D4 Basketball SportsCast – 2/24/20

by Ed Weaver - February 24, 2020

Three local teams were in action over the weekend in the District IV basketball playoffs. On Friday night Loyalsock hosted a doubleheader with the Wellsboro girls and North Penn-Mansfield boys and on Saturday the North Penn-Liberty boys were in Troy taking on Northumberland Christian.

Loyalsock 66, Wellsboro 28

In a 1-8 match up in the opening round of the District IV Class AAA girls basketball playoffs, the Loyalsock Lancers defeated Wellsboro 66-28 on Friday, February 21.

The Lady Hornets struggled with the Lady Lancers’ early pressure and found themselves in an early 10-2 hole just over two minutes into the game. Loyalsock extended their lead to 15-2 midway through the quarter then went on to lead 23-7 after the opening frame. Wellsboro continued to struggle in the 2nd and found themselves trailing 40-15 with just over two minutes remaining and 43-17 at the half.

Loyalsock kept up the pressure in the 2nd half as they held Wellsboro to just 11 points and enacted the mercy rule late in the game.

“We knew going into tonight”s game it was going to be a battle for the girls,” said coach Maureen Poirier. “Sock is an experienced team with a deep bench and puts in a tremendous amount of time in the off season. I am proud of the effort and improvement this group of girls have demonstrated all season.”

Loyalsock 101, North Penn-Mansfield 87

In Friday’s second game of the doubleheader the Lancers hosted North Penn-Mansfield in Class AAA boys action.

After taking an early 5-0 lead, the Tigers quickly fell behind as the Lancers lit up the scoreboard behind 10 points each for Idris Ali and Rees Watkins. The Lancers led 30-19 after the 1st then scored 26 more points in the 2nd quarter to take a 56-38 lead at halftime.

Mansfield edged the top-seeded Lancers, 26-25, in the 3rd quarter but still found themselves trailing 81-64 after the third. By the end of the game Loyalsock built up their lead to 101-87.

All five starters for the Tigers were in double-figures scoring on the evening, led by 20 points by Alex Stein and 19 points from Logan Tokarz. Jacob Evans finished with 18, Curtis Craig added 16, and Dominic Garverick pitched in 10 points.

“I thought our kids played really hard for 32 minutes and I was really proud of their effort,” head coach Kipper Burleigh said. “Unfortunately we had a handful of turnovers, some really costly ones underneath the basket, and then we just couldn’t get stops. You give up 13 or 14 three’s and I felt like they shot 60% to 70% behind the arc, just tough to defend. When Idris is shooting like that he’s almost unguardable.”

The Tigers finish the season 12-11 overall.

Northumberland Christian 68, North Penn-Liberty 62

On Saturday, February 22, the Northumberland Christian Warriors upset the top-seeded North Penn-Liberty Mounties in the District IV Class A semi-finals at Troy High School.

The 1st quarter was a close one at the end, but started off slow for Liberty. The Warriors got on the scoreboard first then Liberty quickly answered. However, the Warriors went on a run before the Mounties came back and got within two, 12-10, at the end of the opening quarter. The 2nd quarter again went in favor of Northumberland Christian, this time, however, they extended their lead by outscoring Liberty 17-13, to lead 29-23 at the half.

Liberty dominated the 3rd quarter as they went on to outscore the Warriors 21-11 to retake the lead, but things quickly took a turn for the worse in the 4th as they struggled to score for half of the quarter. Liberty clawed their way back into the game, but were unable to make up any more ground.

Duncan Zeafla led the Mounties with 19 points, Kevin Alexander and Koleton Roupp had 9 points each, and Colton Litzelman and Brandon Thompson scored 8 points each.

“It’s not what we wanted as the outcome but it’s been a long season and they’ve fought through it,” said coach Brian Litzelman. “Starting last year they’ve worked hard so I’m very proud of them. They could’ve turned it in quit when the game was out of hand early third quarter and early in the fourth, but they fought till the end and have a lot of character but we just didn’t put our ‘A game’ together tonight.”

Wellsboro and North Penn-Mansfield’s season are over but the Mounties (20-4) will continue on in the Class A tournament. Liberty will face Sullivan County in the consolation round back at Troy on Thursday, February 27.