Susquehanna fans applaud the girls’ basketball team after the first state tournament victory in school history Saturday afternoon. (Tom Robinson photo)

COVINGTON TWP. – From inside the program, Susquehanna coach Errol Mannick says, it is clear how big an impact senior Lauren Soden has had on making the 2016-17 girls’ basketball season a historic one for the Lady Sabers.

It was clear at North Pocono High School Saturday afternoon how large a role Soden played in making sure the Lady Sabers won a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournament game for the first time in school history.

Soden hit a 3-pointer on the game’s first possession, scored her team’s first six points, had 10 points by halftime and made a variety of other plays to get Susquehanna started on its way to a surprisingly comfortable 44-28 victory over Benton in a first-round Class A game.

Freshmen Taylor Huyck and Mackenzie Steele have elevated the talent level and brightened the future of the team, but it was Soden, a senior who had first suffered through three of the program’s many lean years, who Mannick said got the team started in the right direction.

Mannick credits Soden with stepping forward midway through a season-opening, seven-game losing streak and insisting that it was time for the losing to stop. He said that following a talk to voice her frustration to assistant coach Gina Baker, Soden put in the work and provided the leadership necessary to bring the team to a first-half Lackawanna League Division 4 title, a spot in the division’s all-season championship game, a District 2 Class A title and a state tournament berth.

“She’s actually been the spark that changed our season around,” Mannick said of Soden, who finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and two steals Saturday. “ … It’s a more important piece than anyone would know or expect unless you are in the program.”

There were a lot of negative memories to erase.

The Lady Sabers were winless in back-to-back seasons in 2009-10 and 2010-11. They entered this season 26-128 in the last seven seasons and were just 19-58 in three-plus seasons under Mannick – as well as in Soden’s career – when something clicked.

When it did, beginning with an unlikely first win on the road over Wyoming Valley Conference Division 3 champion Northwest, the Lady Sabers became a dangerous team, one that eventually celebrated a district championship and state tournament-berth clinching win at the Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza.

They also arrived in the state tournament with a chance to erase another negative in the program’s history.

The bright spot in Susquehanna girls’ basketball was a five-year run over the final five years before District 12 merged into District 2. The Lady Sabers won their only three previous district titles in 1993, 1995 and 1996 and also reached the state tournament as district runner-up in 1992 and 1994.

Those playoff runs, however, did not end well.

Susquehanna lost its five games by a total of 156 points, never coming closer than 14. They fell 69-37 to Pottsville Nativity in 1992, followed by a 65-51 loss to Northeast Bradford, a 56-39 loss to Mahanoy Area, an 85-31 loss to Bishop O’Reilly and a 75-33 loss to Bishop O’Hara.

Soden, Huyck and Steele led the way in helping to make sure the long-awaited return was different.

“I’ve been hoping since freshman year to get here at some point,” Soden said. “Being that this is happening in my senior year, it’s just incredible.”

Mannick said his players are confident in the shooting ability after countless repetitions in shooting drills.

Soden shot 5-for-8, including 2-for-4 on 3-pointers.

Huyck hit four of her last five shots and finished with 17 points, eight rebounds, five steals, four assists and a blocked shot.

Steele made her last three shots and did all her scoring in the fourth quarter to finish with seven points, nine rebounds and six blocked shots.

The confidence extends beyond shooting.

“That was the whole problem when I came here,” Mannick said. “There were basketball issues that needed to be resolved and there were fundamental issues that needed to be resolved, but they just didn’t have any belief in themselves.

“That takes time to build. I can believe in them. Gina can believe in them, but if they don’t believe in themselves, they’re not going to get it done. They’re finally doing that.”

And, they’re playing tenacious defense.

The Lady Sabers held Forest City to 28 points, its lowest output in the last 20 games, in the district final. Then, they held Pottsville Nativity eight below its season average while falling 36-26 in the District 2-11 Subregional final.

Against a Benton team that came in with a 20-5 record, Susquehanna allowed just 28 points while holding the Lady Tigers 21 points below their season average with their lowest output in 19 games.

