Forest City will be taking both of its teams to the first set of District 2 basketball championships to be played at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp.
The Foresters and Lady Foresters were each seeded first and each won Class A semifinals to advance to Saturday’s championship games.
Jared Paulin scored 16 points as Forest City avenged an upset loss in last year’s semifinals when it defeated MMI Prep, 42-25, Thursday at Mid Valley.
The Foresters held the Preppers to three points in the first quarter on the way to a 21-10 halftime lead.
Paulin, who was 6-for-6 from the line, scored six points each in the third and fourth quarters to help keep Forest City in control.
Noah Yates added nine points in the win.
John Stish led MMI Prep with 10 points.
Skylar Fortuner scored 19 points when Forest City ended Old Forge’s four-year reign as district girls champion with a 62-52 semifinal victory Friday night at Carbondale.
The Lady Foresters needed a fourth-quarter rally to pull out the win.
Old Forge had turned a 31-27 halftime deficit into a 43-40 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Forest City scored 22 points in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Elk Lake won a pair of Class AA boys games, keeping it alive in the title race and giving the Warriors two shots at qualifying for the state tournament.
The top three teams in Class AA reach the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament.
Bailey Newhart combined to score 73 points as Elk Lake dominated in its two wins, beating Northwest, 78-41, at home in the first round, then handling Carbondale, 73-49, in Friday’s quarterfinals.
The Warriors made 11 shots from 3-point range, including five by Newhart in his 31-point effort against Northwest.
Newhart had at least six points in each quarter.
Cole Tyler added 12 points for Elk Lake.
Newhart, January’s Susquehanna County Transcript Athlete of the Month, kept up his recent scoring tear. He poured in a career-high 42 against Carbondale.
The Warriors and Newhart started fast. They led, 11-4, after three minutes and build the lead to 26-10 after one quarter with the help of 14 by Newhart.
WEEK IN REVIEW
The Blue Ridge girls joined the Elk Lake boys and the Forest City teams in making sure this was a better year for Susquehanna County basketball teams in the District 2 tournament than in 2015.
Last year, county teams were a combined 2-12. Boys’ teams did not win a game, including Montrose’s opening loss as the top seed in Class AA. The Montrose and Forest City girls, with one each, had the only wins by county teams.
In the first week, county teams were a combined 5-8 in district play, including a win by the Blue Ridge girls before they were eliminated.
Blue Ridge opened at home in Class AA and beat Wyoming Seminary, 45-44, Wednesday. The Lady Raiders were eliminated the next night with a 44-23 loss to Mid Valley.
Abby Hartman scored 19 points and Isabella Cosmello added 17 when Blue Ridge held off a late rally by Wyoming Seminary.
Maya Kornfeld scored 29 points for Wyoming Seminary.
Mid Valley shut out Blue Ridge in the first quarter of the game at Scranton High School. The Spartanettes built a 42-11 lead after three quarters.
Both Susquehanna teams lost in the first round in Class A.
Mountain View teams lost in both Class AA tournaments. The Montrose boys and Elk Lake girls also were eliminated in the first round in AA.
The Susquehanna boys were tied with MMI Prep with 3:36 left in the first half, but scored just seven points the rest of the way to fall, 46-27, in a quarterfinal game Feb. 16 at Crestwood High School.
The Sabers led for much of the first 12 minutes in a game that featured eight ties and four lead changes during that stretch.
Susquehanna came out strong while starting three freshmen, a sophomore and a junior against a team with four senior starters, including a pair of three-year starters who had started in two district championship games.
Garrett Grausgruber did the scoring to get the Sabers an early 5-2 lead. He had nine of his 12 points in the first half, hitting a 17-footer while on the move to create the last tie, 20-20.
“They came out confident,” MMI coach Joe Flanagan said. “They shot well and we had to change what we were doing a little bit defensively.”
The Susquehanna girls were seeded second, but were upset, 49-48, by Lackawanna Trail in Friday night’s semifinals, missing a chance to play in the championship game.
Lackawanna Trail rallied from a 37-32 deficit in the fourth quarter.
D.J. Decker had 13 points in the loss.
Both Mountain View teams lost in the first round in a Wednesday doubleheader at Holy Cross. The girls fell, 67-39, and the boys lost, 62-46.
The Montrose boys and Blue Ridge and Elk Lake girls lost at home in the first round.
Riverside knocked out Montrose, 67-46, for the second straight year.
Mid Valley edged Elk Lake, 46-44.
COLLEGE CORNER
Mountain View graduates Zeb Cross and Colby Thomas, both sophomores on the Messiah College men’s soccer team, were among those named to the Middle Atlantic Conference Fall Academic Honor Roll.
