By: Kyle Moylan Sports Editor
Freezing Rain and icy road conditions delayed the start of the Allentown High School girls’ basketball season from Friday night to Saturday morning. Based on the 60-30 win over Riverside in the opener on Saturday, no rust set in.
“I didn’t know a whole lot about (Riverside), so I wasn’t sure what to expect,” noted Allentown Coach Linda Weise, who is in her fourth season on the job.
Fortunately, Weise does know her own team. She knows they are good and talented. Weise knows she can challenge them to do great things this season.
“I have been preaching to the girls to come out strong and get that early lead,” Weise said. “We want to do that and not look back.”
Of course, it’s nice when your team is talented enough to follow those kinds of directions.
Allentown scored 20 points in the first quarter, which included four three-pointers.
“We shot the ball really well,” Weise noted.
Allentown had three players — Haley Wilhelm (16 points), Amanda Turowski (13 points) and Bea Pesciotta (10 points) — score in double figures. Lindsay Bacovin scored nine points. Angela Scibilia and Kelsey Glover added five points each.
“Like I said before, we are expecting a good season,” Weise said. “Hopefully our experience can lead us.”
Allentown was scheduled to face West Windsor North this past Monday, a rescheduled outing because of Friday’s cancellation. Allentown was scheduled to face Steinert this past Tuesday.
The Allentown team will be heading to Florida on Friday, December 26. It will be there until December 31. The team will take part in a tournament in Florida and also get a chance to go to the different Disney parks.
“We have been doing a lot of fundraisers,” noted Weise. “Pretty much everything you can think of, we have done.”
The team is selling gift cards to restaurants. They worked doing different odd jobs at Great Adventure. They had a jewelry sale. They are also picking up corporate sponsorships.
According to Weise, the team needed to raise about $15,000 for the trip and got about half of the money. The team will continue to do fundraisers the rest of the year and will reimburse some of the money the parents of the players had to front for the trip.
The timing of the trip was obvious. Allentown has the core of its team back for its third year together. It has made the playoffs the past two seasons and even won its first post-season game in 15 years last February.
“I think that other teams will (look at us differently this season),” Weise said. “I know our kids have high expectations. There’s definitely a pressure that comes with that, but I’m confident in our ability.”
And based on the opener, that confidence certainly isn’t misplaced.
