Everett takes down Riverview girls in PIAA 1st round

By: Codi Weyant
Friday, March 6, 2020 | 10:26 PM

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JOHNSTOWN — The difference in Friday night’s PIAA Class 2A first-round game between Riverview and Everett was in the shooting.

The Warriors used strong shooting from the floor while the Raiders struggled. The Warriors also used timely rebounding to bounce Riverview from the state playoffs 69-33.

“They shot lights-out,” Riverview coach Keith Stitt said. “I’m not sure what their shooting percentage in the first half was, but it was really good. We didn’t make it any easier. We didn’t shoot well. We turned the ball over a number of times.

“Everett is a good team. We knew that they could shoot the ball. We were hoping we could slow the Maxwell girl down a little. I didn’t know if the other girls could beat us. (Gabby Bulger) had several threes.

“We didn’t play well at all. That was the worst game we played all year. We haven’t played in two weeks. Everett is a good team. I wish them all the luck.”

Everett’s Kaitlyn Maxwell led the Warriors with 36 points, and Bulger added 13 points.

Riverview was led by Francesca Lio’s 15 points.

The Raiders (15-10) graduate six players from this year’s team — Alivia Schultheis, Annie Betler, Lio, Sydney McDonough, Alyssa Cappa and Mikaela Collins.

“It’s March, and we’re still playing,” Stitt said. “You’d like to think you can come up and have some success at states. As it goes on and it goes into March — it’s not supposed to get easier. You’re going to run into good teams, and they’re a good team. They’re the No. 1 out of this district. We played one seeds before, and we know what it’s like.

“It was a good season, 15-10. We won some big games. I’m sad to see this senior group go. It was a pretty good season. There’s a lot of teams that would love to be playing on March 6 and be 15-10. We’re OK.”

Bulger put the Warriors ahead 6-0 with a pair of free throws early in the game. Schultheis scored on a putback for the Raiders, but Alex Iseminger and Bulger added another five points for the District 5 champs for an 11-2 lead.

Following a Riverview free throw, Maxwell and Annie Nave scored for Everett and pushed the Warriors lead to 16-3.

Maxwell added seven more points as the first quarter ended, sandwiching her points around a Cappa 3 and a Lio bucket as the Warriors held a 23-8 lead at the end of the first.

Maxwell and Iseminger chipped in a combined four points before Eleni Wyrick scored a bucket for Riverview with 6:36 left in the opening half.

Following a seven-point stretch, Cappa scored three points but the Warriors added eight more points to lead 42-13 at the half.

Riverview’s McDonough scored a free throw before Lio added a jumper as the second quarter opened. The two teams went back and forth with Riverview scores coming from Lio, Betler and Collins. Everett added an additional four points to hold a 56-22 lead at the end of three quarters.

After an exchange of baskets by both teams, Everett added two runs of five points to push ahead, 68-26.

Lio scored five points and Betler added two points to record Riverview’s largest stretch of the night of seven points.

Everett added one more point to secure the 69-33 victory.

Everett (20-6) faces Ellis in the second round Tuesday.

Tags: Riverview