By Tom Fox
MaxPreps.com
When you enter basketball’s second season, things can become unpredictable.
Certain seeds are taking care of business. Case-in-point: the undefeated Reading High boys’ basketball team.
Certain teams are making a late-season dash. Case-in-point: the Harrisburg boys’ basketball team that entered the postseason as a No. 18 seed.
Then you have the rivalries.
None was more of a surprise than the meeting last Saturday in Bellefonte, where No. 1 Hollidaysburg met up with cross-town rival and No. 4 Altoona in a District 6 girls' Quad-A semifinal.
No one expected the Lady Mountain Lions to battle the Lady Golden Tigers. After State College’s overtime win over Central Mountain earlier in the day, it appeared the top two teams in District 6 were on their way to the title tilt.
Hollidaysburg¹s early lead seemed to verify the fact.
But Altoona, which barely squeaked into the playoffs, and Sam Reimer shocked followers of district girls’ basketball when the Lady Mountain Lion netted 11 points off the bench, rained 3-pointers on Hollidaysburg and scored a 41-38 victory.
The regular season wasn’t kind to Altoona. Coach Craig Long’s team was 8-16 in the first 24 games and didn’t win a game against the other district’s Quad-A teams: Hollidaysburg, State College and Central Mountain.
That changed on Saturday, however, and now the Blair County team has a chance to win its fifth consecutive district Class AAAA title.
"I told the girls to get to .500 we’d have to win the state championship,” Long told the Altoona Mirror.
Really, it was Reimer that lifted the Lady Mountain Lions with the key minutes and production off the bench.
"I never usually play too much. But Coach put me in and said ‘if you get the ball, shoot.' So I took the shot,” said Reimer. “All season, I’ve been trying to do my best on the bench. I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked. I got the chance, and I took it.”
Double-digits seeds are also faring well in other Eastern parts of the state. Harrisburg, a usual power in District 3, was hampered with injuries throughout most of the regular season and entered with that 18 seed.
But the Cougars knocked off Chambersburg in a pigtail game. In the bracket, Harrisburg beat No. 2 seed McCaskey by nine, and proceeded to beat the No. 7 seed by 10 points.
Now the Cougars are two wins away from a district title. Up next is No. 3 seed Central Dauphin East. Still alive is the No. 1 seed Reading, which faces surprise No. 13 Elizabethtown in the semifinals.
It's a similar story on the girls' side in Quad-A.
Number 10 seed Central Dauphin East has upset Reading (57-51) and Red Lion (46-38) and finds itself in the semifinals against No. 3 seed Cedar Crest.
Tuesday night, CD East continued to roll, sending Cedar Crest to the consolations with a 10-point win.
In District 4, Lourdes Regional, a Class A school that plays in the always-tough Schuylkill League, continues to roll on. A No. 10 seed, the Red Raiders have knocked off Northern Tier teams Liberty and Sayre and will play No. 6 Millville in the semifinals.
The biggest surprise might have come Tuesday night in Class AAA boys' ball. Both top seeds lost as Shamokin Area was edged by Danville, 46-45; and No. 2 Milton and its all-state player, Anthony Fannick, lost to Selinsgrove, 49-47. Because D4 only sends two teams to the state tournament, both the Indians and Black Panthers had their seasons ended.
In District 6, No. 11 Central of Martinsburg has driven through a regular-season schedule that included many Class AAA teams and has prospered in the Double A playoffs. The Dragons have already defeated Philipsburg-Osceola and No. Cambria Heights and also move into the semifinals.
District 2 didn't avoid the upset bug, either.
The Wyoming Seminary boys' entered the Class AA playoffs with the top spot and a 22-1 record. After Monday, Seminary is 22-2 and is watching the playoffs at home.
Hot-shooting Wilkes-Barre GAR earned a 47-37 victory and got one step closer to a district title as a No. 9 seed.
"It’s disappointing because this is a great group of guys who worked very, very hard," Seminary coach C.J. Kersey told the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader. "For the eight seniors, I won’t have a chance to coach those guys again. That’s as disappointing as anything."
Also in D2, second-seeded Holy Redeemer was stunned by Dallas, 64-58.
"Dallas played a great game," Redeemer coach Mark Belenski said in the Times Leader. "They played a better game than we did. They just wanted it more than we did."
Girls' Basketball: Burke's All Right
It's not often that a table falling on a high school basketball player's foot makes headlines.
Then again, when the player is all-everything Becky Burke, things change.
The Abington Heights senior and South Carolina recruit recently had a mishap while helping friends move a table. The table fell on her foot and the rumors started to swirl that the standout was finished for the season with a break.
Not so fast, my friend.
"If it had been broken, I think she would have taken the cast off to play the game," AH coach Vince Bucciarelli told the Scranton Times-Tribune. "It’s not broken. It’s just a bruise."
Burke and the Lady Comets cruised Tuesday night, whipping Wyoming Valley West and earning another game with rival Scranton for the District 2 Class AAAA championship.
Wrestling: A First for Bucktail
Bucktail is one of the smallest schools in District 4. But the Renovo-based school made headlines in the District 4 Class AA West Sectional wrestling tournament when heavyweight Jesse Newlen captured the school's first individual title.
Although coach Bruce Ransom and the Bucks usually advance one wrestler into the district tournament each year, the team has never had a No. 1 sectional seed, never mind a champion.
Newlen changed all that on Saturday. The No. 1 seed at 285 and undefeated on the season, Newlen pinned Milton's Drew Taylor in the championship and earned the school's first sectional individual title.
The senior will now enter this weekend's districts as the No. 4 seed in hopes of advancing to the PIAA Class AA regional tournament the following weekend in Williamsport. The top five from District 4 join the top three from District 2 in the regional.
"This is great for our program and for Jesse," the Bucktail coach said. "He works so hard and does all the extra things it takes to win. It is going to take a man to beat him."
Wrestling: Next Step to Hershey
While the excitement of basketball playoffs rings through the various communities, the grapplers are taking their steps toward a state title.
Districts take place this weekend around the Commonwealth, while the PIAA regionals begin the weekend of Feb. 29.
The Class AA and AAA championships will be held from March 6 through March 8 at the Giant Center in Hershey.
Earlier this month, Burrell and Central Dauphin claimed its respective team dual championships in Chocolate Town USA.
Tom Fox is sports editor of The Lock Haven (Pa.) Express. He can be reached at tfox@lockhaven.com.
