HAMBURG - Facing fourth-quarter deficits far from home against revered opponents, the Montrose girls’ basketball team was simply at its best.

The Lady Meteors produced one clutch play after another to advance through two more rounds of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class AA tournament and into this week’s semifinals.

Dallas Ely produced two incredible individual offensive performances and Nicki Lewis led a team defensive effort as Montrose squeezed past Philadelphia Engineering & Sciences, 55-49, and Delone Catholic, 52-50, in state tournament games at Hamburg High School.

“I don’t know what to say but it’s awesome and our girls play with a lot of heart,” Montrose coach Al Smith said. “We got down, but we don’t give up.”

Ely had 19 of her career-high 41 points in the fourth quarter March 13 when Montrose overcame a seven-point deficit and in-game injury problems to rally past Carver in the second-round game.

The Lady Meteors were down by six Friday before Ely hit nine free throws in the final 5:12 to complete a game in which she made her final 15 free throws to finish with 27 points in the quarterfinal meeting with Delone Catholic.

“It’s amazing,” Ely said. “There’s nothing to be nervous about.

“We’re already having a dream season. We just want to add to what we’re already doing.”

The Lady Meteors (27-2) added a 26th straight win and state semifinal berth to the Lackawanna League Division 3 and District 2 Class AA titles they already produced this season.

Sierra Moore’s drive tied the game, 50-50, for Delone Catholic and allowed the Squirettes to set up full-court pressure coming out of a timeout with 18 seconds left.

Ely, who started out of bounds and threw the ball to Meghan Gilhool who was also out of bounds, took the pass back and needed only 4.5 seconds to go through the entire Delone Catholic defense. Ely went to the basket, was fouled with 13.5 seconds left and made the final two shots.

“The play was to try to get something long, but I had the lane and I took it,” Ely said.

To advance to the state semifinals, the Lady Meteors still had to stop Duke recruit Moore on the game’s final play.

Moore never got off a shot.

Although she scored 28 points in the game, Moore was forced to work for them. She went 9-for-22 from the floor and the Lady Meteors did a better job as the game wore on by closing off the lane when Lewis needed help in the demanding man-to-man assignment.

“I tried to stop her,” Lewis said. “Thankfully, the other girls started stepping in.

“I knew they could and I knew they would.”

Montrose coach Al Smith said the Lady Meteors did not change defenses after falling behind, but instead did a better job executing the approach they had worked on at practice.

“For a division I girl to be on the floor, they did a great job,” Smith said. “I thought Nicki did a great job of trying to contain her.

“She scored some points, but we kept her in check.

Lewis also had three of her five points in the fourth quarter, hitting a 12-footer to cut the gap to one with less than three minutes remaining and hitting the front end of a one-and-one for a two-point advantage before Moore’s final basket forced the late tie.

Sara Krupinski, who finished with eight points and seven rebounds, helped put Montrose in front.

Krupinski converted an Ely pass with 1:55 left to cut Delone Catholic’s lead to 48-47, then blocked a shot on the other end. Ely stole the ensuing in-bounds pass and hit Meghan Gilhool long for a 49-48 lead with 1:38 left.

Krupinski and Lewis won battles for loose rebounds late, leading to the free throw by Lewis with 26.4 seconds left.

Ely also finished with five rebounds, five assists and four steals.

Against Carver, Ely had 13 points in the first quarter but the Lady Meteors trailed, 16-14.

Carver had a 38-31 advantage going to the fourth quarter. Ely hit eight of nine free throws to finish 10-for-11 and also added five baskets, including a 3-pointer, in the fourth quarter.

Monique Whaley-Briggs had 26 points, including four 3-pointers in the first three quarters, for Carver. Yolanna Snypse added 12.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Elk Lake’s Adam Phillips finished out his career by winning second- and fifth-place medals at the PIAA Swimming and Diving Championships at Bucknell University in Lewisburg.

Phillips was second in the Class AA 100-yard breaststroke Saturday night, finishing in 58.04 seconds.

Earlier in the day, Phillips qualified for the final with the second-best preliminary time among 32 entries in 58.72.

Andrew Rosenberger of Bellefonte, who eventually placed third, beat Phillips by one-hundredth of a second in qualifying.

Quaker Valley’s Bobby Francis took the title with a time of 57.33 in the final.

Phillips finished fifth in the 200 individual medley Friday in 1:57.75. He also had the fifth-best time during qualifying.

In girls’ basketball, Forest City’s state tournament run ended in the second full round, but not until after the Lady Foresters put a scare into defending champion Steelton-Highspire by taking a halftime lead.

The Lady Foresters posted preliminary and first-round state wins before rebounding problems and foul trouble led to a 63-44 Steelton-Highspire victory March 14 at Hazleton Area High School.

