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The Wellsboro Hornets and North Penn-Mansfield Tigers were in PIAA District IV playoff basketball action on Friday, February 23 and Saturday, February 24.

The Wellsboro boys and girls both hosted Bloomsburg in the Class AAA quarterfinals on Friday. The Hornets won their game 59-38 while the Lady Hornets were upset by Bloomsburg, 58-55. On Saturday, the Tigers traveled to Montoursville and came up short against Muncy, 69-50.

Bloomsburg 58, Wellsboro 55

The top-seeded Wellsboro Girls Basketball team suffered a 58-55 upset to #8 Bloomsburg in the District IV Class AAA quarterfinals on Friday, February 23.

Bloomsburg held a slim 13-12 lead after the first quarter then outscored Wellsboro 17-12 to lead 30-24 at halftime. The Lady Hornets started making runs in the third, but Bloomsburg answered to stay ahead. Wellsboro outscored Bloomsburg 15-14 in the third to cut in the Lady Panthers lead to position themselves for a comeback.

Wellsboro again outscored Bloom in the fourth and eventually tied the game up at 53-all with 2:20 left in the fourth quarter, but could never fully complete the comeback as time ran out on their season.

Junior Emma Poirier led all scorers with 18, sister senior Lizzie Poirier scored 17 in her final career game, and senior Tory Self finished with 13. Sophomore Cathryn Brought chipped in with 5 points and sophomore Liza Manning rounded out the scoring with 2.

Self finished with 511 points on the year, ranking her 5th all-time in Wellsboro Girls Basketball history. Lizzie Poirier finished with 310 points for the year and 974 for her career. Tuttle finished an injury-shortened season with 69 points (454 career), 132 rebounds (801 career), 10 blocks (50 career), and 43 steals (138 career). Senior Mikel Shabloski finished her career with 66 points, 65 rebounds, 12 assists, and 36 steals.

Emma Poirier finished 2nd on the team with 313 points, placing her at 524 for her career, and Brought finished with 129.

The loss ends the NTL Large School Division champion Lady Hornets’ season at 21-4.

Wellsboro 59, Bloomsburg 38

The Wellsboro Varsity Boys Basketball team picked up a District IV Class AAA quarterfinal win over Bloomsburg on Friday, February 23.

The Hornets started out with a 14-6 lead after the first quarter, but Bloomsburg outscored the home team 13-11 in the second to cut it to 25-19 at halftime. Wellsboro then picked it up in the third quarter and outscored the Panthers 17-6 to jump out to a firm 42-25 lead.

The Hornets again outscored Bloomsburg in the the fourth, 17-13, with 13 out of their 17 points coming from the foul line to go on to win, 59-38.

Junior Brandyn Tuttle recorded his 17th double-double of the season with 16 points and 16 rebounds to lead Wellsboro. Senior Dalton Prough scored 14 points, and had 5 rebounds and 5 assists. Seniors Quinn Henry and Collin Pietropola and junior Andrew Brelo all added 8 points each, senior Nic Ingerick chipped in with 3 points, and junior Hunter Brown rounded out the scoring with 2 points.

Prough and Tuttle also added 4 steals each and Pietropola added 5 rebounds.

“They played hard but we struggled the first half,” said head coach Todd Outman. “I thought a coupe individual players struggled a little bit, but I thought Collin really picked it up for us the second half. He gave us a lot of inside presence. Brandyn struggled a little bit early on, which he normally doesn’t do, but as always these guys never give up. They hung in there. It wasn’t our best effort so to speak. We’ll take the victory and move on to the next game.”

Next up for Wellsboro is a rematch with #5 Southern Columbia, 59-56 winners over Troy, on Tuesday, February 27 at Williamsport Area High School at 6:00 p.m.

Muncy 69, North Penn-Mansfield 50

The Tigers were in a dogfight early on as both teams battled back and forth. Muncy led 11-9 after the first quarter, but the Tigers went on a 10-6 run in the second to edge the Indians 19-17 at halftime.

The second half was all Muncy as hit five three-pointers to open the half’s first eight minutes. Muncy’s Nate Paisley hit two three’s while Noah Rymsza hit two of them and scored 12 points in the quarter en route to a 27-15 run to put the Indians up 44-34 after the third.

The Tigers were simply no match for Muncy in the fourth. As Mansfield committed fouls to try and lengthen the game, the Indians 15-of-20 shots from the foul line. Muncy scored 25 points in the quarter to Mansfield’s 16 to turn what was a two-point game at the half into a 69-50 win.

Rymsza led all scorers with 26 points while Paisley finished with 21. Brent Burleigh led the Tigers with 11, Nick Kasper finished with 8, and Garrett David chipped in with 7.

“The run isn’t over, we play next week to get a pigtail game in the state tournament,” said Tigers’ head coach Kipper Burleigh. “Hopefully we can regroup and come back and get a win next week. The loss is very disappointing though. We faced a lot of adversity today. We had two or three starters in foul trouble, we lost our center to an ankle roll and he was never able to come back. All that stuff adds up and took a toll, and on top of that we didn’t shoot well and gave up 52 points in the second half. That stuff kind of snowballs on you.”

North Penn-Mansfield will be back in action on Thursday, March 1 against Wyalusing at Mansfield University at 6:00 p.m.