Weather-related schedule changes set up a rare girls-boys doubleheader and gave both Montrose teams a chance to complete unbeaten runs through the Lackawanna League Division 4 basketball schedules on the same night Thursday.

Montrose finished 6-0 in the second half and 12-0 on the season in Division 4 with wins in both games against teams that were still in second-half title contention.

The Lady Meteors defeated Elk Lake, 56-35, before the Meteors took the court to edge Forest City, 37-36.

The Montrose girls won their sixth straight division title and their fourth straight with an unbeaten record. The Lady Meteors are 36-0 since the creation of Division 4, have won 52 straight regular-season divisional games and 53 straight division games counting a playoff for the 2010 all-season title.

The Montrose boys won their first title since 2010. They lost in playoff games for at least one of the halves during the 2011, 2012 and 2013 seasons.

GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Montrose beat the second- and third-place teams, back-to-back on the final two days of the regular season to finish another perfect Division 4 season.

Before beating Elk Lake, the Lady Meteors won a battle of second-half unbeatens at Forest City Wednesday by holding the Lady Foresters to seven points in the second half of a 43-27 victory.

The game was tied at halftime until Montrose shut out Forest City in the third quarter to open a 34-20 lead.

Morgan Groover led Montrose with 16 points.

Groover and Fallon Gurn had six points each to help Montrose escape the first quarter with a 13-12 lead.

Groover stepped outside to hit a 3-pointer in the second quarter then went 3-for-3 from the line while scoring seven more points in the second half.

Angela Russell had six points in the third quarter when Montrose broke the game open.

Gurn and Russell each finished with 10 points.

Season scoring leader Kendra Bendyk had five points in the first quarter for Forest City but was held to one the rest of the way.

McKenzie Hartman led the Lady Foresters with 13 points, including nine in the first half. She had five of the eight by Forest City in the second quarter to force the halftime tie.

Against Elk Lake, Montrose took control early, holding the Lady Warriors to one first-quarter field goal while opening a 20-5 lead.

Montrose stretched its leads to 37-19 at halftime and 52-28 after three quarters before again holding Elk Lake to a single field goal in the fourth quarter.

Gilhool led the way with 17 points, all in the first three quarters.

Gurn scored all 10 of her points in the first half.

The final second-half Division 4 standings were: Montrose 6-0, Forest City 5-1, Elk Lake 4-2, Blue Ridge 2-4, Susquehanna 2-4, Mountain View 1-5, Lackawanna Trail 1-5.

Final all-season standings: Montrose 12-0, Forest City 10-2, Elk Lake 7-5, Mountain View 4-8, Susquehanna 4-8, Blue Ridge 3-9, Lackawanna Trail 2-10.

BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Troy Ely had four 3-pointers in the first three quarters and Montrose held on through a low-scoring second half to defeat Forest City in the regular-season finale.

Ely finished with 15 points. Jack Fruehan added 10, all in the first half, while Brendan Buck had eight of his 10 in the first half.

Noah Fedak and Adam Kowalewski had 15 points each for Forest City.

Montrose outscored Forest City, 15-5, in the second quarter to take a 26-17 halftime lead.

The Foresters closed to within 32-29 after Fedak scored eight of his 12 points in the third quarter.

Earlier in the week, neighbors Susquehanna and Blue Ridge went into overtime for the second time in three weeks.

Tyler Williams hit a jump shot from the foul line with 2.1 seconds left in overtime Feb. 10 to lift Susquehanna to a 54-53 win over visiting Blue Ridge on Senior Night.

Luke Falletta hit five 3-pointers to lead the way with 18 points. Williams, who was 6-for-6 from the foul line, added 17 points.

Christian Miller chipped in with 12 points and Austin Felter had a career-high nine assists.

Blue Ridge had beaten Susquehanna in double overtime earlier in the season.

The final second-half Division 4 standings were: Montrose 6-0, Forest City 4-2, Lackawanna Trail 4-2, Blue Ridge 2-4, Elk Lake 2-4, Mountain View 2-4, Susquehanna 1-5.

Final all-season standings: Montrose 12-0, Forest City 8-4, Lackawanna Trail 7-5, Elk Lake 6-6, Blue Ridge 4-8, Mountain View 3-9, Susquehanna 2-10.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Montrose’s Colin Mondi cleared 6-0 to finish sixth out of 20 boys’ high jump entries Saturday in the Pennsylvania Track and Field Coaches Association Indoor Track Carnival at Lehigh University.

