OXON HILL, Md. – Mackenzie Steele led a dominating effort on the boards July 24 when the JB Hoops AAU girls basketball team advanced to the elimination brackets at the USJN National Championships for the first time in program history.

JB Hoops, a Scranton-based team, went into the final game needing a win to finish first or second in Pool GG and be among the one-third of the teams in the field that advanced.

Steele grabbed a team-high eight rebounds, including five on the offensive end, during a clinching, 48-31 win over the Connecticut Northstars from Hartford.

The 6-foot-2 center, who is going into her sophomore year at Susquehanna, also had four points and an assist in the game.

Steele led the team in rebounding while it was going 4-1 in pool play. She had 30 in five games, an average of six. She also led in offensive rebounds with 13.

Earlier on the final day of pool play, Steele had two points and four rebounds in a 38-32 victory over the Blue Crush from New Jersey.

JB Hoops was eliminated July 25 in the quarterfinal of the Silver Consolation Division with a 48-34 loss to The Future from nearby Washington, D.C.

WEEK IN REVIEW

Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders outfielder Jake Cave was named International League Batter of the Week for the period of July 17-23.

Cave led the IL in hits during that time with 15 while batting .577. He had hits in all seven games with multiple hits in five of them.

During a 6-3 win over the Norfolk Ties July 19, Cave hit a three-run homer and drove in five runs.

The 24-year-old started the season at Double-A Trenton, but has been the IL’s most productive hitter since his promotion.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Lackawanna Interscholastic Athletic Association has set schedules for fall sports.

Golf opens Aug. 21. Forest City is at Old Forge, Holy Cross at Elk Lake, Mountain View at Lackawanna Trail, Montrose at Mid Valley and Lakeland at Blue Ridge in Class 2A Division openers that day.

Girls’ tennis begins Aug. 22 with Montrose playing at home against Riverside in a Class 2A Division match.

Montrose is at Susquehanna Aug. 25 in a Lackawanna Football Conference opener that will also decide the Bluestone Trophy.

Blue Ridge opens its Lackawanna League girls’ volleyball title defense Sept. 1 at Montrose. Other openers that day are Elk Lake at Abington Heights, Forest City at Western Wayne and Susquehanna at Mountain View.

Blue Ridge is also the defending champion in Lackawanna League Division 3 boys’ soccer where it opens at Mid Valley Sept. 5. Other league openers the same day include Scranton Prep at Mountain View, Montrose at Holy Cross, Forest City at Old Forge and Lakeland at Elk Lake.

Girls’ soccer opens Sept. 6 with Dunmore at Forest City, Holy Cross at Mountain View, Mid Valley at Elk Lake and Western Wayne at Montrose.

Faith Mountain Christian Academy from New Milford will be a new league member in boys’ and girls’ cross country, which begins Sept. 6.

Montrose will open defense of its overall league boys’ cross country title at Old Forge in a Sept. 6 cluster meet. That day, Montrose, Blue Ridge, Elk Lake and Faith Mountain will all run against Old Forge, Dunmore and Riverside, but not each other, in boys’ and girls’ meets.

Susquehanna and Mountain View run at Wallenpaupack against both the hosts and Delaware Valley. Forest City will compete against Holy Cross and Scranton Prep at Honesdale.

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.

“ROWDY” KYLE IS BACK

"Rowdy" Kyle Is Back (Furnished by NASCAR)

LONG POND, Penn.--Kyle Busch won his first Cup Series race of the season, and the first at the Pocono track, as he coasted to victory by 6.18 seconds ahead of Kevin Harvick.

Busch led the most laps (74), which means he has now led 1,028 laps, the most of any driver this year. If he continues at his present level, he will surpass Harry Gant, the all-time lap leader.

Even though it was a convincing win for the driver of the No. 18 Gibbs Racing Toyota, it won't come without a penalty or fine. NASCAR officials discovered a loose lug nut on one of his wheels during a post race inspection, and will announce the penalty on Tuesday.

“I'm glad to see we're back,” said Busch. “We had an awesome car today. It was a flying machine. It was a perfect race. Everyone has worked so hard to make it happen, and things went our way today.”

Busch took the lead for the last time on lap 144 of the 160-lap race from Kevin Harvick, after giving him a bump from behind.

“Kyle got into me, but it was because I got loose in the corner,” said Harvick. “We're working on things, and picking up here and there. We're going to be ready for the Chase, but Kyle was the class of the field today.”

Martin Truex Jr. led 31 laps to finish third.

“We had a shot at it up until near the end,” said Truex. “We were just a little off today. The car would run great when we were out front in clean air, but when we had to come from back in the field it wasn't so good.”

Denny Hamlin was fourth, then it was Brad Keselowski, Clint Bowyer, Daniel Suarez, Eric Jones, Matt Kenseth, and Chase Elliott.

Kenseth had and up and down day. He got squirrely on the first lap of the race and spun around. This caused a chain reaction of crashes involving nine other cars. Kenseth worked his way back to the front, but near the end of the race, he was mired back in traffic.

