The Elk Lake boys and Montrose girls completed unbeaten second halves, allowing them to add all-season championships to the Lackawanna League Division 4 first-half titles they had already secured.
Elk Lake needed a playoff to win the first half, but finished two games ahead in the second half.
The title was not easy, however. The Warriors topped Susquehanna, one of the teams that finished tied for second place, 71-59, in overtime February 12 in its division finale.
The Montrose girls had a perfect division record.
Matt Woolcock scored eight of his 13 points in overtime when Elk Lake outscored Susquehanna, 16-4.
Rob Heft led the Warriors with 24 points. Tanner Reyan added 12 and Nick Dudock 10.
Susquehanna forced the overtime by scoring the last five points of regulation.
Andrzej Tomczyk had 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists in the loss. Dan Biegert, who had 14 points, and Cole Mallery, who had 10 points, each grabbed 10 rebounds.
The Sabers bounced back Thursday night, wrapping up the regular season with a win and assuring themselves of finishing with a winning overall record when they defeated Blue Ridge, 74-63, on Senior Night.
Tomczyk had 28 points, nine assists and six rebounds. Mallery had 29 points and 11 rebounds. Biegert had seven rebounds and seven assists.
Montrose won a battle of second-half leaders, 36-32, over Forest City in overtime to clinch at least a tie for the second-half title, then won it outright with Thursday’s 40-23 win over Lackawanna Trail.
Meghan Gilhool scored seven of her team-high 12 points in overtime when Montrose outscored Forest City, 9-5.
Myra Lattimore added nine points in the win.
Carly Erdmann hit three 3-pointers while scoring 21 and Cassandra Bendyk added nine for Forest City.
Morgan Groover scored 12 points against Lackawanna Trail. Lattimore added eight.
Nicki Lewis had six of her seven points in the second quarter when Montrose stretched a 9-6 lead to 18-10. Groover had six points in the third to push the advantage to 30-17.
Brianna Smarkusky led Lackawanna Trail with 10 points.
Montrose has won 28 straight division games since losing to Forest City late in the 2010-11 season.
Blue Ridge ended a 23-game division losing streak when it topped Susquehanna, 51-44, in Thursday’s finale. The Lady Raiders won the first two games of the 2011-12 league season and had not won a division game since.
Final second-half and all-season Division 4 basketball records:
Second-half boys: Elk Lake 6-0, Susquehanna 4-2, Montrose 4-2, Lackawanna Trail 4-2, Mountain View 2-4, Blue Ridge 1-5, Forest City 0-6.
All-season boys: Elk Lake 11-1, Montrose 9-3, Susquehanna 6-6, Lackawanna Trail 6-6, Blue Ridge 5-7, Mountain View 4-8, Forest City 1-11.
Second-half girls: Montrose 6-0, Forest City 5-1, Elk Lake 4-2, Mountain View 3-3, Lackawanna Trail 2-4, Blue Ridge 1-5, Susquehanna 0-6.
All-season girls: Montrose 12-0, Forest City 10-2, Elk Lake 7-5, Mountain View 5-7, Lackawanna Trail 4-8, Susquehanna 3-9, Blue Ridge 1-11.
WEEK IN REVIEW
CARBONDALE – Old Forge, the only unbeaten basketball team in District 2, hit nine of 14 shots from 3-point range Saturday to hammer Montrose, 55-24, in the Lackawanna League Small School Championship game.
Rhiann Barnic came off the bench to hit four of her five 3-pointers while scoring 12 points for Old Forge.
Gilhool led Montrose with eight points and three steals.
Old Forge scored the game’s first seven points while Montrose started 0-for-5 with five turnovers.
Groover had eight rebounds, three steals and three blocked shots in the loss.
The small school boys’ championship game was not played because of the series of playoffs Holy Cross needed to claim the Division 3 championship.
