NTL GIRLS' BASKETBALL: CANTON HAS A BIG 2024-2025 SEASON (2025-03-15)

BY CHRIS MANNING
Northern Tier Sports Report
It was a historically good season for Canton girls’ basketball, going 17-10 on the season as they made the state playoffs for the first time since 2002.

“We had an amazing year,” said Canton coach Ryan VanNoy. “This team produced a lot of excitement for Canton. We had a great offseason which translated into success during the season.”

They split with eventual divisional champions, NEB, for the first time this decade, made the NTL Showcase, and went 2-1 in district play.

The Warriors opened with a 35-27 win over CV, while splitting at the NPL Season Opening Tournament.

Things continued to go back and forth as they lost to Wyalusing (68-54), then came back to roll Meadowbrook Christian (48-25).

A loss to Troy (59-40) was followed by wins over Galeton (58-15), and NP-Liberty (43-29).

After suffering back to back losses to fall to 5-5, the Warriors went on a 4-game win streak, beating NPL (54-42), Montgomery (53-13), Williamson (52-28), and Sayre (59-31).

They had a pair of tough losses to Large School powers Athens (47-33), and Towanda (51-24), but then ended the regular season on a 6-game win streak to earn a home playoff contest.

During that stretch they beat Wellsboro (48-35), CV (49-42), NEB (45-41), NPL (49-30), Williamson (60-26), and Sayre (48-3).

After losing to Troy in the NTL Showcase opener, they rebounded to edge Southern Columbia (48-45), knocking one of the favorites out of the tournament.

They lost in the semifinal to NEB (53-32), but then scored a win over Northwest (38-35) to punch their ticket to states. In the state tournament they lost to Mountain View (50-32).

“We won two big time district games that enabled us to place third in our district and move on to the state tournament for the first time in two decades,” VanNoy said. “Kendall Kitchen was able to score her 1,000th point which also hasn't been done in 20 plus years within the girls program.”

Kitchen led the team in scoring at 14.6 PPG, while adding 4.6 RPG, 3.2 APG, and 3.1 SPG.

Sophomore Cailyn VanNoy added 12.2 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 3.7 APG, and 3.9 SPG, as Lydia Roupp put up 7.0 PPG, and grabbed 4.8 RPG.

Alexis McRoberts proved to be a rebounding machine at 8.2 RPG, with fellow starter Danah Wesneski getting 3.3 PPG, 1.9 APG, and 1.5 SPG.

Kitchen is their lone senior as they look to continue to grow the program in 2025-2026.

“We can't replace Kendall but we have 13 girls coming back who now have significant post season experience,” said VanNoy. “We will regroup, get back to work, and do everything we can to make another run next year. Our program is headed in the right direction, we just need to keep working.”

Print Friendly Version