Forest City girls’ basketball coach Carl Urbas picked up his 500th career victory February 4 in a 62-31 romp over Lackawanna Trail.

Cassandra Bendyk led the way with 20 points in the win.

The school plans to hang a banner in the Julius Prezelski Gymnasium commemorating the 500 wins by Urbas.

The Lady Foresters won twice during the week to enter the final weekend of the regular season tied for the lead in the Lackawanna League Division 4 second-half standings with first-half champion Montrose. The teams were scheduled to play for first place Tuesday night at Forest City.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Elk Lake won twice to head into the final week of the regular season unbeaten in the second half of Lackawanna League Division 4 boys' basketball play.

The Warriors, who already won the first half in a playoff with a Montrose, were scheduled to play at home Monday against Susquehanna. The Sabers and Meteors were tied for second in the division at 3-1 when the week started.

Elk Lake clinched at least a tie for the second-half title Saturday night when it came from behind in the fourth quarter then ran away from Lackawanna Trail, 60-44.

Tanner Reyan scored 29 points in the win.

Susquehanna defeated Lackawanna Trail three days earlier, 75-60.

Andrzej Tomczyk led the way with 33 points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals. Dan Biegert added 16 points, six assists and five rebounds. Cole Mallery had 14 points and eight rebounds.

Mallery scored his 1,000th career point February 4. He had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the 54-41 victory over Mountain View.

The Eagles led the Sabers, 40-38, heading into the fourth quarter in which Susquehanna scored 16 of the game’s final 17 points.

Josh Wheeler had all seven of his points in the quarter.

Biegert finished with eight points, nine rebounds and seven assists. Tomczyk had 15 points, six assists and four steals.

The Sabers lost Sunday afternoon in a rematch of last season’s District 2 Class A championship game and a possible preview of this year’s final.

David Chromey tied the game for Old Forge with one 3-pointer in the final 20 seconds and won it with another as the buzzer for a 62-59 victory in a crossover game that does not impact division standings.

Tomczyk had 24 points and Mallery had 21 on 9-for-12 shooting for the Sabers. Biegert had six rebounds and six assists.

COLLEGE CORNER

Julia Koloski posted her personal bests in the triple jump and long jump for the University of Pittsburgh at the Akron Invitational earlier this month.

The senior from Montrose finished fifth in her division with a triple jump of 12.13 meters and first in her division with a long jump of 5.54 meters.

Koloski’s career-bests indoors also include 8.01 seconds in the 60-meter dash and 12.70 in the 100-meter dash.

A state champion in the triple jump while at Montrose, Koloski placed in the top 15 in the Big East Championships in the triple jump during the 2012 outdoor season.

THE WEEK AHEAD

The District 2 Class AA girls’ basketball tournament gets started Tuesday, February 19.

Montrose has a strong shot at the top seed and the only bye in the 15-team tournament.

Elk Lake is likely to and Mountain View still has a chance to host a first-round game.

Blue Ridge appears to be headed for the last seed and will start the tournament on the road.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins will be at the Binghamton Senators Saturday.

The Senators led the American Hockey League East Division with a 28-13-1-4 record going into Tuesday’s game in Wilkes-Barre between the same two teams. The Penguins were third with a 25-19-2-1 record.

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

FIVE NEW MEMBERS IN NASCAR HOF

Hall of Famer Buck Baker. Furnished by NASCAR

Buck Baker, Cotton Owens, Herb Thomas, Leonard Wood, and Rusty Wallace were enshrined into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, in Charlotte, N.C., Feb 8.

Four were pioneers, building the sport during its formative years. The fifth one, Rusty Wallace, ushered it into modern times.

Buck Baker a two-time NASCAR premier series champion in 1956-57, was the first to ever win back-to-back titles in NASCAR's top level. A 46-time winner, he joined the ranks after becoming the first driver to capture consecutive championships in NASCAR's premier series.

