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In the opening round of the District IV Class A playoffs, the North Penn-Liberty boys basketball team came up short to Sullivan County in a 59-58 loss on Tuesday, February 19.

The Mounties trailed 17-7 after the first quarter then outscored Sullivan County 10-7 in the second quarter, highlighted by two Colton Litzelman three-pointers, to cut the Griffins’ lead to 24-17 at halftime.

The third quarter, however, is what hurt the Mounties most on the evening. Sullivan County held Liberty to just 6 points, most of them coming at the end of the quarter, to extend their lead to 13, 36-23. The Griffins kept scoring as the fourth started to run their lead up to 46-23 with 4:39 remaining.

That’s when the Mounties took over.

Liberty put together a massive run midway through the quarter to score 35 points. Their first basket came as Klayton Roupp found Logan Horsley, then a layup off a missed shot by Noah Spencer cut the Griffins’ lead to 46-31 a minute later. The Mounties kept clawing their way back into the game and eventually got the lead to 10, 55-45, with just under minute to play on another Spencer three.

Spencer would later cut it to 7, 57-50, with another three. The Mounties got the lead down to 4 points with around 5 seconds left on the clock. As the Griffins missed a foul shot, they went 9-for-17 in the quarter, Brandon Thompson came down with the rebound and the Mounties worked the ball up past half court to Mikah Kolb. Kolb took the game’s last shot, a three-pointer, as the buzzer sounded and Sullivan County escaped with the one-point, 59-58 win.

Spencer and Brandyn Choplosky led North Penn-Liberty with 18 points each. All of Spencer’s points were in the second half and 14 of Choplosky’s came in the fourth quarter. Litzelman finished with 8 and Horsley had 6.

Jesse Williams led Sullivan County with 16 points, Sam Carpenter finished with 13, and Trace Neary had 9.

The loss ends the Mounties’ season at 13-11 overall (9-7 NTL Small School Division). Sullivan County will now face off against top-seeded Lourdes Regional at a date and time to be determined.