“It’s just hard, in-your-face, helping, man defense,” Mannick said of an effort that benefitted from Steele’s five blocks and Huyck’s five steals while building a 20-8 lead in the first half. “A lot of weak-side help, nothing easy, force a hard shot and get the rebound.

“It’s not easy, it’s just a lot of work.”

And, it’s working well.

Susquehanna forced 27 Benton turnovers and only a strong finish along the Lady Tigers to get above 20 percent for the day shooting at 10-for-47 (21.3 percent).

Taylor Williams, the team’s other senior starter who Mannick frequently praises for her leadership as well, chipped in with three steals.

The Lady Sabers were aggressive defensively and frequently patient in moving the ball effectively on offense.

Susquehanna moved the ball around for 38 seconds to start the game until it got Soden open to hit a 3-pointer from the left corner.

“We watched their film,” Soden said. “We knew they were going to be in a 2-3 and we knew how scrappy they were.

“We knew what we had to do and we had to do it quick.”

Benton tied the game with its only field goal of the first 12 minutes, but Soden connected from the right corner with 1:36 left in the first quarter to break the game’s only tie.

Huyck and Soden, who fought for a rebound for the first basket of the second quarter, split the scoring as the Lady Sabers scored the last five points of the first quarter and the first five of the second for a 13-3 lead.

The Lady Sabers put together another streak to span the second and third quarters.

They scored the last four points of the first half and the first five of the second half for a 25-8 lead with 5:47 left in the third quarter.

Again, Huyck and Soden led the way. Huyck had five of the points and Soden four.

Huyck started the streak by converted a steal into two free throws and ended it by nailing a 3-point shot off an in-bounds play.

Soden did her part on offensive rebounds. She caught Steele’s partially deflected 3-point attempt just in time to beat the halftime buzzer and hit a baseline 12-footer after Steele had grabbed a rebound and found her.

WEEK IN REVIEW

The Elk Lake girls and Mountain View boys were each eliminated in the first round of state playoffs in close Class 2A games on the road.

Elk Lake led into the fourth quarter Friday night before falling to Sayre, 36-31, at Troy.

Mountain View was ahead until the third-quarter buzzer and within a point into the final minute of Saturday’s 41-38 loss to Northeast Bradford at Mansfield University.

Elk Lake outscored Sayre, 13-4, in the third quarter to take a 23-20 lead.

The District 4 champions, who are ranked fifth in the state in Class 2A by lancasteronline.com, are 23-3. Elk Lake finished 14-12.

Northeast Bradford scored the last three points of the third quarter and the first five of the fourth for a 37-30 lead.

Mountain View answered with six straight and then got back within one another time before falling short.

Matthew Lavin led the Eagles with 16 points.

Northeast Bradford, the District 4 runner-up, improved to 16-10.

Mountain View finished 11-15.

The opening weekend of the state basketball tournament was a successful one for District 2 teams.

The win by the Susquehanna girls was one of two in the Saturday doubleheader at North Pocono.

Holy Cross defeated Shenandoah Valley, 52-35, in a Class 2A boys game to complete the doubleheader.

The District 2 champion Crusaders are led by 6-foot-6 senior center Malachi Phillips, who resides in the Mountain View School District.

Phillips, the team’s leading scorer on the season, was limited by foul trouble Saturday. He played just 2:04 in the first half, then finished with three points and five rebounds.

District 2 teams went 14-7 in the first round, with boys going 7-2 and girls going 7-5.

Abington Heights in Class 5A; Scranton Prep, GAR and Nanticoke in 4A; Holy Redeemer and Mid Valley in 3A; and Holy Cross in 2A all advanced to the second round of the boys’ tournament.

Wyoming Valley West in Class 5A; Nanticoke and Berwick in 4A; Holy Redeemer and Dunmore in 3A; Old Forge in 2A; and Susquehanna in A all reached the second round of the girls’ tournament.

In high school wrestling, four District 2 wrestlers earned medals at the PIAA Championships, which were held Thursday through Saturday at the Giant Center in Hershey.

