Taylor Williams (32), Taylor Huyck (15) and Bethany Maby (12) defend for Susquehanna during Friday’s playoff victory that was the first by the Lady Sabers in district or subregional tournament play in more than a decade (Tom Robinson photo)

CARBONDALE – The Susquehanna girls’ basketball team continued to break new ground Friday night.

Taylor Huyck scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds and dished out three assists as the Lady Sabers defeated Lincoln Leadership Academy, 53-38, in a District 2-11 Class A Subregional quarterfinal at Carbondale High School.

The win over the charter school from Allentown was the first in district or subregional girls’ basketball play in at least a dozen years for Susquehanna. It was also part of a successful week of playoff basketball all around for Susquehanna County teams.

County teams had a combined 8-7 record in district and subregional play, including 5-4 against outsiders. That was highlighted by the girls going 5-2 with the only losses and eliminations coming when Blue Ridge and Mountain View were each knocked out of the Class 2A tournament by Elk Lake.

The Elk Lake girls and Mountain View boys each won twice to secure their spots in District 2 Class 2A championship games at the Mohegan Sun Arena. They also are the first two county teams to clinch state tournament berths this season.

Susquehanna and Forest City won girls’ games to turn their District 2 Class A final at the arena into a District 2-11 semifinal as well.

The Susquehanna boys will also head to the arena to decide the Class A title with the district’s only other Class A team, MMI Prep, after being knocked out of the District 2-11 Subregional.

The Susquehanna girls and Mountain View boys will each arrive at the arena after making major turnarounds following 0-7 starts. The Lady Sabers are 13-5 since and now have a winning record overall. The Eagles are 11-6 since making first-year coach Joe Gibbons wait for his first win.

CLASS A GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Susquehanna and Forest City posted victories over District 11 teams in Friday’s doubleheader at Carbondale.

Forest City followed up Susquehanna’s win by defeating Salem Christian, 51-43, in the nightcap.

The Lady Sabers never trailed while gradually building a 41-22 lead through three quarters.

Lauren Soden, who grabbed seven rebounds and made four steals, and Bethany Maby, who had six rebounds, each added nine points for Susquehanna. Mackenzie Steele had eight points, seven rebounds and six blocked shots to help the Lady Sabers to a 46-39 rebounding advantage.

Maby opened the game with a 3-pointer and, after the Lady Lions forced the only two ties, Soden had four points in a nine-point streak to take a 14-5 lead after one quarter.

Susquehanna held Lincoln Leadership without a field goal for the final 4:45 of the half while Huyck scored five points in a 9-2 run to a 26-14 lead.

Steele did all of her scoring in the third quarter. After Huyck converted a rebound, Steele had the last six points of an eight-point streak to finish out the quarter with the 19-point lead.

Lincoln Leadership got all its scoring from two players. Ramsey Rodriguez had 21 points and four steals before fouling out with 1:08 left and Susquehanna leading by 13. Zeleny Ramos added 17 points and 11 rebounds, but was held to 6-for-28 shooting by the Lady Sabers defense.

Rodriguez had five points in a 7-0 run that got the Lady Lions as close as 48-36 with three minutes left, but Maby hit the last four of a 6-for-6 foul shooting effort to help lock up the win.

Kendra Bendyk hit five 3-pointers while scoring 21 points for Forest City in the second game.

Mackenzie Hartman added 18 for the Lady Foresters, who never trailed in the second half.

Ally Barnes had 17 points to lead Salem Christian, a private school from Macungie.

Barnes hit a 3-pointer to end the third quarter and cut the deficit to 34-31 after the Lady Foresters had led by 12.

Forest City did not let Salem Christian get any closer.

Bendyk had at least one 3-pointer in each quarter for Forest City, which turned a 9-7 deficit after one quarter into a 20-15 halftime lead. She had 10 points during the third quarter.

Hartman went 4-for-6 from the line while scoring eight of her points in the fourth.