Malia Tate-DeFreitas, a junior all-stater who is already over 2,000 points for her career, led the Lady Steamrollers with 34 points, five steals, five rebounds and four assists.

Forest City used three 3-pointers by Carly Erdmann and two by Morgan Saul to take a 25-23 halftime lead.

“It was a great first half,” Forest City coach Carl Urbas said. “That’s a real strong team.”

Steelton-Highspire showed its strength on the offensive boards and finished with a 50-33 rebounding lead.

“When you have that many offensive rebounds, eventually you’re going to get fouls,” Urbas said.

Forest City forward Cassandra Bendyk fouled out in the third quarter and center Katelyn Zembrzycki was gone just 1:06 into the fourth quarter.

“Unfortunately, we lost two good players,” Urbas said. “I have to say my kids hung in there.

“Carly gave me a great game.”

The deficit was just 41-36 when Zembrzycki fouled out.

Erdmann finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.

Senior Tania Pollard came off the bench in the second half and hit all four of her shots to finish with eight points.

Liz Heller had five assists.

In professional hockey, Ben Street scored two second-period goals and assisted on Geoff Walker’s third-period score Sunday afternoon when the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins overcame an early two-goal deficit to defeat the Binghamton Senators, 3-2, in an American Hockey League game.

COLLEGE CORNER

Dan Downton, a senior from Susquehanna, is back on the Marywood University baseball team after two years away.

Downton is the starting designated hitter and a back-up catcher for the Pacers, who are off to a 10-5 start.

Downton has started in 14 games. He is hitting .273 with three doubles, six RBI and five walks.

As a freshman in 2009, Downton hit .241 in 11 games.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The winners of Tuesday’s two Class AA girls’ semifinals will meet Friday at noon at Penn State University’s Bryce Jordan Center to kick off the eight-game PIAA championship weekend.

District 2 champion Montrose (27-2) was playing District 3 champion York Catholic (28-3) Tuesday for the right to represent the east while District 7 champion Seton-LaSalle (28-0) was playing District 10 champion and defending state champion Villa Maria Academy (24-4) in the west.

Holy Cross is at Elk Lake Monday, March 26 in a Division 3 boys’ tennis match on the first day of Lackawanna League spring sports competition.

Mid Valley is at Montrose in a Division 2 match the next day when Lackawanna Track Conference and Lackawanna League boys’ volleyball also begin.

The Division 3 track schedule for opening day has Lackawanna Trail at Elk Lake, Carbondale at Susquehanna and Mid Valley at Mountain View. Montrose, which has the bye in Division 2, is at Blue Ridge, which has the bye in Division 3, in a non-league meet.

In volleyball, Blue Ridge is at Abington Heights, Susquehanna is at Western Wayne, Lackawanna Trail is at Mountain View and Elk Lake is at Forest City.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter @tomjrobinson.

It's Keselowski At Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Brad Keselowski loves Bristol and now has back-to-back wins at the .533-mile track. After winning the 2011 August race, he came back Sunday with a strong performance, and outlasted Matt Kenseth for his first Cup win of the season.

“I don't care what they say about the racing at Bristol, I love it,” Keselowski said. “The car was strong. I knew this car was good enough to win. All I had to do was drive. If this team keeps going, we're going to go far.”

Brad Keselowski celebrates Sunday's Bristol Cup win.

Keselowski gained the lead for the last time from Matt Kenseth on lap 389 of the 500-lap race. He was not able to get a long lead over Kenseth, but Kenseth was not able to gain on Keselowski's Blue Deuce.

The race's fifth caution came on lap 482 when Tony Stewart slapped the outside wall.

Keselowski again got the lead from Kenseth on the restart, and led the remaining 18 laps to the finish.

“If I could have gotten to the top of the race track, then maybe I would have had a chance,” said Kenseth. “He was strong, and my car was too loose, and it was all I could do to keep up.”

Martin Truex was third.

“We've come a long ways,” said Truex. “We've been pretty consistent in our last 10-15 races. We had some ups and downs during this race, but we were good at the end.”

Clint Bowyer, Brian Vickers, Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Juan Montoya, Jimmie Johnson, and Paul Menard rounded out the top-10.

Regan Smith got into the rear of Kasey Kahne early in the race, causing a six-car pileup, involving the cars of Carl Edwards, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, and Kevin Harvick. Most of the cars had to be pulled behind pit road for repairs.

“I was feeling pretty good until all that happened,” said Edwards. “I went to the bottom, but couldn't miss Kasey. I think maybe somebody was trying to race too hard this early in the race.”

Jeff Gordon wound up slamming the outside wall on lap 365, after he and his teammate Dale Earnhardt brushed each other, and Gordon's left rear tire went flat.

