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Trailing by six after the first half, the North Penn-Mansfield Tigers outscored the Sayre Redskins 41-17 to pick up a 70-52 win in the District IV Class AA quarterfinals on Wednesday, February 21.

The Redskins led early on but eventually the Tigers battled back to to take an 8-7 lead. Two Redskin baskets put Sayre back in front 12-8 before Garrett David fought to put the Tigers back up, 14-12. Sayre rallied and ended the quarter leading 16-15.

Sayre increased their lead to six, 21-15, to start the second, but again the Tigers clawed their way back into it to trail 22-20. However, an 8-2 run by Sayre, keyed by three-pointers from Corbin Brown and Jordan Rockwell, pushed the score to 33-24. A three by the Tigers’ Sawyer Freeman cut it to 33-27, but the Redskins led 35-29 after the half concluded.

Sayre started the second half leading 39-31, but the momentum quickly shifted back to North Penn-Mansfield. The Tigers keyed an 11-0 run behind 6 points from Dylan Meyer, 4 points from Brent Burleigh, and a three by Nick Kasper to outscore the Redskins 18-11 and take a slim 47-46 lead heading into the final eight minutes.

Mansfield saved their best quarter of Wednesday’s game for last. After baskets by both teams, a Kasper three put the Tigers up 53-48. Two minutes later the Tigers began pulling away, holding a 60-48 lead. From that point on the Redskins ran out of gas. A three-pointer Gage Carnrike cut it to 60-51, but the Tigers finished the final four minutes, outscoring the Redskins 10-1. After the final buzzer sounded, Mansfield outscored Sayre 23-6 over the final eight minutes to advance to the Class AA semi-finals.

“It felt good to see the momentum change and for us to get out and run and play with some energy and score,” said Tigers’ head coach Kipper Burleigh.

Both teams played each other in the fifth game of the regular season back on December 19, which the Tigers won 63-59, but Wednesday’s game had a lot of extra added pressure.

“When you’re the 3 seed and you’re playing the 6 seed in your gym you’re supposed to win. We didn’t do well with that pressure. We looked like we were playing not to lose and that’s a hard way to play a game.”

Meyer finished with a game-high 21 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. David finished with 14 points and 8 boards, Freeman finished with 10 points, and Burleigh added 9. David and Jayden Andrews each recorded 5 steals and Burleigh dished out 4 assists.

Brown finish with 20 points for Sayre while Ryan Murrelle and Carnrike each scored 9.

Next up for North Penn-Mansfield are the District IV Class AA semi-finals. The Tigers take on #2 Muncy at Montoursville High School on Saturday, February 24 at 2:30 p.m.