COLLEGE CORNER

Cameron Dean has scored in double figures four times while coming off the bench for the Marywood University men’s basketball team.

The 6-foot-7 freshman forward from Montrose has averaged 5.9 points in 19 minutes per game while appearing in each of the first 21 games for the Pacers.

Dean is shooting 48.9 percent from the floor and 73.8 percent from the line. He is also contributing 4.7 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.3 steals and 0.3 blocked shots per game.

Dean scored a season-high 14 points in a 94-92 win over Keystone College Jan. 21. He had eight points and nine rebounds in a season-high 30 minutes Feb. 7 during a 74-60 loss to Gwynedd-Mercy.

Marywood is 13-8.

THE WEEK AHEAD

District 2 boys’ and girls’ basketball tournaments get underway this week.

The Class A girls’ tournament and most of the Class AA boys’ open Wednesday.

Montrose earned a bye as the top seed in the 15-team Class AA boys’ field. Blue Ridge, the 11th seed, will be at sixth-seeded Hanover Area. Mountain View, the 12th seed, is at Mid Valley, the fifth seed.

Elk Lake won a tiebreaker over Lakeland and a coin flip over Riverside to claim the eighth seed and a first-round homecourt against Riverside. The game was scheduled for Tuesday to be part of a doubleheader since the same two schools were playing in a girls’ game.

Top-seeded Forest City and Susquehanna have quarterfinal byes in Class A girls, which has just five teams. Forest City will play the Lackawanna Trail-MMI Prep winner Saturday while Susquehanna plays Old Forge.

The Class AA girls’ and Class A boys’ tournament were scheduled to open Tuesday and continue with quarterfinals Friday.

Montrose, Elk Lake, Mountain View and Blue Ridge are in the Class AA girls’ tournament. Montrose lost coin flips with Holy Redeemer and Dunmore, the other unbeaten division champions, and was seeded third.

If Montrose and Elk Lake each won their first-round games at home they would meet in Friday’s Class AA girls’ quarterfinals. The same is true of Mountain View and Blue Ridge who would play each other if each managed to pull off first-round upsets on the road.

Forest City is the top seed in Class A boys and will play the Susquehanna-MMI Prep winner in the Friday semifinals.

The Class AA girls’ semifinals are Tuesday, February 24.

In high school wrestling, the District 2 Class AA Tournament is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Kingston Armory.

Friday’s action opens at 5 p.m. and will include preliminaries, quarterfinals and up to two rounds of consolations as needed to whittle each bracket to four semifinals and four others in the consolation brackets.

Action resumes Saturday with semifinals at 10 a.m.

Montrose’s Jacob O’Brien, Blue Ridge’s Dalton Hogle and Elk Lake’s Blaise Cleveland will each be trying to earn a return trip to the Northeast Regional with a top-three finish.

O’Brien finished second in the district as a freshman and is 20-2 this season.

Hogle (20-5) and Cleveland (29-5) each placed third last year.

In swimming and diving, the diving portion of the District 2 Class AA Swimming Championships will be held Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Wilkes-Barre CYC.

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 at @tomjrobinson.

GORDON AND JOHNSON ON 500 POLE

Jeff Gordon

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.—Jeff Gordon has won the pole for the 2015 Daytona 500. His teammate Jimmie Johnson will have the outside position. The pair won the top-two starting spots by having the fastest time during last Sunday’s qualifying runs.

The remainder of the 43-car field will be set after Thursday’s two Budweiser Duels.

KENSETH WINS SPRINT UNLIMITED

Matt Kenseth took the lead from Martin Truex with 20 laps to go and won Saturday night’s Sprint Unlimited, for his first Unlimited victory.

By being one of the leaders, he was able to stay in front of several wrecks that took out 17 of the 25 starters in the 75-lap race.

“It’s great to win at Daytona anytime,” Kenseth said. “We had a good car and Martin (Truex) was strong down the stretch there, but we were able to hold him off and that’s a great way to start off the year for sure.”

Truex held on for second.

“The race was over when Kenseth passed me for the lead,” Truex said. “He’s a better blocker that I am. I was never able to get back around him.”

Carl Edwards was third, followed by Casey Mears, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Danica Patrick.

