Schuylkill Haven's Ava Terefencko and Kylie Siket, right, celebrate after scoring a bucket during Friday's win over Bodine at Martz Hall (Photo by Karlee Feger).

I’ve got good news and bad news.

Which do you want first?

The bad news, you say?

The bad news is that all six Schuylkill League boys’ basketball teams that qualified for the PIAA Basketball Tournament were eliminated in the first round over the weekend.

Two of our local teams dropped heartbreakers — Pottsville fell in the final minutes 46-43 to Penncrest in a Class 5A contest, while Minersville was edged 49-48 by Warrior Run in a Class 3A game.

Two other teams fought valiantly until the fourth quarter, only to come up short: Nativity was ousted 60-48 by High Point Baptist in a Class A matchup and Mahanoy Area was outsized by Audenried Charter 80-66 in a Class 3A game.

Two others — Marian and Lourdes — had rough days at the office and saw their seasons end rather quickly: The Colts were blasted by Linville Hill Christian 77-42 and Lourdes was roughed up by Shalom Christian Academy 62-40.

Some thoughts on the end of the local 2024-25 boys’ basketball season:

*** While it’s sad to see your season come to an end, the players and coaches of those six teams must remember that it’s a great accomplishment to succeed in districts and get a chance to compete in the PIAA Tournament.

For Pottsville, there’s Schuylkill League and District 11 Class 5A championship banners to be hung. For Marian, there’s a District 11 AA title to celebrate.

To the six teams that reached the state playoffs, congratulations on a great season.

*** For Mahanoy Area, Saturday’s loss brings to an end two great scholastic careers in Jace Yedsena and Tanner Zawada.

Both 1,000-point career scorers, they combined to lead the Golden Bears to a 72-11 record over the past three seasons that included three 20-win seasons, the 2024 Schuylkill League championship, two District 11 AA crowns (‘23, ‘24), a trip to the PIAA Class AA quarterfinals in 2023 and an unbeaten run in 2024 that ended with a second-round PIAA loss to Constitution.

It was fun watching Yedsena and Zawada play the past couple of seasons. Good luck at the next level.

*** Saw a lot of internet grumbling about the officiating at the end of the Minersville-Warrior Run game, and after talking with some people who were in attendance, they agreed. To be politically correct, the Miners didn’t get some calls late that could have changed the outcome.

Remember, however, that the end of every close game is impacted by several plays, calls and decisions made much earlier in critical portions of the contest.

In the state playoffs, the failure to capitalize on opportunities early or midway through the game (end of the half, end of quarters, etc.) to hit easy shots, make free throws, extend leads to two possessions and/or get key stops on defense often come back to bite teams in the end.

Missed shots at the end of the game are always scrutinized and played over and over on highlights. Most of the time, those situations wouldn’t have been necessary if that team had capitalized on opportunities earlier in the contest.

The Good News

OK, on to the good news.

All four Schuylkill League girls’ basketball teams that qualified for the PIAA Tournament were victorious in their first-round matchups.

Williams Valley had it the toughest, needing a Sage Smeltz layup and two missed 3-point attempts by Northeast Bradford over the final 20 seconds to capture a 49-46 victory over the Panthers in a Class AA game.

I had mentioned to head coach Shane Zellers earlier this season following two of their defeats that the Vikings’ end-of-the-game management could have been better. Friday, the Vikings did everything right on both ends of the floor in the final seconds to secure the win.

The execution on the inbound play for Smeltz’s layup was perfect (great screen by Ireland Kasper), the Vikings got hands in the face of the 3-point shooters and aggressive rebounding underneath by Mallory Miller on the offensive end and Smeltz on the defensive end prevented Northeast Bradford from getting second-chance opportunities.

It was Miller’s aggressiveness after a missed 3-pointer by Kasper that forced a tie-up and gave possession to Williams Valley, which led to the inbound play for Smeltz’s layup.

Schuylkill Haven, Marian and Lourdes had it much easier than the Vikes.

The Hurricanes dusted Bodine 51-15, Marian pummeled MaST Charter II 76-11 and Lourdes downed Veritas Academy 51-36.

