February 3, 2021
Dunmore 71, Holy Cross 46 (PIAA District 2)
Wednesday’s nightcap took me to a familiar town but new
gym, as Dunmore HS traveled up Drinker St. to take on Holy Cross. A milestone
night highlighted a dominant showing from a talented Bucks squad, as they put
up 66 in the first three quarters and led by as much as 32 en route to a
midweek W.
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| Moriah Murray finished with 15 points, including a three to push her over the 1,000 point mark, in Dunmore's victory. |
Holy Cross kept pace for the first few minutes, but
Dunmore started to extend their lead before the 1st quarter was
over. They reeled off an 8-2 run in the last 2:25 of the 1st, four
coming from Moriah Murray (Dunmore 2022; Drexel commit) to push
their lead to 20-12. Another run, this one 11-0 after Abbey Lentowski (Holy
Cross 2021) briefly stopped the bleeding with a bucket, ran the margin to
33-14. The margin remained 19 at the break as Dunmore established the post in
the half-court with Ciera Toomey (Dunmore 2023) and turned defense into
transition offense en route to a 42-23 cushion.
It was more of the same to start the 2nd half,
and there was a personal milestone to boot. With a long three off a handoff at
the 6:57 mark of the 3rd quarter, Murray – a junior – etched her
name into Dunmore’s history books by eclipsing the 1,000 point mark. That pushed
their lead to 47-25, and although their lead continued to grow through the rest
of the quarter, Murray & Toomey’s nights were over not long after the shot
as they sat the last 12 minutes. Although Lentowski continued to fill it up for
Holy Cross, Dunmore continued to pull away with Anna Tallutto (Dunmore
2021) taking over in the scoring column. After scoring 6 in the 2nd,
she reeled off 12 more in the last 3+ minutes of the 3rd, helping
Dunmore run to its largest lead of 66-34 after three quarters. The 4th quarter went by quickly, as it was played almost entirely with a running clock.
Ciera Toomey led three in double figures with 19 for
Dunmore, all in approximately 20 minutes of action. Anna Tallutto pumped in 18,
all in the middle quarters, and Moriah Murray’s 15 moved her to 1,002 career
points & counting. Abbey Lentowski went off for Holy Cross & finished
with a game high 27 points.
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| Abbey Lentowski led all scorers with 27 points in Holy Cross' defeat to Dunmore. |
#ThoughtsFromTheBaseline
- The problem with defending Ciera Toomey – what can’t
she do offensively? At a full 6’3”, she had several inches on everyone in a
Holy Cross uniform and took full advantage of it. Whether it was going up over
the shoulder with a post move, catching & finishing in the P&R game, or
a face-up & quick drive, the standout Dunmore 2023 did her work (19 pts in
approximately 20 mins) 8’ & in. However, I’ve seen her drag traditional
bigs to the perimeter time & time again and use the stretch skill to shoot
over the top or get by off the dribble. Ciera’s ability to take advantage of
anything you throw at her mixed with the willingness to access whatever part of
her game is needed – not just falling in love with a particular part – makes her
as tough of an individual matchup as there is in the Northeast, in my opinion.
Easy to see why Power 5 programs are already lining up, and she’ll more than
likely have national recruitment going forward.
- The problem with defending Moriah Murray – her improvement
with comfortably making plays off the dribble. She’s been a great shooter since
the first time I saw her play back in 2018, and plenty of her now 1,002 points
have come in increments of three. Because of the DEEP, consistent range,
opponents have no choice but to crowd her airspace & make her put it on the
deck. However, she’s developed enough off the bounce – skill with the handle
& strength to hold her line once she gets someone on her shoulder or hip –
to burn teams that way too. Out of her 15 points, she hit a couple threes,
showed the pull-up midrange J, hit a short range teardrop, and got all the way
to the rim & finished. The shooting ability is the attention grabber with
good reason, but her continued development playing off of it is a good sign
& part of what could make her a problem in the CAA when she hits the
collegiate level.
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| Anna Tallutto brought the energy & packed a scoring bunch, with all 18 of her points coming in the middle quarters in Dunmore's W. |
- The problem with defending Dunmore – it’s not
just ‘Mo & C’. Pretty much everyone in the rotation can shoot the three, so
whether teams send extra help to those two or let their primary defenders go
1v1, they’re giving up something. They also execute pretty well in the
half-court and got layups or open jumpers time & time again off their
action. Whether it’s Mia Blume (2022), Anna Tallutto, Elisa Delfino, or Alexis
Chapman (all 2021s), they’re all familiar names to opponents because they’ve
all made other teams pay along the way. Impressive performance from perhaps the
most potent offense in northern Pennsylvania.
- I was only vaguely familiar with Holy Cross 2021
Abbey Lentowski before this game, but she left a big impression with her
showing here. I saw her a couple times on the AAU circuit – at Spooky Nook in
the fall of course, because that’s where we all were – and this was my first
time seeing her at the HS ranks. At about 5’9”, she’s a slightly undersized
forward but has the strength/physicality and motor to make up for it. I
remembered her more for back-to-basket play, but much of her game high 27
points came from facing up & attacking the rim, and she even stepped out
and hit a three – a welcome sight. 27 is always notable, but with an elite shot
blocker like Toomey hanging around, it’s even more so. I read that she's heading to Immaculata in the fall - with strength & toughness
around the rim and the budding face-up game that she displayed Wednesday, she
definitely caught my eye and could be a nice pickup at the D3 ranks.
- Congrats to Moriah on the 1000 point achievement
& thanks to Holy Cross administration (athletic director Mr. Al Callejas in
particular) for letting me in the gym to check this game out. I sincerely
appreciate any opportunity to get into the gym this high school season!
One more thing...
It took me a while to get this typed & posted because
my mind has been far away from this for the last day. The basketball community,
the 518, & the world as a whole lost a fantastic man on Thursday as the
great Pat Filien passed away suddenly. Pat’s basketball pedigree ran deep, as
he was a standout player at St. Rose in the early ‘90s and then moved on to
several D1 coaching stints at various institutions on both sides of the
basketball world (UAlbany & Vermont men, Air Force & UMKC women).
In recent years, he became the athletic director at
Bryant & Stratton – Albany and was tasked to start their men’s basketball
program. He was also a figure in the local girls’ basketball scene as a coach
in the New York Havoc program and a consistent presence at my events. He worked
with literally hundreds of ESTers as the coordinator of the skill work sessions
at several EST events, including the 2017-19 Fall Showcases.
One thing I never heard anyone say was ‘yeah, I don’t
know how I feel about that Pat Filien guy’. To know him was to like him – the positive
attitude, infectious smile & laugh, but always a dose of knowledge &
reality to boot. He was a great basketball mind, but more importantly a caring
& kind soul, devoted family man, and the kind of father I could only wish
to be half of when I have kids. Whenever I asked him to help out with an event
in any fashion, I’d get a slightly varied version of a standard answer; ‘It’s a
busy time, but I always got time for the kids’. That’s who Pat was and what I’ll
remember him as; loved to teach, loved to coach, loved to impact lives in a
positive way, & truly cared.
My heart goes out to his wife (Tiffani), son (Marcus),
& daughter (Lauren) along with everyone whose life he impacted. There has
been a GoFundMe created to help offset the unexpected incurred costs to come. I’d
kindly request all to consider a donation for a fantastic family if you have
the means. The link: https://gofund.me/b5cb102b.
Our loss on Earth is Heaven’s gain. The games will go on,
and he’ll always have a spot with all of us – the court, the bench, the stands,
wherever the game takes us!
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