In high school wrestling, Blue Ridge’s Zach Edwards was the only Susquehanna County finalist Saturday in the Lackawanna League Championships at Scranton.
Edwards finished second at 132 pounds where he lost by technical fall to Delaware Valley’s Jalen Palmer, 20-5, in 4:00 in the final.
After pinning Wallenpaupack’s Ryan Tarantino in just 52 seconds, Edwards reached the final with a 2-0 decision over Scranton’s Tyler Farrell.
Elk Lake’s Isaiah Ofalt took third place with an 8-6 decision of Scranton’s Dylan Crusen in the consolation final.
Delaware Valley ran away with the team title, 259.5-139, over West Scranton.
Blue Ridge was ninth out of 13 teams with 26 points. Elk Lake was 12th with 16 and Montrose was last with just two points.
In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Binghamton Senators split a pair of games last week, each winning on the other’s home ice.
Trevor Smith had two goals and an assist Saturday night to lift the Penguins to a 5-2 win in Binghamton.
Smith broke a 1-1 tie on a power-play goal with 4:31 left in the second period then added another goal 35 seconds into the third period.
Chad Kolarik had a goal and three assists while Riley Holzapfel had three assists.
Brad Thiessen made 22 saves.
The Senators won, 5-1, in Wilkes-Barre February 12.
Robin Lehner came off the bench to stop 24 of 25 shots.
Binghamton was ahead, 1-0, when Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Chad Payerl drew a major penalty and game misconduct for charging starting goalie Nathan Lawson.
Lawson was injured on the play and did not return.
COLLEGE CORNER
Nicole Chaszar is on the way to her fourth straight winning season and the seventh in her eight years as head coach at Western New England University.
The former Montrose and Temple University captain is the school’s all-time leader in women’s basketball games coached and wins.
Western New England is 11-5 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference and 14-9 overall.
Chaszar’s career record is 123-87.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Susquehanna boys and Montrose girls landed top seeds as they prepare to try to defend their District 2 basketball tournament titles.
Susquehanna will face fourth-seeded MMI Prep of Freeland in the Class A semifinals. That game will be scheduled for either Friday or Tuesday, Feb. 26.
Montrose earned the only bye in the 15-team Class AA girls’ field.
The Lady Meteors open Friday night against the winner of the Mountain View-Lakeland game that was scheduled for Tuesday.
Mountain View entered the tournament as the ninth seed.
Elk Lake was seeded fifth and was home Tuesday against Wyoming Seminary, trying to advance to Friday to play the winner of the Carbondale-Dunmore game.
Blue Ridge was the last seed and had to open at GAR Tuesday. The winner moved on to play the Lackawanna Trail-Hanover Area Friday.
In Class A girls, Forest City will play in the February 26 championship game against Old Forge at Valley View at 7:30.
There are only two entries in the tournament after Susquehanna and MMI chose not to compete.
Forest City will also play Old Forge in a Class A boys’ semifinal to begin the doubleheader at Valley View February 26 at 6. The Foresters are seeded third out of four teams.
The Class AA boys’ tournament has its first full round Wednesday. Two preliminary games were already held to trim the field from 18 to 16 teams.
Elk Lake is seeded third and plays at home against Lakeland.
Blue Ridge is at fifth-seeded Montrose. The winner of that game takes on the winner of Mountain View at fourth-seeded Mid Valley Saturday.
If Elk Lake wins, it will play the Hanover Area-Dunmore winner Saturday.
In high school wrestling, the District 2 Class AA Tournament is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at Lake-Lehman.
The preliminary round is scheduled to open Friday at 5 p.m. Friday’s competition also includes the quarterfinals and the first two rounds of consolations.
The semifinals are set for 11 a.m. Saturday, followed by two more rounds of consolations.
The third- and fifth-place matches will be held simultaneously at 4 p.m. The finals are scheduled for 6:30.
TOM ROBINSON writes a local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can be reached online at RobbyTR@aol.com and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
