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The Wellsboro basketball teams each traveled to Loyalsock High School for the District IV Class AA semi-finals, as the Lady Hornets took on No 2 seed Southern Columbia, and the Hornets squared off against No 3 seed Central Columbia on Tuesday, February 23.

Girls – Wellsboro 59, Southern Columbia 49

Sophomore Lizzie Poirier scored a game, season, and career-high 29 points to help the Wellsboro Girls Basketball team upset No. 2 seed Southern Columbia on Tuesday, February 23.

After scoring the game’s first points, Wellsboro struggled for the rest of the quarter while Southern built up a 15-4 lead. The rally was on from there as the Lady Hornets settled down and Poirier heated up. Poirier scored 7 of the 29 in the second, senior Jada Jackson also added four, and Wellsboro outscored Southern 15-6 to close the gap to 21-19 at the end of the first half.

Wellsboro kept the intensity up in the third as they came out swining and outscored Southern 21-8. Poirier went off in the quarter with two three-pointers and four close-range shots for 14 in the quarter to push the score to 40-29.

“I’ve been off for the last couple of games so it’s been good to get my shot back,” Poirier said. “It was a total adrenaline rush out there.”

The fourth was back and forth, with Southern outscoring Wellsboro by a point. Senior Sarah Ingerick scored 9 of her 11 points in the quarter and Wellsboro shot 11-for-18 down the stretch from the foul line to lock up the 59-49 win, and head to the District finals for the first time since 2004.

Poirier led all scorers with 29 and Jackson and Ingerick each finished with 11. Freshman Julia Smith scored 5 points, junior Janessa Davis had 2, and sophomore Rachael Tuttle pitched in with a point.

“We knew Southern would be physical and quick,” said head coach John Davis. “It’s hard to prepare for that style of play when you don’t see it every night during the regular season but the girls did really well and fought back under some tough conditions.”

To win the program’s second Ditrict IV title (1978-79), the girls will need to knock off top seed Mount Carmel on Saturday, February 27 at Milton High School with tipoff coming at 6:00 p.m.

“Mount Carmel is very similar to Southern in that they’re very physical and fast, and knowing that we can overcome that and play like we played tonight, I’m feeling very confident.”

Boys – Wellsboro 48, Central Columbia 41

The Wellsboro Boys Basketball team punched their ticket to play in their second straight District IV Class AA title game with a 48-41 win over Central Columbia on Tuesday, February 23.

The first quarter was neck-and-neck with Wellsboro leading 10-9 afterwards, but the second belonged to the Hornets as their defense kept the Jays off the glass and held them to just 7 points. Senior Dawson Prough, juniors Brandon Lamphier and Jacob Singer, and sophomore Dalton Prough all scored in the quarter, with Dalton Prough scoring 5.

Wellsboro led 21-16 at the half, but came out firing in the third as the Prough brothers scored 13 of the team’s 15 points in the quarter. The Hornets pushed their lead into double-digits at one point, but Central Columbia hit two three-pointers and went 5-for-5 at the foul line to bring the margin back down to 5, trailing 36-31 heading into the fourth.

Central put the pressure on in the final frame and got the Hornets out of their rhythm on a few possessions to cut the lead to 2 points at one stretch, but Wellsboro shot 4-for-6 at the foul line down the stretch, with Singer and sophomore Quinn Henry each going 2-for-3 to give the Hornets the win.

Dalton Prough led Wellsboro with 15 points and 7 rebounds and brother Dawson finished the night with 14 points. Lamphier ended the night with 7, Singer and sophomore Collin Pietropola had 4 each, and Henry and sophomore Nic Ingerick pitched in with 2 points each. Singer added 5 rebounds and Henry made 3 assists.

“It means absolutely everything,” said Dawson Prough. “This is what we’ve been working for the whole year, and our motivation has been coach Charles Griscavage. We’re playing for him and our community and we wanted to go out there get it done.”

Wellsboro will now play for their second consecutive District championship, and third in the last four years under head coach Todd Outman as they look to bring home the school’s first District IV basketball title since the 1951-52 season.

“We did a great job tonight on them,” Outman said. “We had tape on them against Montoursville and Hughesville and they really drove more against those two teams than they did our on guys tonight. We did a good job contesting threes, (Zach) Boyd went off for some, but we were challenging them and that’s all you can do.”

Standing between Wellsboro and their ultimate goal is No. 4 seed Danville, who knocked off top seed Hughesville 48-45. Outman knows this one won’t be easy for Wellsboro.

“We’re going to have to handle pressure. They will come at you for all 32 minutes. If we can handle that I think we can compete, but if we start throwing the ball all over it’s going to be over quick, but I think we’ll be okay.”

The championship game will be played at Milton High School on Saturday, February 27 follwing the Wellsboro and Mount Carmel girls game.