The Unlimited was a non-points race limited to last year’s 16 Chase drivers, pole winners from last season, former Daytona 500 pole winners, and former Unlimited winners, plus four other drivers based on their 2014 point standings.

Kevin Harvick thought Joey Logano was bumping him a little too hard on the track, and once the race was over, ran into the side of Logano’s car, and then confronted him in the pit area.

“He just drove us straight in the fence,” Harvick said. “Everybody is trying to be aggressive, but you still have to know when and where you can do things. You can’t just drive somebody in the fence.

“I have had a few issues with him on the speedways. You can’t just take your head off and detach it and throw it on the floor board and not use your brain. It’s an all-star race, but you still have to have some common sense.”

Logano said he was trying to be helpful.

“That is Kevin just being an instigator just like everywhere else,” Logano said. “It is a new year and the same stuff. I was trying to help really, to be honest with you, we had a run and I was pushing.

“I was trying to help. He just doesn’t understand I was trying to help. I understand his frustration but I was trying to help out and get to the front and try to win this thing. There are no points or anything like that so you go for the win.”

The race was the first to utilize NASCAR’s new technology-enhanced pit road officiating procedures and several teams were caught by the system. Jamie McMurray was penalized for too many crew members over the wall, while Ryan Newman was caught for driving through three stalls on the way to his pit.

Others that received penalties included Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch and Kyle Busch.

TWO DRIVERS IN QUESTION

There are many racing questions that will be answered as we get further into the season, but Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart are two drivers that need to have a turnaround year.

Edwards will be with his new team, Joe Gibbs Racing, and hopefully, Tony Stewart has been able to put personal and physical problems behind him and focus on his racing.

Brad Keselowski said Edwards is one of the top-three drivers in Sprint Cup racing.

This year, he will be in the No. 19 Toyota. Prior to that, he drove the No. 99 Ford for Roush Fenway Racing. He won the 2007 NASCAR Busch Series championship and nearly won the 2011 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title, but lost by a tiebreaker to Tony Stewart.

Edwards admits to feeling some anxiety. But he’s anxious to see if he can follow the pattern and have the same first-year success as several other drivers.

“I didn’t understand that until we first made the announcement and I got that feeling of, man, I’ve got to go prove myself, that little bit of insecurity that every driver walks around with for a long time,” Edwards said. “I haven’t had that feeling for a while and I’m curious to see if that’s it.”

One year ago Stewart was recuperating from a broken leg sustained while driving a sprint car. Then in August, 2014, he was involved in another incident during a sprint car race, that resulted in the death of 20-year-old driver Kevin Ward Jr.

But that painful incident plunged him into a depression as he anguished over Ward’s death during a self-imposed three-race hiatus.

Stewart said all of that is in the past.

But is it?

NASCAR race officials black flagged him for failing to weigh in Friday at Daytona International Speedway.

While Stewart was on the track, NASCAR ordered Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch to return to the garage to be weighed, a preseason mandate. Hamlin and Busch obeyed.

Stewart stayed on the track, ignoring NASCAR’s request.

When he did return to the garage, he and crew chief Chad Johnston were called to the NASCAR hauler for a meeting regarding the incident.

Stewart refused to elaborate over what took place in the hauler, but according to SB Nation, he issued several curse words and profanity towards NASCAR officials.

“Well NASCAR felt compelled to make me the first to be called to the trailer 10 minutes into the first practice of the year,” Stewart twitted.

He wrecked during the first round of Sunday’s qualifying. Not a good start.

Weekend Racing: It all begins Thurs., Feb. 19 with two non-points races and culminates on Sun., Feb. 22 with the Daytona 500.

Thurs., Feb. 19; two non-points races known as the Budweiser Duels. These are a pair of 60-lap Sprint Cup Series races to determine the starting field for the 2014 Daytona 500; The top-16 finishers of each race will be guaranteed a spot in the “500.” Starting time: 7 pm ET; TV: Fox Sports1.

Fri, Feb. 20; Camping World Truck Series, race 1 of 23; Starting time: 7:30 pm ET; TV: FS1.

Sat, Feb. 21; Xfinity Series, race 1of 32; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: FS1.

Sun, Feb. 22; Daytona 500, race 1 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: FOX.

Racing Trivia Question: Who won the first Daytona 500, which was held in 1959? Hint: He was the patriarch of a famous racing family and drove an Oldsmobile to victory.

Last Week’s Question: Who won the 2014 Daytona 500? Answer. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

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