CLASS 2A GIRLS’ BASKETBALL

Keri Jones led the way as Elk Lake won a pair of games in the half of the bracket that consisted of four Lackawanna League Division 4 teams and was contested at Tunkhannock.

The third-seeded Lady Warriors defeated second-seeded Blue Ridge, 62-50, Friday night.

In a Feb. 21 doubleheader, Elk Lake topped Mountain View, 57-41, and Blue Ridge handled Lackawanna Trail, 59-35.

Jones made five 3-pointers while scoring 26 points and Justine Johns added 17 points for Elk Lake against Blue Ridge. They combined to shoot 19-for-27 from the line and help the Lady Raiders hang on after building a double-figures lead early.

Isabella Cosmello led Blue Ridge with 21 points.

Jones had 22 points, including four 3-pointers, in the quarterfinal win over Mountain View.

Abigail Johns added 14 and Justine Johns had 13.

Sydney Newhart led Mountain View with 17 points.

Abby Hartman had 17 points and Kalynne Myers 16 in Blue Ridge’s win over Lackawanna Trail.

CLASS A BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Ben Avery went 7-for-8 from the line in the fourth quarter when Salem Christian rallied for a 43-38 victory over Susquehanna in the District 2-11 Class A boys’ quarterfinals Thursday night at Allen High School in Allentown.

Susquehanna held Salem Christian scoreless for the first seven minutes while opening an 8-0 lead, but suffered from an off shooting night and was unable to close out the victory.

The Sabers did not trail – and were only tied once – before the Eagles scored the first five points of the fourth quarter to take a 32-30 lead.

Susquehanna forced the last tie at 34-34, but Avery helped Salem Christian pull away.

Justin Rosak, who hit three of his four 3-pointers in the second half, had 14 points and Avery 13 to lead Salem Christian.

Mason Deakin had five of his 13 points for Susquehanna in the first quarter. He had a 3-pointer to cap the game-opening, 8-0 run.

Garret Grausgruber added nine points, including five in the fourth quarter.

CLASS 2A BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Mikey Schermerhorn scored 19 points and Mountain View rallied from a 12-point, second-half deficit Saturday afternoon at Valley View High School to avenge three previous losses to Blue Ridge with a 62-56 win in the District 2 Class 2A boys’ basketball semifinals.

Zeb Feduchak added 15 points and Kyle Streich 11 for the Eagles.

Jeff Morris had 22 points and Ian Townend had 17 for Blue Ridge.

The Eagles and Raiders had also won in a quarterfinal round that featured county teams in all four games.

Mountain View and Blue Ridge and got their wins in a Wednesday doubleheader at Tunkhannock.

Schermerhorn had 17 points and Matthew Lavin 13 when Mountain View defeated Northwest, 46-40.

The Eagles overcame eight 3-pointers by the Rangers.

Morris poured in 32 points and Townend had 15 to lead Blue Ridge to a 73-65 victory over Lackawanna Trail.

Old Forge rallied from eight points down in the second half to defeat Elk Lake, 56-48.

Joey Verespey made four of his five 3-pointers and scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half to lead the Blue Devils.

Ben Woolcock had 16 points and Rierdan Reyan added 10 for Elk Lake.

Top-seeded Holy Cross hammered Forest City, 75-27.

CLASS 3A BOYS’ BASKETBALL

Nick Prociak and Colin Cook had 11 points each to lead Holy Redeemer to a 51-38 victory over Montrose in the Feb. 21 game at Pittston Area.

Montrose led, 8-5, early before Cook and Jason Stachokus each hit 3-pointers during a 10-point streak that put Holy Redeemer ahead to stay.

Harley Mullins led the Meteors with 11 points.

DISTRICT 2 WRESTLING

Elk Lake’s Jacob Hand and Blue Ridge’s Fred Lewis each finished second Saturday when the two-day District 2 Class 2A Wrestling Championships concluded at the Kingston Armory.