For the Hurricanes it was their first PIAA playoff win in 40 years (not the program’s first-ever as reported by another media outlet), while Marian and Lourdes secured opening-round PIAA wins for the fourth straight year.

It gets tougher from here for all four teams, but not impossible.

Here’s a look at the second-round matchups, with radio coverage in parentheses:

PIAA Basketball Tournament

Local Second-Round Matchups

Tuesday, March 11

Girls’ AA, 11-1 Williams Valley (23-3) vs. 3-2 Shalom Christian Academy (17-4), Mechanicsburg HS, 7 p.m. (T-102)

Girls’ AA, 11-2 Marian (22-4) vs. 2-2 Elk Lake (23-3), Berwick HS, 7 p.m.

Girls’ 3A, 11-2 Schuylkill Haven (23-6) vs. 3-2 Pequea Valley (23-3), Central Dauphin East HS, 6 p.m. (WPPA)

Wednesday, March 12

Girls’ A, 4-1 Lourdes (21-6) vs. 11-2 Bethlehem Christian (15-6), Hamburg HS, 7:30

Tickets for all PIAA playoff games cost $8 (plus applicable fees) and must be purchased online at www.piaa.org. All spectators must purchase a ticket.

Full capsule previews that include GPS addresses of the hosting gymnasiums will appear on T102 Sports Now on Tuesday.

More Good News

If you’re a local basketball junkie and don’t want to travel to see one of the girls’ teams play in the second round, you can get your hoops fix Tuesday and Wednesday at Martz Hall.

“The Mecca” is hosting a pair of second-round doubleheaders, with games at 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. both nights. Tuesday’s card is impressive.

Tuesday, a Class 6A girls’ game between District 2 champion Hazleton Area (27-0) and District 11 third-place finisher Bethlehem Liberty (18-8) kicks off the action, followed by a marquee boys’ Class 4A showdown between District 11 champion Allentown Central Catholic (23-4) and District 4 runner-up Shamokin (24-4).

Wednesday, a Class 3A boys’ game between District 12 champion West Catholic (10-14) and District 4 runner-up Warrior Run (21-7) opens the twinbill, followed by a Class AA boys’ game between District 4 champion Northwest Area (24-3) and District 3 champion York Catholic (23-2).

What’s great about a doubleheader is that you can pay the $8 for a ticket to one of the games and either come early or stay late and get two games for the price of one.

If you want to make a night out of it, go visit the Martz Hall concession stand for supper. The Buffalo Chicken Dip they served Friday night was pretty awesome.

The Ugly

While most of our focus this weekend was on our 10 local teams, the biggest news of the opening round of the PIAA Tournament came from Meadville in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The Class 5A boys’ game between District 7 fifth-place qualifier Uniontown (22-4) and District 10 champion Meadville (16-8) was called with 3:12 remaining and Meadville up 63-55 after a technical foul on a Uniontown player sparked a brawl in the bleachers.

The PIAA had originally awarded Meadville the victory but then changed the bracket early Saturday. Late Monday afternoon, the PIAA announced that both teams were kicked out of the tournament, no winner is declared. District 3 champion Hershey (22-3), which defeated Penn-Trafford 52-43, gets a forfeit victory Tuesday and advances to quarterfinals.

Here’s a link to a X post with video of the incident from the NFHS live stream:

https://x.com/i/status/1898727032889933934

Fan behavior at high school sporting events has gotten worse and worse over the years. Fans’ conduct in the stands, verbal abuse of coaches and officials and total disregard of the student-athletes participating and the game itself has gotten out of control, and situations like this one have become commonplace.

Sure, we all lose our cool sometimes. But there’s no reason that you should want to punch someone at a high school basketball game, especially if you’re a parent. The trauma and embarrassment you cause to your child, your family and your school isn’t worth it.

I’ve seen poor fan behavior on several occasions this season locally, with fans yelling and screaming at each other, cursing at officials and other fans coming out of the bleachers to the edge of the court to celebrate plays during a game. There’s no place for that at a high school basketball game, or any other sport for that matter.

High school sports create a lot of memories. There’s no place in high school sports for a memory like what occurred in Meadville.