Wreckers back in PIAA basketball tournament

Will face St. John Neumann in Saturday’s Class A opener

For the first time since the magical 2018-19 season, the Weatherly Area girls’ basketball team is headed back to the state tournament.

On Saturday morning at storied Martz Hall in Pottsville, Bethany Houser and Emma Kane combined for 14 first-quarter points as the fourth-seeded Lady Wreckers took charge en route to a 46-25 win over No. 3 Salem Christian in the District 2-11 subregional consolation game.

The third-place finish jettisoned the Lady Wreckers into the PIAA Class A state tournament for the first time since marching to the quarterfinals four years ago.

The Lady Wreckers, now 8-16, will face District 4 runner-up St. John Neumann (16-9) in the opening round of the PIAA Class A Tournament Saturday night at 7, in Williamsport.

With Houser (8) and Kane (6) showing the way, Weatherly Area broke out to an 18-4 lead through one quarter against Salem (10-13), and extended it to 28-10 by intermission. An 11-4 third-quarter advantage put the game away, and the Lady Wreckers were celebrating a state-qualifying victory on the same court where four years earlier their predecessors were winning a district title.

Houser led all scores with 15 points, Kane was right behind with 14, and freshman Kelly Reiner chipped in with six points.

Becky Held and Maddy

Krage paced Salem Christian with eight points each.

WEATHERLY team back within 10. same as practicing. And that third quarter killed us.”

Subregional Semifinal

Mountain View 52, Weatherly Area 27

- For the first half of last week’s District 2-11 Class A subregional semifinal, the visiting Lady Wreckers gave top-seeded Mountain View all it wanted.

In the second half, 6-foot-1 star freshman Addison Kilmer and the Lady Eagles took control to punch their ticket to the subregional final.

Weatherly had a 12-10 lead on back-to-back scores from Emma Kane and Bethany Houser, before Mountain View ran off the next eight points to gain early control. Still, the Lady Wreckers were within five (20-15) at the half.

Kilmer proved to be a handful, though, finishing with 14 points, 20 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

“We knew we had to double team (Kilmer) and I think we did a fairly good job,” Weatherly Area head coach Jason Kane said. “It’s just that we didn’t rebound. We couldn’t keep her off the boards and we stressed that.”

Mountain View started the second half on an 8-0 run to take a 28-15 lead in just over a minute, but Kane answered for the Lady Wreckers, sticking a triple to bring her

However, the Lady Hawks turned up the defensive pressure, forcing eight Lady Wrecker turnovers in the pivotal third quarter. Then, Claire Getz popped a 3-pointer to start an 11-0 spurt that sealed things and sent Mountain View on to the title game.

Two days later in the final at Mohegan Sun Arena, Kilmer dominated again. The frosh phenom scored 20 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and swatted five shots as the Lady Eagles cruised by No. 2 seed Nativity, 36-20, for the subregional championship.

The Lady Wreckers were a chilly 11-of-45 from the field in the semifinal game, and committed too many turnovers against pressure, likely the byproduct of a three-week layoff between the regular season and the postseason.

“That and we couldn’t hit shots and I think that started getting into the girls’ heads,” Jason Kane said.

“We did a really good job all year beating the press. I don’t know what happened tonight. We haven’t played a game in 20 days. It’s not the

Looking Ahead

Up next for the Lady Wreckers is a 16-9 St. John Neumann team that will be playing at home in the opening round of the state tournament.

Saturday night’s 7 p.m. tip in Williamsport will pit the locals against the secondplace finisher out of District 4.

St. John Neumann, seeded third for the district tournament, routed Benton (58-33) and surprised 2-seed

Lourdes Regional (63-47) to reach the final. There, it lost to top seed Meadowbrook Christian 57-47.

St. John Neumann is led by the trio of Sheiana Tutler, Gigi Parlante and Lily Reid. Tutler and Parlante are double-double machines, combining for 25 of them this season, while Reid is the team’s top 3-point threat. Tutler averages 13.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, along with 4 blocks per contest. Parlante nets 11.8 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 steals per game, while Reid averages 9.4 points per game with 27 triples.

Saturday night’s winner moves on to the second round on Wednesday, March 15. The opponent will be either District 1 champion The Christian Academy (186) or District 3 No. 4 team High Point (16-6).