Austin White, a freshman from Blue Ridge who is a former Susquehanna player, also made the list after a 4.00 grade point average in his first semester at King’s College where he plays football.
The Honor Roll is for athletes who have grade point averages of 3.20 or better during the semester they are competing.
THE WEEK AHEAD
The Forest City basketball teams will play in Saturday’s first two games at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.
The top-seeded Lady Foresters (15-10) will play at noon against Lackawanna Trail (4-19) for the championship and Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association tournament berth.
The Foresters (8-15) will play for the same stakes at 2 p.m. against defending champion Old Forge (13-9).
At presstime, Elk Lake was getting ready to play a Monday night semifinal against Holy Cross in Class AA boys.
If the Warriors lost, they would face the loser of the game between Meyers (17-6) and Riverside (12-12) for the district’s third Class AA berth in the state tournament. A win would have added Elk Lake to the arena schedule against the Meyers-Riverside winner Saturday at 6 for the district title.
This year’s championship schedule calls for games at the arena Friday at 4:30, 6:30 and 8:30, then games Saturday at noon, 2, 4, 6 and 8.
In wrestling, the District 2 Class AA Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at the Kingston Armory.
Jacob O’Brien returns for Montrose after reaching last year’s 106-pound final.
Susquehanna County teams finished in the bottom four spots in the standings at last year’s tournament.
Montrose was 11th and Elk Lake 12th in the 14-team field, following by Blue Ridge and Mountain View.
The tournament begins at 5 p.m. Friday. The Friday sessions includes two rounds each in the winners’ and consolation brackets to trim each weight class to four winners’ bracket and four consolation bracket wrestlers.
In swimming, the District 2 Class AA diving championships are scheduled for 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 and followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.
HAMLIN TAKES DAYTONA 500
Denny Hamlin
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.--Matt Kenseth appeared to be headed to victory lane with less than half a lap to go in Sunday's Daytona 500, but his teammate Denny Hamlin wound up with the win.
The fact that he was the winner was almost beyond belief for Hamlin.
“I can't believe I won,” said Hamlin. “I don't know where I came from or what I did. But it all came together and here we are.”
Hamlin was running the high side of the race track in about seventh or eight place, with less than a lap to go in the 200-lap race, when Kevin Harvick began pushing him. Suddenly, Hamlin's car picked up speed, and the momentum carried him to the front.
Kenseth who was on the low side of the track, pulled up to block. Hamlin zipped under him as the field entered turn-3. The move cost Kenseth momentum, and he fell back.
Martin Truex briefly gained the lead, but Hamlin pushed the accelerator to the floor and at the finish line, his margin of victory was 0.10 seconds.
Hamlin had won the Feb. 14 Sprint Unlimited, but the Daytona 500 victory was the first for a Toyota.
“All in all it was a good day,” said Truex. “We were in a good position during the last laps, and we were maintaining our speed, but Denny just found a little something extra there at the end.”
Kyle Busch, who missed last year's Daytona 500 due to an injury came in third.
“I saw Denny coming on my outside,” said Busch. “If I had tried to jump up in front of him I might have lost my own position. Sometimes you have to wait and see how things play out. I just didn't feel like it was an ideal moment to try and make a move on the leader.”
Kevin Harvick the fourth-place finisher had to come back from an early spin.
“I think we should be pleased with our performance toady,” said Harvick. “We're lucky we didn't wind up on the wrecker after what happened to us earlier.”
Carl Edwards was involved in an altercation with Brian Vickers, but managed to bring his banged-up car to a fifth-place finish.
Joey Logano was sixth, while Kyle Larson, Regan Smith, Austin Dillon, and Kurt Busch were the remaining top-10 drivers.
Matt Kenseth, who led 40 laps wound up 14th.
“I was in the position I wanted to be in, but when I moved up and tried to block Denny, I lost momentum,” said Kenseth. “That's the way it goes sometimes.”
It appears the Joe Gibbs Toyotas are going to be strong this year. Three of their four teams (Hamlin, Kyle Busch, and Edwards) finished in the top-5. If it hadn't been for Kenseth's miscue, all five of them would have been there.
Jimmie Johnson led once for 18 laps, but he never threatened the leaders near the end and wound up 16th.
Danica Patrick had a good run going until she came down on Greg Biffle and spun across the infield grass. She finished 35th.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. led twice for 15 laps. Late in the race, he lost control and hit the wall. He was able to return to the track but finished the race 36th.
