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PIAA Class 5A: Valerio, foul shooting lead Springfield girls to win

03/09/2022, 11:30pm EST
By Sean McBryan

Sean McBryan (@SeanMcBryan)
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Springfield (Delco.) junior Mia Valerio’s primary sport is lacrosse, which she’ll play at Richmond after she graduates in 2023. The way she played Wednesday night, you’d think her top sport was basketball.

Valerio scored a career-high 19 points to match Lower Dauphin’s team total as the District 1 third-place Cougars defeated the District 3 third-place Falcons 32-19 in Hummelstown in a PIAA Class 5A first round game.

Mia Valerio stands in a gym

Mia Valerio (above) scored a career-high 19 points in Springfield's opening round win on Wednesday night. (Photo: Sean McBryan/CoBL)

“I train a lot for lacrosse (which starts in the spring) so my body is in the best shape right now,” Valerio said. “It also helps with the confidence thing because I know if I excel in that sport I can excel in this sport.”

After top scorer Lexi Aaron went down with a season-ending injury just five games in, it’s been a balanced effort in replacing the offensive production for the Cougars. But it was all Valerio Wednesday night and doing it on the road in a state playoff game made it even more impressive.

“We didn’t know a lot about this team. We didn’t know a lot about this environment,” Valerio said. “We didn’t really know what to expect, how the game would be called, all of that. It was kind of just playing it by ear. We took it by quarter and I found out what was working for me. I started taking it to the rim and making foul shots.”

In a game that featured a ton of multi-sport athletes, it originally looked like the most dominant presence was going to be Lower Dauphin’s 6-foot big Lauren Wahlers as she scored four points and grabbed three rebounds in the first quarter. 

Springfield’s defensive stopper Anabel Kreydt was tasked with guarding Wahlers initially, but ran into some issues. Springfield scored the first five points of the game, but the Falcons (16-11) ended the quarter on an 8-0 run. After some defensive adjustments, the game changed in the Cougars’ favor as Valerio consistently put points on the board.

“We went to a 2-3 zone to lock down Wahlers,” Springfield head coach Ky McNichols said. “We didn’t have an answer for her in the first quarter in man defense. Anabel did the best she could on her, but Wahlers has size on her. To be honest, we don’t normally play a 2-3 zone so it was great that our kids were able to come in and execute that tonight.”

The switch to the zone allowed Kreydt to roam on the backside and she began to shine defensively.

“Nothing was really working in man-to-man,” Kreydt said. “I would try to front [Wahlers] and they would just lob it over. When we went to a 2-3, we were able to have two on her every time and that really worked out for us.

“If my shots aren’t falling or I’m not getting to the basket, I just find other ways to contribute. I just focus on defense.”

Kreydt finished with nine rebounds, two blocks and two steals; Wahlers finished with eight points and seven rebounds to lead the Falcons.

Valerio kept the Cougars (18-7) afloat by scoring six points in the second quarter, finally regaining the advantage when freshman Molly Clifford perfectly timed a steal and converted a layup to make it 13-12 with about two minutes left before the half. Springfield didn’t relinquish the lead for the rest of the game.

Kaitlyn Kearney drilled a deep 3 with about two minutes left in the third quarter to make it 18-14 and Valerio scored nine points, seven of those coming from the foul line, in the final quarter to seal it.

“We had a pretty upsetting district game that came down to foul shots,” Valerio said. “We’ve been working a lot at practice, really focusing on them. So being able to come here and make our foul shots was really exciting for us.”

That district game was the overtime loss to Bishop Shanahan in which the Cougars went 0-for-10 from the line in the second half. This win may not have come against Shanahan, but count it as one loss avenged. 

Now Springfield gets a chance to avenge the Central League semifinal loss to Marple Newtown as they’ll face off in the second round on Saturday.

“I’m excited to keep the year going,” Valerio said. “It’s been a long year and we’ve been grinding it out but I think that we can truly make a run in the state tournament. This was the start of it.”

By Quarter
Springfield:        5 | 8 | 7 | 12 || 32
Lower Dauphin: 8 | 4 | 2 |  5  || 19

Scoring
Springfield: Mia Valerio 19, Kaitlyn Kearney 6, Molly Clifford 4, Taylor Hunyet 2, Anabel Kreydt 1

Lower Dauphin: Lauren Wahlers 8, Cayden Eismann 5, Justyce Hollenbach 4, Jamie Swartz 2


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