He earned his first championship driving cars for legendary owner Carl Kiekhaefer, but won his second one driving his own cars. Baker passed his immense driving talent to his son Buddy, who also won 19 times in the premier series, and inducted his father during tonight's ceremony.

“Buck always made an impression on people, good or bad,” said widow Susan Baker, who accepted the induction on Baker's behalf. “If you ever met him, you never forgot him. It was never boring being married to Buck, either. He could make me laugh like no one else could, and he had that same effect on others.”

Baker passed away in 2002

Cotton Owens joins Junior Johnson as a Hall of Famer who excelled as both driver and owner. The Union, S.C., native won nine times as a driver in stock cars and more than 100 races in NASCAR's Modified division. The latter feat earned him the moniker of “King of the Modifieds.” He won the 1966 championship with fellow Hall of Famer David Pearson.

“I know this is a biased opinion, but in our family's book, there was no better racer than Cotton Owens,” said Kyle Davis, Owens' grandson, who accepted the induction on his grandfather's behalf. “My grandfather was one of the most humble, most loyal and hardest working men I've ever met. He took great pride in the fact that he could build a race car from the ground up; engine, chassis, transmission, you name it and drive it to the race track and then drive it to victory lane. He was a wizard at both turning wrenches and behind the wheel.”

Owens passed away in 2012.

Herb Thomas was one of NASCAR's first superstars thanks to his premier series championships in 1951 and 1953. Becoming the first driver to win multiple championships, Thomas laid the groundwork for a record-setting career. His 48 victories in 228 starts translates to a winning percentage of 21.05 percent, a series record.

“I truly believe this is the greatest honor a driver could receive,” Joel Thomas, his grandson said. “My father would have been very honored and humbled in receiving this recognition. ... Thank you all for helping him reach his dreams. Thank you to all of his fans for cheering him on and keeping his memories alive.”

Herb Thomas passed away in 2000

Rusty Wallace enjoyed one of the most successful careers in modern-day NASCAR. Wallace won the 1989 series championship. For 16 consecutive seasons, from 1986-2001, Wallace scored at least one win per season. That tied him for the third-longest streak in history.

“I look out in this crowd and I see some of the biggest stars in history,” said an emotional Wallace. “I am humbled that I'm standing up here, and I just can't thank everybody enough for selecting me to be in the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”

Leonard Wood joined his brother Glen, who was elected last year. Leonard served as chief mechanic for the Wood Brothers his entire career, winning a total of 94 races with some of biggest names in NASCAR history including brother Glen, Marvin Panch, David Pearson and Cale Yarborough.

“It's certainly a high honor to be inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame, especially right behind my brother, Glen, and two of our former drivers, David [Pearson] and Cale [Yarborough],” Wood said. “Glen and I always did things together; we learned together and we won together.”

START AND PARK TEAMS TO GET LESS

NASCAR will reallocate prize money from the last five spots in the field this season in an attempt to make it less profitable for teams to start and park.

“We moved prize money higher in the purse, so if someone's intent is solely to run a lap or two and park, the revenue stream shrinks,” NASCAR president Mike Helton said Tuesday during an "Autoweek" panel discussion in Detroit.

According to NASCAR, each position from 43rd through 39th will receive $4,000 less for each position. For example, 39th will receive $4,000 less than 38th, 40th $4,000 less than 39th, etc. NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp emphasized this is not a reduction in purses, that the overall prize money in 2013 will increase slightly. He said the money taken away from the last five spots will be redistributed “throughout the remainder of the field.”

Many fans don’t like teams that start a race with the intent of only running a handful of laps and collecting a check.

Most of the drivers and crewmen working on those teams, don’t like it either, but a job is a job. To a racer, it’s still a better way to pay the mortgage than the alternative of a non-racing job.

Track owners label start-and-park teams as frauds and robbers. Bruton Smith recently said they are doing a “disservice” to the sport.