Hand placed second at 170 pounds where he lost to Scranton Prep’s Bruce Parola, 4-3, in the final.

Lewis made the final when he pinned Montrose’s Jacob O’Brien 48 seconds into overtime of the 120-pound semifinal.

Colin Pasone from Meyers won his fourth straight district title when he pinned Lewis 48 seconds into the final.

Montrose placed wrestlers in the top six in half of the weight classes while finishing ninth out of 15 in the team standings.

Hanover Area pulled out a 161 ½-161 victory over Honesdale in the final bout of the tournament.

Montrose was ninth with 96 ½ points. Blue Ridge placed 11th with 48, Elk Lake was 13th with 38 and Mountain View was last with four.

Joseph Hester led Montrose, taking third and a berth in next week’s Northeast Regionals with a 13-10 victory over Lake-Lehman’s Matt Galasso in the 126-pound consolation final.

Makeela Fabrizio (138) and Cole Aukema (160) each finished fourth, Mikyle Fabrizio and Robert Gregory (285) were fifth and Jacob O’Brien (120) and Justin Kelly (220) were sixth for the Meteors. O’Brien forfeited his last two matches after the overtime loss to Lewis.

Nathaniel McArthur (113) and Adam Roe (145) were each sixth for Blue Ridge.

Jacob Hand from Elk Lake was sixth at 160.

David Shea, who had a pin at 152, and Frank Valentine, at 145, were the only Mountain View wrestlers to win a bout. Each got his only win in the consolations.

DISTRICT 2 DIVING

Jake Werle from Elk Lake finished fourth Saturday when the diving portion of the District 2 Swimming and Diving Championships was conducted at the Wilkes-Barre CYC.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Two Susquehanna County teams will tip off the three-day, 12-game series of district and subregional basketball championship games at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township Thursday through Saturday.

Three girls’ and two boys’ teams from the county are headed to the arena.

Second-seeded Forest City (16-10) and third-seeded Susquehanna (13-12) get the action started Thursday at 4 p.m. in the District 2 Class A girls’ championship game that is also a District 2-11 Subregional semifinal.

The Susquehanna boys (8-15) will play MMI Prep (5-17) for the District 2 Class A title in Friday’s first game at 2 p.m. Because MMI Prep did not qualify for the District 2-11 Subregional and Susquehanna has already been eliminated, the winner will not advance into state play.

The Elk Lake girls will follow the Susquehanna boys on the court in Friday’s 4 p.m. game. The third-seeded Lady Warriors (14-10) will play fourth-seeded Old Forge (8-16).

Mountain View’s boys play in the second of five games on Saturday’s schedule. The third-seeded Eagles (11-13) play top-seeded Holy Cross (18-7) at 2 p.m.

The rest of the arena schedule includes: Nanticoke and Berwick in Class 4A girls, Thursday at 6; Mid Valley and Holy Redeemer in Class 3A boys, Thursday at 8; Scranton and Hazleton Area in Class 6A boys, Friday at 6; Abington Heights and West Scranton in Class 5A boys, Friday at 8; Dunmore and Holy Redeemer in Class 3A girls, Saturday at noon; GAR and Scranton Prep in Class 4A boys, Saturday at 4; Wyoming Valley West and Abington Heights in Class 5A girls, Saturday at 6; and Williamsport and Hazleton Area in District 2-4 Class 6A boys Subregional, Saturday at 8.

The Susquehanna-Forest City girls’ winner will advance to the District 2-11 final Friday against the winner of the game between top-seeded East Stroudsburg Notre Dame and Pottsville Nativity. The Lady Sabers and Lady Foresters are 2-2 against each other this season with Susquehanna winning a playoff for the first-half Lackawanna Division 4 title, but Forest City winning the playoff for the all-season title.