Kasey Kahne, winner of last week's Brickyard 400 was caught speeding on pit road during a caution period on lap 105. The penalty forced him to restart at the tail end of the field. He finished 11th.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 12th, but was unable to lead any laps.

The race's biggest loser was Jimmie Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Chevrolet. He had a tire problem, spun around and hit the outside wall. He wound up 35th with a DNF.

Top-10 leaders after 21 of 36: 1. Truex-823, 2. Larson-738, 3. Harvick-724, 4. Kyle Busch-723, 5. Keselowski-649, 6. Hamlin-649, 7. Elliott-616, 8. McMurray-615, 9. Kenseth-594, 10. Bowyer-577.

Note: The top-16 drivers will have their points reset after the Richmond race on Sept. 9. These will be the drivers eligible for this year's Cup Series championship. While this is the current standings, the number of wins a driver has will determine the final 16 drivers.

PREECE GETS FIRST XFINITY VICTORY

Ryan Preece started first and finished first in Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Iowa Speedway for his first career victory. Even though he led 141 laps of the 250-lap race, it all came down to a two lap, green-white-checkered shootout between him and Kyle Benjamin.

Benjamin pushed Preece hard during the two laps, but could not make a pass and finished .054-seconds back.

“I'm at a loss for words,” said Preece. “It's hard to believe I really won.”

Bryan Scott was third, followed by Brennan Poole, Cole Custer, JJ Yeley, Daniel Hemric, Blake Koch, William Byron, and Brandon Jones.

Top-10 leaders after 19 of 33: 1. Sadler-707, 2. Byron-653, 3. Allgaier-564, 4. B. Poole-518, 5. Hemric-488, 6. Custer-474, 7. Tifft-436, 8. Reed-424, 9. Armstrong-388, 10. Koch-374.

Results of Saturday's Truck Series race at Pocono: 1. Christopher Bell, 2. Ben Rhodes, 3. Ryan Truex, 4. John Nemechek, 5. Johnny Sauter, 6. Matt Crafton, 7. Austin Cindric, 8. Cody Coughlin, 9. Chase Briscoe, 10. Justin Haley.

Top-10 leaders after 12 of 23: 1. Bell-528, 2. Sauter-510, 3. Briscoe-470, 4. Crafton-464, 5. Nemechek-396, 6. Rhodes-387, 7. R. Truex-386, 8. Enfinger-382, 9. Gragson-345, 10. Cindric-324.

NASCAR IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL

There has been talk that NASCAR is going down the drain, but based on independent studies, it appears the sport of racing is as healthy as other major sports.

Professional sports is big business in the United States, and NASCAR isn't the only one that has seen a drop in the number of fans. The four major team sport organizations; MLB, NHL, NBA, and NFL, have all seen significant drops.

While there have been dips in the number of fans that attend NASCAR races and watch it on television, last week's Brickyard 400 showed there are still a lot of fans attracted to the sport.

There were 5.6-million fans watching as Kasey Kahne got his first win in 102 races.

Stop and think about those numbers. It's mind boggling.

The race was up 8 per cent in viewership from last year (5.2M) and up 20 per cent from 2015 (4.7M), both of which aired on NBCSN.

For the first time since 2009, the Brickyard 400 earned a larger audience than the Indianapolis 500, which takes place at the same race track (5.5M).

It used to be that most revenue came from ticket sales and concessions, but not any more. Money in these sports comes from a range of channels. While endorsements, advertising, TV deals, and merchandising all factor into team revenue, ticket sales remain important, as both a source of revenue, as well as a gauge of fan loyalty.

As NASCAR attendance continues to decline, NASCAR and track owners are searching for a better formula to bring in new race fans while keeping the loyalty of longtime ones.

Tracks are trying new packages, and sometime gimmicks to lure fans back into the stands. They are adopting new ticket pricing for children which they hope will help bring more youth into racing.

Money is definitely the problem with a lot of fans. The people I talk with at the tracks complain about high hotel costs, and the overall cost once they get to the track. It's not just the cost of a $50 ticket that keeps some fans away, but $6 hot dogs and $5 cokes. Imagine how much a family of four spent during the Brickyard 400 that lasted over five hours.

As costs go up, families have less and less to spend on entertainment. I haven't seen a lot of frustration from fans about the racing side of NASCAR, it's all about affordability. I think NASCAR and all the major sports are going to rise and fall with the economy.

For the MLB teams, they saw their average home game attendance decline by more than 10 per cent over the past decade.

Overall, NASCAR racing is holding its own, and doing better than the NBA and MLB.

Weekend Racing: The Cup and Xfinity teams are at the 2.45-mile Watkins Glen road course. The Trucks have an off week.

Sat., Aug. 5; Xfinity Series race 20 of 33; Starting time: 2 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.

Sun., Aug. 6; Cup Series race 22 of 36; Starting time: 3 pm ET; TV: NBCSN.

Racing Trivia Question: Which driver has the most Truck Series championships?

Last Week's Question: How many Cup teams does Roush Fenway Racing currently field? Answer. Two, the No. 6 driven Trevor Bayne and the No. 17 by Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

Gerald Hodges is a syndicated NASCAR writer and author. You may contact him by e-mail at: hodges@race500.com.