HS Girls’ Basketball: Division II preview, Lourdes looks to stand tall in crowded race
Veteran coach Mike Klembara goes over strategy with his Lourdes squad during a timeout (Photo by Leroy Boyer).
SCHUYLKILL HAVEN — Mike Klembara Sr. joked frequently last season about his team’s youth, often saying how most of his players weren’t old enough to drive.
“We have a very good JV team playing a varsity schedule,” the veteran Lourdes coach often quipped.
That “JV team” made great strides over the course of the season, growing up right in front of Klembara’s eyes. Led by Pennsylvania Sports Writers’ All-State selection Hannah Lokitis, the Red Raiders won 23 games, captured the District 4 Class A crown and reached the PIAA Class A state semifinals.
Lokitis, a 6-foot-1 center, is among four returning starters this season for Klembara’s club, which enters the 2025-26 campaign as the team to beat in Division II, according to the T102SportsNow.com Preseason Division II Coaches’ Poll.
Junior forward Vivian Reiprish, junior guard Onaleigh Barnes and sophomore Kylla Sandri also return for Lourdes. The Red Raiders’ only graduation loss was defensive specialist Anna Keer, who is now playing volleyball at Arcadia.
“They really progressed throughout the course of the year,” Klembara said about his club at the Schuylkill League Basketball Media Day held Nov. 16 at Schuylkill Haven’s Sports Performance Center.
“After our loss to Linville in the Eastern final, about 2-3 weeks later, they said, ‘Coach we want to start working out,’ which we did, about 2-3 times a week. We had about 23 open gym/scrimmages during the summer. They have a very good, positive attitude. They’re a bunch more skilled.
“We’re still young … but now we have six people driving to school.”
Lokitis averaged 11.9 points and 12.8 rebounds per game while blocking a single-season school record 141 shots last season. A double-double machine, she offers the one thing most teams in the Schuylkill League don’t have — a 6-foot, aggressive inside player who excels at both ends of the floor.
But she’s not Lourdes’ only weapon.
Reiprish and sophomore forward Sophia Karlovich both stand 5-10 and give the Red Raiders a three-headed monster inside. On the perimeter, point guard Sandri (11.4 ppg, 73 assists) and shooting guard Barnes (8.3 ppg, 52 3-pointers) give Lourdes good inside-outside balance.
“Our inside game is something we’re going to bank on,” Klembara said. “… And our outside game, because we return our best 3-point shooter in Onaleigh Barnes. We have 1-2 people coming off the bench that are going to play for us.
“There’s no question the team is very, very talented. The only thing that we have to do is we have to be focused every time we line up on the gym floor.”
For Lourdes to win its first Schuylkill League division title since 2019, the Red Raiders will have to emerge from what is shaping up to a four-team battle that also includes Williams Valley, Marian and Mahanoy Area.
The Vikings and Fillies were declared Division II co-champions a year ago after they both finished with 13-1 league records and split their regular-season meetings. Williams Valley then defeated Marian to capture its first-ever District 11 Class AA title. Both squads reached the state quarterfinals before being eliminated by Mountain View and Berlin Brothersvalley, respectively.
Williams Valley returns four starters from last year’s 24-4 club in seniors Mallory Miller (12.7 ppg), Quin Smeltz, Ella Kobularik and Ireland Kasper. The Vikings will have to replace center and leading scorer Sage Smeltz, the Schuylkill League Coaches Association Division II Player of the Year.
A 1,000-point scorer, Sage Smeltz averaged 14.8 points and 7.9 rebounds per game and hit the game-winning shot in the Vikes’ PIAA win over Northeast Bradford.
“We return four starters, mainly our guards,” Williams Valley coach Shane Zellers said. “We bring back our shooters and most of our scoring. Sage did a lot of the inside work.
“We have to stay healthy. I feel like we’ve played a lot of basketball together, we’ve gelled together. We’ve been kind of fitting in and playing without Sage, without that girl in the middle.”
A major problem for Williams Valley could be numbers. The Vikings only had nine players on their preseason roster — five seniors and four freshmen.
“Our numbers are really low,” Zellers said. “We only lost two players, but we had a lot not come out. Our numbers are extremely low. We’re going to see how it goes, play it game by game.
“We still look to compete in the division. Obviously, with Lourdes, Mahanoy and Marian, it’s never going to be easy. We hope to be there at the end as far as the division.”
Mahanoy Area also returns four starters from last year’s club that finished 14-10 and downed Pine Grove in the opening round of the District 11 Class 3A playoffs.
Senior guard Felicia Bro is one of the most explosive scorers in the league, while juniors Ella Connolly and Naomi Kowalick and sophomore Lilly Carl add scoring punch and solid efforts on the boards.
The Golden Bears, which made a nearly 10-game improvement from 2023-24 under head coach Tom Scheeler, are also young. Bro is the team’s only senior as seven of the Bears’ 10 varsity players are either freshmen or sophomores.
Marian underwent the biggest turnover as head coach Damian Fritz left after winning 91 games and two District 11 titles in four seasons and Jeanette Shafer Barron was hired to take over the reins.
Junior guard Deanna Pugh and sophomore forward Addy Marek return from last year’s 23-5 squad, but five key players either graduated or transferred. Junior guard Brooke Hannis-Miskar is the only other player with varsity experience.
Barron, a former 1,500-point scorer at West Hazleton, said defense will be Marian’s focus.
“I’m excited about the year,” Barron said. “We have returning players that really put in a lot of work. We have three freshmen that are decent. They work hard in the gym; they’re there every day.
“We’re moving forward, focusing a lot on defense. That’s where my background is from … hard-core defense. We have the concept of 212. At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees water boils. That’s the one-degree difference between you and the competition.”
The second tier of teams in Division II will all look to improve upon last year’s losing records.
Shenandoah Valley returns three starters — Aubrie Monaghan, Brittany Tufts, Gianna Donovan — from last year’s 8-14 club that could challenge for a league playoff berth if things go right. Weatherly has one of the top players in the division in Kelly Reiner and should be improved.
Tri-Valley and Nativity each have new head coaches.
Former Pine Grove standout Kaylin Ryan takes over for the Dawgs, who bring back the 1-2 scoring punch of Avery Miller and Ava Snyder. William Reed takes over atop Lawton’s Hill, where his goal is to revive a Nativity program that has had some lean years the past couple of seasons in terms of numbers.
