Blue Mountain talks things over during a second-half timeout in Saturday's PIAA Class 4A girls' first-round loss to Valley View (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

Lourdes rolls, Weatherly falls in Class A first round

ORWIGSBURG — The PIAA basketball playoffs are where talented players become stars.

Valley View’s Cora Castellani already had a reputation as a talented player in the Lackawanna League and District 2.

Saturday afternoon, she shined brightly in the role of star in a PIAA Class 4A first-round matchup at Blue Mountain.

Castellani scored 19 of her game-high 23 points in the second half as Valley View dominated the final two frames in a 49-28 victory over the Eagles.

While the District 2 runner-up Cougars (20-6) advance to a second-round date with Neumann-Goretti on Wednesday, Blue Mountain sees its Cinderella postseason run come to an end at 14-13.

“Valley View can really shoot. (Castellani) is a really, really good player,” Blue Mountain coach Rose Carper said. “Star players are going to come up and hit some.”

Looking for their first PIAA playoff victory since 2008, Blue Mountain started strong.

Mila Fleagle and Kelly Canfield had buckets, Delaney Walborn hit a 3-pointer and Karley Koch connected on a foul shot as the Eagles led 8-5 after one frame.

Blue Mountain still led 10-7 early in the second quarter before Valley View went on a 9-0 run to build a 16-10 cushion.

The Eagles answered as Fleagle scored on a putback and Koch drained a 3-pointer to tie the game at 16-16 at intermission. Going into halftime, Blue Mountain had the momentum.

“Offensively in the first half, we thought we just weren’t playing physical enough and being aggressive enough on the boards,” said Valley View coach Rob Martin, whose team shot 6-for-33 in the first half and was outrebounded 27-20.

“We thought we were getting good shots. We were getting good looks. Our kids just had to keep shooting and they would come. And they did.”

Castellani, a junior shooting guard, came into the game averaging 18.1 points per game and had hit 62 3-pointers.

The Eagles did a good job on her in the first half. With Kelly Canfield playing tough defense on her throughout, Castellani was held to just four points.

In the second half, Valley View’s mission was simple. Give it to No. 34 and let her do her thing.

Castellani collected 13 of Valley View’s 15 points in the third quarter, putting up a whopping 13 of the Cougars’ 17 shots. She also collected six of her 14 rebounds.

She scored in a variety of ways, hitting 3-pointers from both wings, grabbing a defensive rebound and going coast to coast, and scoring a layup on a give-and-go with Ashlyn Palickar.

For good measure, Castellani assisted on the Cougars’ only other basket of the frame, a layup by Palickar.

“Cora is just one of those players that gives you 110 percent every single second she’s on the floor,” Martin said. “She has that capability of taking the game over at any time, whether it’s with her offense or her defense.”

Not only could Blue Mountain not stop Castellani, the Eagles just couldn’t score.

For the first time since their District 11 semifinal win over North Schuylkill, Blue Mountain felt the absence of junior guard Callie Peel, sidelined with a knee injury.

Blue Mountain shot 1-for-8 and turned it over seven times in the third quarter as Valley View outscored the Eagles 15-4 to build a 31-20 lead.

Blue Mountain went the first 6:19 of the third quarter without a field goal … Hailey Place’s 3-pointer with 1:41 left in the period ended the drought.

“We had a week to try to adjust to Callie Peel going out,” Carper said. “That changes your offense here at the end of the year. We have kids out there working extremely hard. She was an almost 10 points a game scorer for us.

“That’s hard (to replace). It puts different people in different positions and trying to make that work at the end of the season is difficult to overcome.”

Valley View continued its dominance in the fourth quarter behind junior forward Sadie Cardoni, who sat most of the first half in foul trouble, then missed most of the third quarter after picking up her fourth foul.

The burly forward scored all eight of her points in the fourth as the Cougars extended their lead. Castellani canned two more 3-pointers — she finished with five — as Valley View outscored Blue Mountain 33-12 over the final 16 minutes.

Place led the Eagles in scoring with nine points, while Koch had eight. Fleagle had a monster game on the boards with 18 rebounds.

After the game, Carper talked about her seniors — Canfield, Place and Walborn — and what they meant to the Eagles’ program and Blue Mountain’s run to a state playoff berth.