In wrestling, the Class 2A Northeast Regionals will be held Friday and Saturday in Williamsport.

The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the state tournament. Each weight class is made up of District 4’s top five finishers and District 2’s top three finishers.

Blue Ridge’s Lewis, Elk Lake’s Hand and Montrose’s Hester qualified for regionals.

In swimming, Elk Lake will be competing in the District 2 Class 2A Championships, which will be held Friday and Saturday, beginning at noon each day.

The Elk Lake boys went 5-3 to finish tied for third out of nine Lackawanna League teams. The girls were 3-6 to finish seventh out of 10 teams.

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

KURT BUSCH TAKES THE DAYTONA 500

Kurt Busch Wins The Daytona 500 - Furnished by NASCAR

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla.--Kurt Busch saved his best move for last, on the way to victory lane in  Sunday's Daytona 500. Busch was running second behind Kyle Larson with less than a lap remaining in the 200-lap race. He faked a move to the low side of Larson, then cut back up the track. Larson took the bait, pulled down, and Busch was able to zip by him on the high side for the lead and win.

“I never would have predicted this,” said Busch. “The more it becomes unpredictable, then the more it is predictable. That's what happened today. But the reason I'm here is because a lot of people believed in me, and kept on believing in me.

“Standing here in Daytona's Victory Lane has got to be one of the greatest feelings in the world.”

This is his first victory and 17th top-10 at Daytona 

Ryan Blaney, driver of the Wood Bros. No. 21 was the runner-up.

“We had a good, fast car and it doesn't feel real good to run as a backup car,” he said. “The car ran great. I lost a few spots before the end, and we just fell a little short.”

AJ Allmendinger was third. It was his third top-10 finish in 16 races at Daytona.

“Well, it was a good run for us,” said Allmendinger. “Everyone likes to win, but we had a problem, and I had to make nine pit stops before we found out what it was. So, this is not a win, but it's a good finish.”

The remaining top-20: 4. Aric Almirola, 5. Paul Menard, 6. Joey Logano, 7. Kasey Kahne, 8. Michael Waltrip, 9. Matt Debenetto, 10. Trevor Bayne, 11. Brendan Gaughan, 12. Kyle Larson, 13. Martin Truex, 14. Chase Elliott, 15. Michael McDowell, 16. Landon Cassill, 17. Denny Hamlin, 18. Cole Whitt, 19. Austin Dillon, 20. Elliott Sadler. 

During lap 105 Kyle Busch spun going down the backstretch and was pushed into the outside wall by several other cars, including the No. 88 driven by Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The race was red flagged while speedway crews repaired the wall. Earnhardt brought his car into the garage, and was not able to continue.

“We definitely wanted a better finish than this,” said Earnhardt. “We had a good, fast car, and I was hoping something like this wouldn't happen.”

Another big wreck came on lap 128, involving 17 cars. A few of the teams were able to make repairs, but Danica Patrick's No. 10 was done for the day.

“I didn't see a thing,” she said. “I believe it started with the 48 and another car. I'm really sorry this happened, because we were organized and going.”

Johnson's No. 48 car did take a hard hit from Jamie McMurray's No. 1. Both drivers wound up with  DNF's.

There were 10 different caution periods. NASCAR's new rules didn't allow all the cars that were repairable to be repaired. If a team took their car to the garage, they could not return to the track. And also, teams could only spend a total of five minutes making repairs on pit road, before they were disqualified from the race.

REED PERSEVERES FOR DAYTONA WIN

Ryan Reed used a lightning-fast race car, a ton of determination and desire to hold off the field to win a wild and wooly Xfinity Series season opener at Daytona.

Reed, who was told he would never race again after being diagnosed with Type I Diabetes six years ago, scored his second Daytona Xfinity win in the last three seasons.

The young drivers’ No. 16 Lilly Diabetes Ford Mustang was fast from the drop of the green flag. He qualified second and led the first lap, but in between that and taking the checkered flag, he battled through a day filled with red flags and multiple-car wrecks; two of which sent his Ford spinning through the infield grass.