Hazleton Area 132-pounder Jimmy Hoffman finished second in the state in Class 3A for the second straight year.

Scranton’s William Evanitsky took fifth at 145 pounds in Class 3A.

Scranton Prep’s Ivan Balavage was seventh at 195 and Valley View Brett Uhrin was eighth at 138 in Class 2A.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Susquehanna’s next stop in the state girls’ basketball tournament is scheduled for Wednesday night, weather permitting.

The Lady Sabers (15-13) will meet Lourdes Regional from Shamokin (20-6) at Pittston Area High School at 7.

Lourdes Regional won the District 4 title, including beating Benton, Susquehanna’s first-round state opponent, 54-29, in the district semifinal. The state’s eighth-ranked Class A team, according to lancasteronline.com, opened the state tournament with a 64-34 rout of Lancaster Country Day.

In high school swimming, the PIAA Championships are scheduled for Wednesday through Saturday at Bucknell University.

Elk Lake did not qualify any swimmers for the state championships.

In professional hockey, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins take the American Hockey League’s best record and a four-point lead in the Atlantic Division standings into a home-and-home series with the second-place Lehigh Valley Phantoms.

The teams play Friday night in Allentown and Saturday night in Wilkes-Barre.

The Penguins are 41-17-3-0. The Phantoms are 39-18-3-0 for the league’s second-best record.

TOM ROBINSON writes a weekly local sports column for the Susquehanna County Transcript. He can reached at RobbyTR@aol.com or followed on Twitter at @tomjrobinson.

TRUEX WINS, KYLE BUSCH LOSES

Truex Wins; Kyle Busch Loses (File photo of Martin Truex Jr.)

LAS VEGAS, Nev.-- Sometimes luck plays a bigger role than horsepower or handling in racing.

Just ask Brad Keselowski. He can tell you.

Keselowski had passed Martin Truex Jr., the leader in Sunday's Cup race with 24 laps remaining. Keselowski's No. 2 Ford was clearly faster than Truex's No. 78 Chevrolet, and it appeared he was headed to victory lane for the second consecutive week. He continued to lead the race for the next 22 and one-half laps.

That's when luck came on board. It was bad luck for Keselowski, good luck for Truex.

Less than two laps from the finish of the race something broke on Keselowski's car. It would no longer handle. He had to slow down, and Truex passed him for the lead and victory.

“Something broke on the car and I could no longer steer it,” said Keselowski. “That's the way these races go sometime. I won one last week at Atlanta, and lost one this week the same way.”

For Truex, it was an especially sweet victory because he had led the most laps and won both segments of the race, picking up an additional 20 points.

“From the time he passed me I never slowed up,” said Truex. “When I saw him slowing, I knew we had to go for it. It's hard winning one of these races. I drove my butt off, but we got lucky today.”

But the biggest moment of the race wasn't on the track, or at the finish line, it was on pit road after the race had ended..

As the field of cars behind Truex was coming to the checkered flag, Joey Logano and Kyle Busch bumped and tapped each other. The end result was that Kyle Busch's No. 18 Toyota spun, and sailed down pit road before reaching the finish line. Logano continued on to finish the race.

Busch exited his car and confronted Logano and some of his pit crew, waving his hands. Logano's pit crew pushed their driver out of harm's way, and there was an ensuing struggle between Kyle Busch and members of Logano's team.

It was a “no contest.”

“Big Al,” a six-feet, five inch, 275 pound crewmember of  Logano's team, picked Busch up and body slammed him to the pavement, and sat on him. Several other members of Logano's team jumped on top of Busch. Finally speedway officials broke up the party and Busch came away from the melee with some scrapes on his face and a cut forehead.

Logano smiled all the way back to his hauler.

“I don't know what's wrong with him,” said Logano. “It was just racing. Whatever issue he has, it has to do with racing.”

Kyle Busch didn't agree.

“He dumped me,” said Busch. “That's what happened. I got dumped.”

No matter what the reasons, Busch was a two-time loser in Vegas this past Sunday.

Kyle Larson was the runner-up driver.

