Wilson Remains Undefeated in League Play, Defeats Twin Valley as Kilgore Reaches 1K

By Sam Cavalieri, Berks Girls Basketball correspondent

It was a big night for Hailey Kilgore in her home gym. The Twin Valley senior scored her 1,000^th point with 4.8 seconds left in the first quarter.

It was Wilson, however, that looked at home as they jumped out to a big early lead and never looked back in a 73-42 Berks I-II crossover matchup on Friday night.

Wilson's Violet Houck ready to box out Friday. (Photo: Rihanna Shumate)

The Bulldogs (6-0 Berks I, 12-2 overall) rained down five 3s in the first quarter and opened up a quick 19-4 lead. Laila Jones and Ryan Leaman each had two 3s in that stretch.

“We just tell our kids to shoot the ball with confidence,” Wilson coach Matt Raquet said. “The next one’s always going in, so yeah, we had a group effort there making 3-point shots against their zone and pulled them out of it early.”

Kilgore canned a 3 to get herself on the board and started a 9-2 run for the Raiders (4-1 Berks II, 6-7 overall). Her pull-up jumper off the glass for her 1,000^th point made it 19-11 at the end of the first quarter. She scored again to start the second quarter, but the six-point margin would be as close as it would get.

“They are one of the best teams we are going to play all year,” Kilgore said. “It’s not really a surprise that they came out strong and we haven’t played anyone quite to their level yet.”

Wilson ran off 13 straight for a 32-13 lead and the game wasn’t in doubt the rest of the way. Violet Houck played an incredible game on both sides of the court. She finished a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor for eight points, dished out four assists and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

“I just know that I have to hustle all over the court,” Houck said. “My teammates are all great shooters. So just having that helps me, knowing that I can help just get rebounds and hit open players. I just trust my teammates so much.”

The deep, talented Bulldogs are firing on all cylinders to start the season with the return of senior point guard and two-time All-Berks pick Laila Jones to the court after she missed her entire junior season with a torn ACL.

The rotation features Houck, Jones, junior wing and returning All-Berks selection Kailani Hardy, senior guard and Kutztown commit Laura Crocona, junior guard and North Carolina lacrosse commit Ryan Leaman, senior guard Janai Tisdale, sophomore forward Jade Lee, and freshmen Lila Houck and Mariam Osumanu.

Twin Valley's Hailey Kilgore guarded by Wilson's Kailani Hardy. (Photo: Rihanna Shumate)

The Bulldogs like to get up-and-down and averaged a Berks-best 54.0 points per game coming into the matchup. Houck had four blocks and constantly ignited the Wilson transition game.

“Violet’s awesome,” Raquet said. “She does so many things that don’t show up on the stat sheet and also a lot of things that do. Her blocks, she’s so good at blocking at the top of the shot and not picking up fouls. The way she runs the floor, it just draws a lot of people and that’s the reason why we get some of those open 3s.”

Twin Valley struggled mightily with 19 turnovers in the first three quarters. Houck was just part of a strong defensive effort that also featured Hardy. Hardy had a team-high 15 points, but Wilson coach Matt Raquet wanted to talk more about her defense.

“It starts with our defense, and our catalyst for that is Kailani,” Racquet said. “We ask Kailani to guard the best player on the other team every single night. Hailey’s a great player, one of the top scorers in the county, obviously scored 1,000 points and I thought (Kailani) did a great job on her making everything difficult and not giving her anything easy. I think Kailani is the best defender in the county.”

Wilson certainly played the part of the top team in the county, and they have a county-best 12 wins and hold a one-game lead over Governor Mifflin in the Berks I race. 

	1	2	3	4	Final
Wilson	21	19	20	13	73
Twin Valley	11	9	10	12	42

Bulldogs (6-0, 12-2)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
Crocona	3-7	0-0	2-3	1	0	8
Leaman	5-12	0-0	3-6	1	2	13
V. Houck	4-4	0-0	0-0	4	9	8
Jones	3-10	2-2	2-7	4	4	10
Hardy	6-12	1-2	2-6	1	1	15
Lee	3-7	0-3	0-0	0	2	6
Osumanu	2-2	0-0	0-0	0	3	4
L. Houck	2-5	0-0	1-3	1	2	5
Santiago	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Taylor	2-2	0-0	0-0	0	0	4
Robinson	0-0	0-0	0-0	1	0	0
Wagner	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	30-61	3-7	10-25	13	24/31	73

Raiders (4-1, 6-7)	FG	FT	3’s	A	R	Points
O. Kilgore	2-8	3-6	0-2	0	1	7
H. Kilgore	6-16	2-2	2-8	3	2	16
Schmittinger	0-2	3-4	0-0	1	6	3
Williams	4-7	1-2	0-1	0	1	9
Hahn	1-5	0-0	0-2	0	3	2
Winters	1-2	0-0	1-1	0	2	3
Cunningham	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0
Cooper	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0
Totals	15-42	9-17	3-14	4	19/28	42

Turnovers: Wilson 13, Twin Valley 21. Team rebounds: Wilson 7, Twin Valley 9.