“I started out pretty aggressive and made some mistakes and ended up at the back of the pack,” said Reed. “I knew if I was there at the end, I would have a shot. I reminded myself of that, took a deep breath and found a way to the front at the end.”

Kasey Kahne was second, followed by Austin Dillon, Brad Keselowski, Brendan Gaughan, Scott Lagasse, Joey Gase, Garrett Smithley, William Byron, and Harrison Rhodes.

Polesitter Brandon Jones was involved in an early wreck and only completed 28 laps.

The race lasted three hours and 12 minutes, and consisted of 10 caution periods. It was one of the longest Xfinity races on record.

18-YEAR-OLD WINS OPENING TRUCK RACE

Kaz Grala, an 18-year-old from Boston won the season's first Truck Series race at Daytona. He started on the pole, and emerged unscathed from a horrendous last lap wreck to take the checkered flag and become the youngest driver to win a series race.

“That was a crazy finish to the race for sure,” Grala said. “I was just pushing Timothy Peters in front of me, I couldn’t see much ahead of me. I did see stuff start to go wrong and I knew I wasn’t going to lift off the throttle. I turned left, closed my eyes and crossed my fingers. I’m really glad it worked out.”

Austin Self, Charles Brisco, John Nemechek, Joe Nemechek, Regan Smith, Scott Lagasse, Christopher Bell, JJ Yeley, and Myatt Snider were the remaining top-10 finishers.

Johnny Sauter, who led 52 laps of the 100-lap race was leading the race, going into the last lap. Several trucks tangled on the backstretch. Matt Crafton was caught in the middle. His  No. 88 went airborne and flipped over twice. Except for a few bruised places, he was O.K. Sauter finished 15th.

LOGANO EXTENDS CONTRAC WITH PENSKE

 Joey Logano has extended his contract with Team Penske and Shell Oil Co. that will keep him in the No. 22 Penske Ford through 2022 and beyond.

Logano moved to the No. 22 car prior to the 2013 season and has enjoyed good success. He has compiled 15 Cup Series wins including the 2015 Daytona 500. Logano has finished inside the top-10 in the championship standings in each of the last four seasons including being in the Championship 4 at Homestead in two of the last three seasons.

“I’ve known my entire life I wanted to be a NASCAR Cup Series driver,” said Logano. “Now, to be able to know that I get the opportunity to drive for Roger Penske for the foreseeable future where I can focus solely on winning races and championships is a life-long dream for me. To know that our executives, our sponsors, my team and all of the employees at Team Penske have that much faith in me means so much and that type of commitment really says a lot about this team and this organization.”

Now entering a multi-year deal, Logano says the attraction to Penske was simple – winning.

“As a race car driver, I’ve been able to look at Team Penske before I was here and see the greatness and how they do things differently,” he said. “The team has filled my needs and it's great to realize that I can live out my dream without having to worry about the future.”

Weekend Racing: There will Cup, Xfinity and Truck races this weekend at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This will be the first time in several years AMS has hosted three major races at the one and a half mile track on a single racing weekend. The first race was held at AMS on July 30, 1960. “Freball” Roberts won both the pole and race. Geoffrey Bodine holds the one-lap qualifying record. He turned a speed of 197.478 mph, on Nov. 15, 1997.

Sat., Mar. 4, Xfinity Series race 2 of 33; Starting time: 1:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sat., Mar. 4, Truck Series race 2 of 23; Starting time: 4:30 pm ET; TV: FoxSports1.

Sun., Mar. 5, Cup Series race 2 of 36; Starting time: 2:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: How many Charter Cup teams are there in the NASCAR Cup series?

Last Week's Question: Who replaced Carl Edwards in the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Toyota? Answer. Daniel Suarez.

You may contact the Racing Reporter by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.