How good was local girls’ basketball during the 2024-25 season?
The area’s top three girls’ basketball teams combined for 75 wins. All three captured division, league or district championships and made deep state playoff runs. All featured excellent players at every position and superb coaching.
No wonder then that players from Hazleton Area (28-1), Crestwood (24-5) and Marian (23-5) make up a sizable portion of the Standard-Speaker All-Area Girls’ Basketball Team,
In addition, Hazleton Area head coach Joe Gavio has been chosen as the newspaper’s Coach of the Year, though the Lady Comets’ Mary Mushock Namey and the Fillies’ Damian Fritz would have been just as worthy selections.
Sophomores Sophia Benyo and Kaitlyn Bindas, junior Alexis Reimold and senior Sophia Shults, of Hazleton Area, were picked to share Player of the Year honors in a nod to their team’s selflessness that was on display from November through March.
Their final numbers in all statistical categories might have lower than players from other teams, but consider that Lady Cougar starters did not play in the fourth quarter of most games because of the lopsided nature of their contests.
Bindas, the co-Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 Most Valuable Player with Reimold, was Hazleton Area’s leading scorer (17.3 points per game) and three-point shooter (61), with many of her triples coming from well beyond the arc. She scored in double figures in 27 of 28 games to push her close to 1,000 points for her career in only two varsity seasons.
The 5-foot-4 guard’s quickness on defense also helped her average better than three steals per game.
Reimold averaged 11.2 points, 5.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.7 steals per game, also playing barely more than half a game most nights.
When the competition got tougher in the postseason, the 5-9 junior bumped her scoring average up to 15.0 ppg. She finished with 16 points in a season-ending loss to eventual PIAA Class 6A champion-Perkiomen Valley in the state quarterfinals.
Like Reimold, Benyo was one of Hazleton Area’s most versatile players with 11.1 points, team-best 8.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists and team-high 4.1 steals per game and a 55% shooter from the floor. She was a key cog in Lady Cougars’ swarming full-court press. She also didn’t play in the second half of many games with her team almost always comfortably ahead.
Shults contributed 10.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game as Hazleton Area’s only senior starter Most of her steals came in the back end of the press. A season highlight came when she eclipsed the 1,000-point mark in her career during a January home win over Berwick, joining her mother (Megan LaBuda) in the program’s 1,000-point club. She later surpassed her mother’s career point total.
At Crestwood, the Lady Comets beat Dallas for the first District 2 title in program history. They then advanced deeper in the state tournament than they ever had, handling Manheim Central, Freire Charter and Strath Haven to reach the semifinals, where Philadelphia Catholic League heavyweight-Archbishop Wood ended their magical run. Hazleton Area (three times) and District 2 Class 6A runnerup Scranton were the only other teams to solve the Lady Comets this season.
Sophomores Jackie Gallagher and Charlie Hiller were two of the biggest reasons for Crestwood’s success. Both made the newspaper’s All-Area first team.
The former, a 5-9 guard, was the team’s leading scorer (14.4 ppg) and three-point shooter (62 triples). She had a huge hand in her team’s 24 wins, the most ever for a Crestwood girls’ team; while the latter, a 6-0 forward, scored 12.7 ppg and showed the ability to score both inside and outside. Her combination of talent and size already is attracting interest from several NCAA Division I programs.
Marian junior Addy Fritz also has proven that she can put the ball in the basket from a variety of angles and distances, scoring a team-high 14.2 ppg and knocking down a region-best 70 triples. She lhelped to lead the Fillies into the PIAA Class AA quarterfinals for the second straight year. Her play sparked Marian to state-playoff wins over MaST Charter and Elk Lake and a near-miss against eventual state champ-Berlin Brothersvalley in the quarterfinals
Fritz had plenty of help from sophomore guard DeAnna Pugh, a fellow All-Area first-teamer. Pugh contributed 11.4 ppg, 40 3FG, 4.0 rpg, 2.4 assists and 4.0 steals for the Fillies.
Second team
Marian’s Olivia Serfass, a junior, and Addy Marek, a freshman, head the second team. Serfass averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per games and drained 19 three-pointers despite missing a part of the season with an injury. Marek fit into the varsity starting lineup with 9.8 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 3.2 assists and 2.4 spg. She also was proficient beyond the arc with 33 threes. All four Fillies on the All-Area Team will be returning next season.
Other second-team picks include: Crestwood seniors Kate Gallagher (7.1 ppg, tenacious rebounder, defender) and Kendall Perkosky (8.4 ppg, 36 3FG); Tamaqua sophomore Lauren Ligenza 13.4 ppg, 8.3 rpg, 1.0 apg, 1.8 spg); Panther Valley junior Morgan Orsulak (14.2 ppg, 7.2 rpg, 1.3 bspg); Mahanoy Area junior Felicia Bro (14.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 3.2 apg, 3.1 spg); and North Schuylkill junior Mya Conti (15.6 ppg, 34 3FG, 3.7 rpg, 3.8 apg, 4.3 spg).
Honorable mention
Junior Kayla Lagowy, sophomore Mariah Marolo and senior Olivia Williams, of Hazleton Area, were among the players receiving honorable mention. All three stepped up on both ends of the floor at different times for the Lady Cougars.
Others earning that distinction include Crestwood’s Jordan Andrews; MMI junior Georgia Washko and teammates Anna Drobnock and Olivia Moore, both freshmen; Weatherly’s Kelly Reiner; Tamaqua’s Millie Black, Kolbe Robb and Kendle Miller; Panther Valley’s Natalie Vermillion and Lucy Kocha; Mahanoy Area’s Ella Connolly, Naomi Kowalick and Kayci McGowan; Shenandoah Valley’s Morgan Labosky; and North Schuylkill’s Hannah Kane and Gianna Capone.
Coach of the Year
Gavio took a team that started the season with high expectations and delivered time and again as the young Lady Cougars became the talk of the region. They enjoyed a season that no one associated with the program will ever forget.
Their 28 wins were the most in program history. They beat opponents by an average of 30.6 points per game, even with starters sitting in the second half of most games.They handled Class 5A semifinalist Crestwood by 27, 32 and 12 points in three meetings, the third time in their conference title game. … The PIAA’s mercy rule invoked in 24 of their 28 wins.
Gavio was named the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 Coach of the Year after the Lady Cougars repeated as overall conference champions. They later earned their second consecutive and District 2 Class 6A title, losing only to the eventual state champion (Perkiomen Valley). The same thing happened last year when Cardinal O’Hara eliminated them and went on to capture the state championship.
Gavio’s team will lose only one starter and two regular rotation players to graduation, so hopes again will be high at Hazleton Area.
