BY MARTY MYERS

Times-Shamrock Writer

When it most needed a break, Montrose caught one.

With most of its 14-point halftime lead gone and an errant pass seemingly headed toRiverside, Lady Meteors’ freshman Meghan Gilhool hustled to tip the ball.

It wound up in the hands of teammate Myra Lattimore, who turned and found Sara Krupinski under the bucket. Her layup danced around the rim and hung on the front of the rim before dropping through, stemming Riverside’s momentum as Montrose hung on for a 51-42 win in the District 2 Class AA semifinals Tuesday atLackawannaCollege.

“Sometimes you have those lucky breaks,” Montrose coach Al Smith said.

The 21st straight win by the Lady Meteors sets up Friday’s championship game with Dunmore, a 51-41 winner over Mid Valley in the other semifinal.

Riversidewill play Mid Valley in the third-place game, also Friday, for the right to advance to the state tournament.

“They were making a run and we had to stop their momentum,” Krupinski said. “Hitting that layup was big. It was bouncing all over the rim. I was like, ‘this better fall.’ ”

It did, punching Montrose’s ticket to the state playoffs for the first time since 2006.

“I was nervous while it was being tipped all over the place,” Krupinski said. “Meghan tipped it, Myra got a hold of it and I was on the opposite side and Myra made a nice pass.”

Riverside, which trailed by 14 at halftime, shot 22 percent and committed 22 turnovers through three quarters. But Rebecca Mekilo’s two free throws, four by Taylor Berto and a putback by Kellie Nash sliced the lead to 39-33 with5:24to play.

And when Dallas Ely’s lead pass to Gilhool was out of her reach, the ball was up for grabs, but only for a moment.

“We certainly had them on their heels at that point,”Riversidecoach Jack Mekilo said. “The ball goes up for grabs. It was like a lot of balls tonight that sort of bounced their way.

“I give them credit. They beat us on the 50/50 balls, no doubt about it. And none bigger than that one.

“If it goes our way, maybe we cut it to four. They made a play. In playoff games, it’s who can make more plays. Tonight they made more than us.”

Especially Ely, who had seven steals and scored 27 points. A 71-percent shooter from the line, Ely hit her last 11, including 8 for 8 in the fourth.

“It’s just been too long,” Ely said of Montrose’s state-playoff drought. “I wanted it too bad. I wasn’t going to let foul shots stand between us and gong to the district championship.

“Awesome, it’s awesome. We knew the task ahead, win, lose, but we were just pumped and we want to go to states.

Everyone stepped it up and we went at it.”

Ely and Krupinski combined for 21 of Montrose’s 31 first-half points, but Lattimore contributed all six of her points in the first half to help Montrose build a comfortable lead.

That lead was cut to eight twice in the third, an ugly stretch that saw the teams combine for 12 turnovers in the first four minutes and shoot under 20 percent from the floor.

“We wanted to play it fast but avoid the turnovers,” Ely said. “Obviously we didn’t do that tonight, but we got the win.”

It came as a bit of a surprise to Smith, who has seen his team dominate in the uptempo most of the year.

“We like to get up and down the court,” Smith said. “In all honesty, most of the year we’ve been pretty good at taking care of the ball in our uptempo. We had some costly turnovers to let them back in the game.”

Riversidejust couldn’t do the little things that it needed, like get a rebound when it desperately needed one.

With Montrose leading by seven, the Lady Meteors misfired with just over 30 seconds left, but they gathered the offensive rebound and Ely iced it with two foul shots.

“I think a lot of the things that we’ve been doing all year, that have been part of our success, we didn’t do them well tonight, and that’s all on me,” coach Mekilo said. “Some small things really came back to hurt us in a big way.

“We still made a run. Even with 30 seconds left, they take a shot and miss, and if we get that rebound, we’re still alive.”