez 5, Ch. Dickerson 2, Achenbach, Kandybowski, B. Zilinski

Officials: Gerchak, Melusky, Cooper

Girls’ Basketball

Williams Valley 44, Pine Grove 22

PINE GROVE (22) — Leffler 1 3-3 5, M. Umbenhauer 3 0-2 6, Heming 1 0-2 2, Fidler 1 0-0 3, Sampson 1 1-2 3, K. Umbenhauer 1 0-0 3, Reichert 0 0-0 0, Gehres 0 0-0 0, Verdensky 0 0-0 0, Brown 0 0-0 0. Totals 8 4-9 22.

WILLIAMS VALLEY (44) — Shomper 2 0-0 4, Kobularik 3 1-3 7, Miller 5 2-2 17, Smeltz 4 0-0 9, Kasper 2 2-2 7, Readinger 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 5-7 44.

3-point FGs: Fidler, K. Umbenhauer, Miller 5, Smeltz, Kasper

Officials: K. Dean, Leedy, Noonan

JV Score: No game