“They were extremely great leaders,” Carper said. “When we were at a point in the season where I wasn’t even sure we were going to make districts … those kids just came in every day and said, ‘We’re not done yet.’

“We lost to Tamaqua in a hard-fought game and they said, ‘We can still do this, we can still keep going.’ Those seniors motivated the younger players to get us into districts and to be able to make a run in districts.

“Without those three leaders on the floor and off the floor, this team doesn’t go where we went this year.”

Game Summary

PIAA Class 4A First Round

At Blue Mountain HS

VALLEY VIEW (49) — Minelli 1 0-0 2, Gazoo 4 1-2 9, Palickar 1 2-2 4, Castellani 9 0-1 23, Cardoni 4 0-1 8, Yurkovic 1 0-2 3, Mackrell 0 0-0 0, Munley 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 3-8 49.

BLUE MOUNTAIN (28) — Fleagle 2 0-2 4, Canfield 2 0-0 4, Place 4 0-0 9, Koch 2 3-6 8, Walborn 1 0-0 3, Leonard 0 0-0 0, Hudock 0 0-0 0, McKee 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 3-8 28.

3-point FGs: Castellani 5, Yurkovic, Place, Koch, Walborn

Officials: Rossino, Wise, Wehrenberg

Class A First Round

Lourdes 59, Conestoga Christian 5

COAL TWP. — The District 4 champion Red Raiders dominated from start to finish, blowout out Conestoga Christian at the Lee Korbich Gymnasium.

Kylla Sandri led a trio of double-digit scorers with 17 points, while Sophia Karlovich had 12 points and Hannah Lokitis collected 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Lourdes led Conesotga Christian 13-2 after one frame and 42-3 at halftime. The Morgantown-area private school came into the tournament with 16 wins as the No. 6 team from District 3.

The victory advances the Red Raiders (26-2) to Wednesday’s second round against District 12 champion Motivation (12-4), which defeated Weatherly 43-33 (see below).

PIAA Class A First Round

At Lee Korbich Gymnasium

CONESTOGA CHRISTIAN (5) — G. Bruton 0 0-0 0, Eberly 0 0-0 0, C. Bruton 0 0-0 0, Hails 0 0-0 0, Deninger 0 0-0 0, Steiner 2 0-0 4, Constable 0 0-0 0, Perchinsky 0 0-0 0, Stallard 0 0-0 0, Thompson 0 1-2 1, Yos 0 0-0 0. Totals 2 1-2 5.

LOURDES (59) — Sandri 7 0-0 17, Schroyer 2 0-0 4, Albert 0 0-0 0, Bunch 1 0-0 2, Barnes 1 4-4 7, Schu 0 0-0 0, Lokitis 4 2-6 10, Karlovich 5 2-2 12, Shingara 1 0-0 2, Reiprish 2 0-0 5. Totals 23 8-12 59.

3-point FGs: Sandri 3, Barnes, Reiprish

Motivation 43, Weatherly 33

PHILADELPHIA — The Wreckers fell behind early and could never recover in a Class A first-round loss to District 12 champion Motivation at Lincoln High School.

Taylor Mathey had six of her 12 points in the first quarter as Motivation built a 14-5 advantage. Joyce Cassell scored a team-high 15 points for Motivation (12-4) as it led 25-13 at halftime and held off a Weatherly second-half rally.

Kelly Reiner led all scorers with 17 points for the Wreckers, while Maci Kane added 10. Weatherly (8-17) was hampered by an 8-for-19 performance at the foul line.

PIAA Class A First Round

At Lincoln HS, Philadelphia

WEATHERLY (33) — Kane 2 6-13 10, Kehler 1 0-2 2, Way-Heffner 2 0-0 4, Reiner 7 2-4 17, Gerhard 0 0-0 0, Snyder 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 8-19 33.

MOTIVATION (43) — Joy Cassell 3 1-2 7, Joyce Cassell 7 1-3 15, Tindel 2 1-2 6, Murphy 1 0-0 3, Mathey 5 2-4 12, Gordon 0 0-0 0, Hicks 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 5-14 43.

3-point FGs: Reiner, Tindel, Murphy