Abington Heights Girls Basketball: Lady Comets put together 6-1 stretch

The Abington Heights girls basketball team was a roll to end January and begin February.

The Lady Comets were 6-1 in their last seven games, with only a five-point loss to six-time defending champion Scranton Prep, going into their Feb. 6 game at home against Lackawanna League Division 1 co-leader Scranton.

Abington Heights went into that game 7-3 in the Lackawanna for third place in Division 1. It was 14-5 overall, trailing only once-beaten Scranton in the seeding race for what figures to be a highly competitive District 2 Class 5A tournament. Seven teams for what will be an eight-team field had records of 11-8 or better.

A look at the January and early February games for the Lady Comets:

Abington Heights 50, Valley View 38

Maggie Coleman, Madison Zalewski and Emily McDonald all finished in double figures in scoring and each played a role in a 15-4 fourth quarter that allowed the Lady Comets to break open a one-point game while opening the February portion of the schedule with the win at Valley View.

Coleman finished with 15 points and Zalewski had 13. McDonald’s late-game foul shooting allowed her to finish with 12.

January recap

Abington Heights started a three-game winning streak when Zalewski scored a career-high 28 points to go along with seven steals in a 67-20 rout of visiting West Scranton Jan. 28. Zalewski had 13 points and three 3-pointers in the first quarter. Maggie Coleman added 11 points and three assists.

… After losing to Scranton and Scranton Prep to open the league schedule, Abington Heights won four straight. The Lady Comets led 15-2 after one quarter at Scranton Jan. 3, but the Lady Knights rallied for the win behind five Finley Bittenbender 3-pointers, four of which came in the second half. McDonald had six of her team-high 13 points in the loss. Zalewski hit two 3-pointers and had seven of her nine points in the fourth quarter.

… The Lady Comets put together a four-game winning streak Jan. 12-24, beating Delaware Valley (48-14), Valley View (56-44), Western Wayne (52-33) and Honesdale (60-35). McDonald had 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots against Delaware Valley as the Lady Comets built leads of 20-4 after one quarter, 32-6 at halftime and 46-9 going to the fourth quarter. McDonald scored 18 points, Zalewski had 16 and each grabbed seven rebounds against Valley View. Coleman, who hit four 3-pointers in the middle quarters, and McDonald scored 16 points each against Western Wayne. McDonald scored 17 points while Coleman had 14 points and five steals against Honesdale.