Less than ten years ago, this wasn’t a problem. Start-and-parks didn’t exist on the Cup level. Good teams simply went home after failing to qualify for races.

But with the economic decline, many teams are no longer around, and other Cup organizations have cut back on the number of cars they field each week.

Most independent team owners in Nationwide and the Camping World Truck Series decided that moving to Cup wasn’t financially and competitively feasible.

The departure of those teams opened the door for new owners to enter the sport. In some ways, that’s a good thing and other ways it isn’t.

The only problem is that these new owners don’t have enough money to run an entire race and be competitive. So they start the race and park their cars early. Some do it just to pocket easy money.

NASCAR must decide whether a 43-car field — the current standard — will ever be economically feasible again, because by cutting the purse for the lesser funded teams, they’re going to push them completely out of Cup racing.

If NASCAR isn’t willing to reduce the number of cars in a Sprint Cup field, if it is so intent on clinging to the bold idea that anyone can enter the sport, then it needs to do something to help small teams. It needs to make it more feasible for new teams to be competitive enough to run more laps.

Weekend Racing: This weekend marks the first racing of the 2013 season. The ARCA Re/Max holds their first points race, while NASCAR opens up with the Sprint Unlimited, a 75-lap exhibition race. The first regular Cup race of the season will be the Daytona 500, Sunday, February 24.

Sat, Feb. 16, ARCA Series Lucas Oil 200; Starting time 4 pm (ET); TV: SPEED.

Sat. Feb. 16, NASCAR Sprint Unlimited; Starting time: 8 pm (ET); TV: SPEED.

Sun. Feb. 17, Qualifying for Daytona 500, first two positions; 1 pm (ET); TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: Does former Cup champion Terry Labonte plan to do any racing in 2013?

Last Week’s Question: Who will be Brad Keselowski’s teammate this year in the Cup series at Penske Racing? Answer. Joey Logano will be the second driver at Penske Racing.

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

Sawyer Dearborn

Sawyer Dearborn prepared for the likelihood of having to carry a larger share of the offensive load for the Blue Ridge boys' basketball team this season.

“I probably shot about 15,000 jump shots this summer,” Dearborn said. “I was busy lifting and shooting. It was a busy regimen for me.

“My Dad was a big part of it for me, always up at the gym shooting.”

That work paid off.

Dearborn leads all District 2 boys and girls basketball players in scoring and 3-point shots made this season. He averaged better than 28 points and four 3-pointers per game in January, passing the 1,000-point career mark in the process.

For his efforts, Dearborn is the latest Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month.

“I knew my role was going to increase after we graduated two major guys last year,” Dearborn said.

After hitting six 3-pointers and scoring 38 of Blue Ridge’s 43 points in a Susquehanna County Christmas Tournament loss to Montrose to end December, Dearborn kept up the scoring pace to begin the New Year. He had 40 and 35 points in wins over Montrose and Mountain View to get the Raiders off to a 2-0 start in league play.

Dearborn hit the 1,000-point mark on a 4-point play while scoring 25 in a loss to Lackawanna League Division 4 first-half champion Elk Lake.

“I never expected to score the points I have,” Dearborn said. “It’s just kind of the flow of the game; once I make one shot, then the next shot falls; it’s on and on.”

His father’s guidance helped. Mark Dearborn grew up in Susquehanna County before moving to York Catholic as a high school freshman on his way to a Division I college career at St. Joseph’s.

Sawyer Dearborn, a four-year varsity member and three-year starter in basketball, plans to join the Blue Ridge baseball team for the first time in the spring. He is headed to Misericordia University where he will study to be a physician’s assistant and play basketball.

Mark and Corina Dearborn of New Milford have two other children who went on to be college athletes. Sawyer’s older sisters each were standout athletes at Blue Ridge. Jocelyn Dearborn was a softball all-star at Fordham University. Kaitchen Dearborn competed in track and field at Penn State.