Last season as a junior, Carly Richardson was one of the Palmyra girls’ basketball team’s tri-captains. This season as a senior, Richardson has elevated her role of a leader to the next level.

Watch her closely on the floor and it seems like she treats her teammates like younger sisters, encouraging them when they need guidance, helping them up when they fall down and being stern when they need discipline. Richardson keeps leading and the Cougars keep winning.

Last week, Richardson also  led by example. In two Palmyra wins, Richardson posted a combined 33 points, did more than her share on the glass and even performed some nifty ball-handling feats.

On Tuesday, during Palmyra’s Mid-Penn Keystone Division opener at Cedar Cliff, Richardson, a senior guard headed to Division One Bucknell, knocked down five three-point field goals on her way to 18 points, as the Cougars lambasted the Colts 63-36. Two days later back in ‘Palm Town’, Richardson connected for 15 points and her Cougars pulled away from Elco 54-33 for a non-league triumph that kept them unbeaten.

Since Richardson burst  on to the area hoops scene as a sophomore, Palmyra has compiled a remarkable 63-5 overall mark.

– Jeff Falk