HAZLE TWP. – Here’s a sobering thought for Wyoming Valley Conference girls’ basketball teams: unbeaten Hazleton Area didn’t play its “A” game in its conference opener against Crestwood on Monday.

Final score: Lady Cougars 73, the same Crestwood team considered its top challenger for the WVC Division 1 and overall crowns, 46.

“I think we showed just how badly we wanted this game,” said junior Alexis Reimold, one of three Hazleton Area players in double figures with 18 points. “When it comes down to it, we know that we can get it done.”

Though far from perfect, the Lady Cougars proved their “B” game was still plenty good enough to send a message that the road to the conference championship will run south through Hazleton, no matter that their road against the Lady Comets was bumpy at times and littered with 18 turnovers, several key players in foul trouble, squandered scoring opportunities and a bunch of second-chance points surrendered.

All were part of the trade-off for the Lady Cougars’ pressure defense forcing Crestwood into 27 turnovers and quickening the game’s pace more to their liking, as the Lady Comets often shot much earlier in their possessions than they wanted.

“We’re relentless,” longtime Hazleton Area head coach Joe Gavio said. “We’re never going to take the pedal off the metal unless something’s really wrong. They started getting a little tired … and I thought our hands (on defense) got a little bit better as the game went on. We learned to play with some fouls until … we kicked it into another gear.”

Hazleton Area never trailed in the game, opening a 14-5 lead on Alexis Reimold’s first of two three-pointers. However, consecutive triples by Jackie Gallagher and Charlie Hiller kept Crestwood nipping at the Lady Cougars’ heels until the Lady Comets’ Cameron Vieney tied it at 19 with her own three-ball early in the second quarter.

Layups by Reimold and Sophia Benyo and two more by Kaitlyn Bindas regained the upper hand for Hazleton Area before the first half ended. Sophia Shults and Gallagher swapped threes for their respective sides, before two more Reimold hoops sent the Lady Cougars into halftime with a 35-27 lead.

“I think we came to play in the first quarter,” Crestwood head coach Mary Mushock said. “We looked like we were ready and we were set. But then, who knows? It was as if something just hit us. … We panicked against their press a little more than we should have and turned the ball over a lot, and they capitalized.”

After the sloppy first half by both teams left the game’s outcome still very much in doubt, the Lady Cougars (7-0, 1-0) gradually turned an eight-point halftime into a double-digit cushion by midway through the third quarter. Their advantage only snowballed from there.

“We’re gonna force you to run back and forth … until we wear you down,” Gavio said. “For us, it’s all about controlling the tempo, making some shots, jumping into our press and kicking it into gear.”

Hazleton Area has defeated its seven opponents by an average of 26.7 points per game or right around their 27-point victory margin against Crestwood. Only Scranton, which lost 66-47, and St. Joseph by-the-Sea, N.Y., an 81-74 overtime loser, have been within striking distance of the Lady Cougars in the fourth quarter this season.

“We said from the beginning that we didn’t want a track meet, that we didn’t want to run with them,” Mushock said. “They can go 10 deep; we can’t. We played into their game, and that was to their advantage.”

The Lady Comets (5-2, 1-1) never got closer than 14 points of Hazleton Area after Kate Gallagher’s putback at the 5:30 mark. Hazleton Area answered with a Shults free throw, Reimold’s triple off a Shults feed, Shults’ layup off Reimold’s assist and back-to-back Reimold baskets that made it 62-43.

Soon after Bindas scored the final six of her game-high 24 points, both teams called on their reserves to take their teams into a short Christmas break.

“We’re really concentrating on trying to get finer,” said Gavio, whose team will meet Redbank Valley in the opening round of the Carl Truance Holiday Tournament in Punxsutawney on Friday. “We like to jack it up as if we had a 10-second clock, but there are times not to do that and let other teams run after us a little bit. You saw that tonight because we were getting some backdoor (cuts to the basket), some good drives and we were able to make some shots and get into our press. Then they get tired, they start missing shots and their legs start going. .. There’s really no magic to it.”

Bindas finished as the game’s high scorer with 24 points. Reimold and Benyo tossed in 18 and 17, respectively. Hiller led Crestwood with 14; Jackie Gallagher had 11 and Kate Gallagher helped with nine.

For the Lady Comets, the countdown to their next showdown against Hazleton Area (on Jan. 20 in Wright Twp.) begins with a non-league game against Pleasant Valley on Saturday.

“It’s going to be easier than people think,” Mushock said, when asked how her team plans to rid itself of any lingering effects of Monday’s loss.”If we played Friday (when the game originally was scheduled but postponed because of snow), I think it would have been a different game because we were riding high off a big win against Pittston. But being off for two days hurt us. … Now, we’ll look past this (one) and look to get them (the Lady Cougars) at home.”

Juliana Silva’s 19 points led Hazleton to a 56-28 win in the junior varsity game. Mia Menoski had 18 for Crestwood.

CRESTWOOD (46)

Korpusik 0 0-0 0, Vieney 2 0-2 5, Hiller 5 3-8 14, Petrosky 3 0-0 6, J. Gallagher 2 5-6 11, Andrews 0 1-2 1, Lenio 0 0-0 0, Menoski 0 0-0 0, K. Gallagher 4 1-2 9, Sklarosky 0 0-0 0. Stofko 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 10-20 46.

HAZLETON AREA (73)

Marolo 1 0-0 3, Benyo 8 1-2 17, Silva 0 0-0 0, Eberts 0 0-0 0, Bindas 10 3-5 24, Williams 0 1-2 1, E. Shults 1 0-0 2, Lagowy 0 0-0 0, Reimold 8 0-0 18, S. Shults 2 3-4 8. Totals 30 8-13 73.

Crest (5-2, 1-1) 14 13 9 10 – 46

HA (7-0, 1-0) 16 19 13 25 – 73

3-FG: J. Gallagher 2, Vieney, Hiller, Reimold 2, Marolo, Bindas, S. Shults.