Polesitter and Saturday's Xfinity Series winner Chase Elliott lost control of his No. 24 Hendrick Chevrolet during lap 20, and spun down on to the infield grass. By the time his team had made repairs to his car he was 40 laps down, and finished 37th.
ELLIOTT HOLDS ON FOR XFINITY VICTORY
Chase Elliott held on to win Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Daytona by 0.043 seconds ahead of Joey Logano.
“That was a heck of a battle there at the end,” said Elliott. “Joey pushed me hard, but I knew we had a good car, and if I hadn't won, I would have been disappointed.”
The win was his first at Daytona and first restrictor plate race victory for the 20-year-old.
Logano gave it a good try during the last lap. He was running on the high side of the track, while Elliott was running a lower groove. Logano had the momentum and was about to take the lead, when Elliott went high and blocked Logano. The pair traded paint a couple times, but Logano was unable to pull off a pass.
“Well, I guess I could have done a little better job, but he blocked me and I couldn't get by in time,” said Logano.
Kasey Kahne was third, followed by Elliott Sadler, Austin Dillon, Darrell Wallace, Brandon Jones, Daniel Suarez, Blake Koch, and Brendan Gaughan.
SAUTER TAKES TRUCK RACE
Johnny Sauter was the winner of the Daytona Truck Series race, but most of the excitement occurred behind him as he was taking the checkered flag.
Rookie Christopher Bell crashed as he made contact with Timothy Peters as they finished the race. Bell’s No. 4 Toyota spun and barrel-rolled at least 10 times before it came to a stop. Bell immediately got out of his truck and, although he walked away, was taken to a local hospital to be evaluated.
An 18-car crash caused the race to be red-flagged on Lap 93 for 27 minutes and 54 seconds. The wreck claimed pole-sitter Grant Enfinger and Austin Theriault, who had led the most laps in the race to that point.
Top-10 finishers: 1. Johnny Sauter, 2. Ryan Truex, 3. Parker Kligerman, 4. Brandon Brown, 5. Travis Kvapil, 6. Tyler Young, 7. Ben Rhodes, 8. Daniel Hemric, 9. Scott Lagasse, 10. Matt Crafton.
THE FOX IS IN THE HENHOUSE
Last week, Toronto Star editor Norris McDonald said NASCAR had allowed the foxes inside the hen house. He was referring to the recent agreement between the sanctioning body and car owners.
“Two years ago, or so, the most powerful team owners in NASCAR announced they had formed a working group (Race Team Alliance) to investigate how they could better be involved in France family decisions on racing rules, cost containment, race scheduling and so-on,” he said. “That Brian France didn't announce that they were all suspended surprised me at the time and still surprises me. By agreeing to work with this group, France and NASCAR opened the door to the hen house. Now the foxes are all inside and it's only a matter of time before feathers start flying and things start falling apart.
“It's already had a negative effect on the racing. Last Thursday, they ran the two qualifying races for this year's Daytona 500. Know how many spots were up for grabs? Two. Exactly. Two. Once upon a time, when NASCAR stock car racing was an open competition sport, everything other than pole and outside pole was on the line. Not any more. They might have to race for starting positions but there’s no danger of any of them actually missing the show. Kinda takes the excitement out of it, doesn’t it?”
As if all the news about teams wasn't enough, NASCAR has instituted a new personal conduct code for drivers in all three series.
“What you'll see is an effort by the sanctioning body to improve the level of transparency,” said Jim Cassidy, senior vice president of racing operations.
NASCAR said it had worked over the last year to come up with a disciplinary plan and the new system was not tied to one event. There was an outcry last season when Matt Kenseth was punished for retaliating against Logano at Martinsville for a previous series of slights in the Chase. The deliberate wrecking of Logano drew a two-race suspension from NASCAR. Kenseth said he would have handled the payback differently had he known he'd draw such an unprecedented penalty.
“We don't want perception that anything is, do as you see fit,” Cassidy said. “We are so far from that today as a sport. It's a good thing for us. It's a good thing for our competitors and everyone involved and the fans to understand what's happening.”
Weekend Racing: All three of NASCAR's major touring series' will be at the 1.5-mile Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Sat., Feb. 27; Xfinity Series race 2 of 33; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sat., Feb. 27; Truck Series race 2 of 23; Starting time: 4:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.
Sun., Feb. 28; Sprint Cup series race 2 of 36; Starting time: 1 pm ET; TV: Fox.
Racing Trivia Question: Does NASCAR still give former champions a provisional starting position?
Last Week’s Question: Who won last year's Daytona 500? Answer. Joey Logano.
You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.