Top-12 leaders after 4 of 36: 1. Biffle-125, 2. Harvick-115, 3. Hamlin-113, 4. Earnhardt-107, 5. Kenseth-102, 6. Edwards-102, 7. Stewart-100, 8. Truex-98, 9. Logano-98, 10. Martin-97, 11. Menard-89, 12. Kyle Busch-87.

The economy or other factors certainly took a toll on the attendance at Bristol this past weekend. The Nationwide event normally draws around 90,000 fans, but a conservative estimate at this year's race would be about half that number.

The Bristol grandstand has a listed seating capacity of 160,000. My estimate is Sunday's crowd was much less than 100,000. It was probably the smallest crowd I've seen since coming to Bristol in 1994.

SADLER GETS SECOND NATIONWIDE WIN

BRISTOL, Tenn. - Crew chief Luke Lambert's late call to keep Elliott Sadler on the race track under the final caution gave Sadler the boost he needed to win his second Nationwide Series race of the season, two weeks after he broke a 14-year drought in the series at Phoenix.

“He reminded me that I won a race here in 2001 by doing the same thing,” said Sadler, who celebrated with his parents in victory lane - a special moment, because Sadler's parents never before had been on hand for one of his NASCAR victories. “Luke made a great call to stay out.”

Sadler drove away from Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski after a restart on Lap 273 of the 300-lap race and beat Kahne to the finish line by 1.159 seconds. The victory was Sadler's second at Bristol, the seventh of his career, and it came at the .533-mile track that gave him the first of his three Sprint Cup victories in 2001.

Brad Keselowski finished third, followed by polesitter Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Justin Allgaier, Trevor Bayne, Kevin Harvick, and Ryan Truex completed the top-10.

Notes: Danica Patrick finished 19th, two laps down... Logano led a race-high 119 laps... Nationwide Series regulars have won the first four events of this season, the first time that's happened since 1995, when Chad Little won the first two races, Kenny Wallace the third and Johnny Benson the fourth.

Top-10 leaders after 4 of 33: 1. Sadler-131, 2. A. Dillon-116, 3. Stenhouse-114, 4. Bayne-112, 5. Whitt-109, 6. Hornish-98, 7. Malsam-90, 8. Annett-82, 9. Allgaier-76, 10. Koch-66.

IS KNAUS A LIABILITY OR AN ASSET

Chad Knaus has helped Jimmie Johnson win 55 Cup races and five Cup championships, which is an enviable record, second only to Richard Petty and Dale Inman, winner of seven titles and 200 victories.

With Johnson's cool style of racing and Knaus' extreme savvy on setting up the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, they have become the standard by which all other crew chief/drivers combinations are measured.

But after NASCAR confiscated the No. 48 prior to the Daytona 500, Knaus was suspended for six weeks and fined $100,000.

Hendrick lost their first appeal to a three-judge panel, and are now appealing to NASCAR's chief appellate, in hopes they can get the decisions reversed.

Win or lose the final appeal, it doesn't look good for Knaus.

If this were the first infraction, most fans would look the other way, and give him the benefit of a doubt.

“His record speaks for itself,” said Arnold McKenzie of Baltimore, Maryland. “He's a great crew chief, but what you've to understand is, you sometimes have to push the envelope if you're going to have the edge you need to win.”

Knaus has been fined and-or suspended four different times since he entered the Cup series in 2002.

He was suspended prior to the 2006 Daytona 500 and before the 2007 road race in Sonoma, California.

Knaus told Johnson over the team's radio last year, “If you win, back it into the wall.”

The implication was there was something illegal about the car, and he wanted to have an excuse for the illegal something-or-another.

While Johnson and Knaus are clean-cut young men, the suspensions and the stigma of being called “cheats,” hanging over their heads, doesn't set well with all fans.

“I think they (NASCAR) have been too lenient,” said Walter Alston of Charleston, South Carolina. “Disqualify them completely. That's what they do in short-track racing.”

If NASCAR were to disqualify a team, or not allow them to race, then that would be hurting the team's sponsors, who put up hundreds of thousands of dollars for each race.

No matter what the final outcome, Johnson's team is being looked at more and more as trying to get by with something underhanded.

NASCAR, and all teams in Cup racing are very image conscious. They try hard not to allow anything to happen that would put a blemish on the team.

Knaus and Hendrick need to clean up their act, so there will not be any doubt in fans minds, that when they win, it will be a hard-fought, above reproach victory.

Weekend Racing: It's back west to the 1.5-mile Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA for the Cup and Nationwide teams. The Truck teams remain idle.

Sat., Mar. 24, Nationwide Royal Purple 300, race 5 of 33; Starting time: 5 p.m. ET; TV: ESPN.

Sun., Mar. 25, Sprint Cup Auto Club 400, race 5 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 p.m. ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: Which is the oldest track on the NASCAR circuit?

Last Week's Question: Which series does Cole Whitt drive in? Answer. The Nationwide series.

You may contact the Racing Reporter at hodges@race500.com.