“We had a good car, but we've got to find a little more at the end,” he said. “I think if we can find that little something extra near the end, we'll win some races.”

Sophomore driver, Chase Elliott of Dawsonville, Georgia finished third, and is now third in series points. He drove a good, smart race,  but didn't quite have what he needed to pass the leaders at the end.

Joey Logano was fourth, while his teammate Brad Keselowski, who led 89 laps was fifth.

Denny Hamlin, Ryan Blaney, Jamie McMurray, Matt Kenseth, and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top-10.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. started the race 18th. He never led a lap, was never in contention to challenge the leaders, and finished 16th.

Clint Bowyer's 10th place finish was the best of the four Stewart-Haas teams. Kurt Busch finished the race four laps down in 30th position. Danica Patrick lost an engine during lap 248 and was 36th. Kevin Harvick, who had been leading the series in points had a right front tire blow, causing him to hit the outside wall early in the race. He was 38th with a DNF, and dropped to eighth in points.

Jimmie Johnson managed to finish 11th, on the lead lap after mechanical problems forced him to pit for a second time. He led 19 laps in the early stages of the race, but was no threat to the leaders near the end.

Top-10 Cup Series leaders after 3 of 36: 1. Keselowski-132, 2. Larson-131, 3. Elliott-129, 4. Truex-127, 5. Keselowski-119, 6. Blaney-106, 7. Kurt Busch-93, 8. Harvick-91, 9. Kahne-88, 10. McMurray-86.

LOGANO DOMINATES VEGAS XFINITY RACE

Joey Logano led 106 laps of the 200-lap Xfinity Series race, including the last 56 for his first series win of the season.

He started the race fourth and finished .806-seconds ahead of Kyle Larson.

“This was a hard race to figure out,” said Logano. “With all those restarts, I wouldn't have been able to do it without a great car.”

Larson led three times for 33 laps, and pushed Logano at times, but on the race's last restart with four-to-go, Larson wasn't able to handle the faster Logano.

“I thought Joey and I were about the same on some of the longer runs, but he was better on the short ones,” said Larson. “All those restarts near the end worked against us.”

Daniel Suarez was third, followed by Justin Allgaier, Austin Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr., Kyle Busch, Elliott Sadler, Ryan Reed, and Brad Keselowski.

Top-10 leaders after 3 of 33: 1. Sadler-99, 2. Reed-95, 3. Byron-90, 4. Hemric-72, 5. Wallace-70, 6. Tifft-66, 7. B. Poole-66, 8. Gaughan-64, 9. Armstrong-64, 10. Custer-62. 

MUFFLERS ON NASCAR CARS

Apparently NASCAR has a lot of people that are paid to sit around and come up with new ideas. This past week, someone in NASCAR's group of thinkers said the sanctioning body was considering quietening their race cars.

In other words, they might add mufflers to the engines.

It's hard to have a conversation with people sitting around you, when race cars are zipping by, but that seems to be the main reason NASCAR is tinkering with the idea to make their cars quieter, sources told Sports Business Daily’s Adam Stern. He writes that the quiet-car proposal is one of 15 to 20 initiatives NASCAR is considering to improve its race-day experience in the wake of declining attendance and television ratings.

“Quieter cars could be targeted more toward millennials, who place heavy importance on the social experience of attending sporting events,” Stern said. “For example, many teams in stick-and-ball sports have developed standing areas where fans can gather and socialize instead of being restricted to a standard seat.”

To me, part of the thrill of racing has always been the noise, and it's hard for me to imagine sitting up in the stands watching a quiet parade of cars go by.

I think much of the thrill would be gone.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams continue with the second of three consecutive races in the western U.S. This weekend they will be at the 1-mile Phoenix International Raceway.

Sat., Mar. 18, Xfinity Series race 4 of 33; Starting time: 4 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Sun., Mar. 19, Cup Series race 4 of 36; Starting time: 3:30 pm ET; TV: Fox.

Racing Trivia Question: When was the first year Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran a full Cup series schedule?

Last Week's Question: Which NASCAR series does Johnny Sauter compete in? Answer. He competes in the Camping World Truck Series.

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