Page Sunday, February 16, 2014 Altoona Mirror Page CC77 … · 2014-02-20 · their resume, including Central, Bald Eagle Area, two over Class AAA Huntingdon, one over Class AAAA

Altoona Mirror � Page CC77

*Records through Saturday.AAAA, AAA brackets based on

projections, not official.

PIAA BASKETBALLPage CC66 � Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Mirror’s Philip Cmor presents his annual District 6 basketball tournament preview and analysisPLAYOFF PARADE

AAAA BOYS

Altoona seeking end to droughtTHE SCOOP: It might seem hard to believe,but Altoona, which was the premier team inDistrict 6 big-school boys basketball fordecades, hasn’t won a district championshipsince 2007.

There’s a good chance that the MountainLions break through this season.

After a really slow start, Altoona has pickedup steam heading into the postseason. TheLions’ record might not be eye-opening, butit’s enough to get them the top seed in whathas been a sub-par year for District 6 ClassAAAA boys hoops.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: State College

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Altoona sr. F MannySpan, Altoona sr. G Jaret Berardinelli, MifflinCounty sr. F Hunter Wright, Hollidaysburg jr. GNick Consiglio, Central Mountain sr. G TylerEverhart; State College sr. G Michael Beattie

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:State College vs. Central Mountain in the quar-terfinals; State College vs. Altoona, and Holli-daysburg vs. Mifflin County in the semifinals;Altoona vs. Mifflin County in the championship

SLEEPER: State College

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Altoona

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING: One

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTERDISTRICTS:6-1 vs. 7-4

ANALYSIS: There was a lot of reasonto believe this could be Altoona’syear back in the first week of Decem-ber. With Span, the Lions boast thepremier big man in District 6 ClassAAAA and quite possibly in all ofDistrict 6. The Lions also have 6-foot-3 Tony Acrie to go with the 6-4 Span and have some depthalong the front line.

Berardinelli has been apoint producer in the Al-toona backcourt, and DavidSimmons gives Paul Has-

son’s team a shooter off the bench.

Altoona started the season 1-6, but it has got-ten things together since the New Year. TheLions also are 6-0 against the other 6-AAAAteams, with five of those wins coming by atleast 10 points.

Altoona’s not unbeatable, but things certainlylook promising for it this year.

Altoona’s path to the finals could very wellstart with the champion for five of the last sixyears and three years running, State College.As of press deadline, Central Mountain hadyet to determine whether or not it would enterthe playoffs, but the Wildcats only would getthe fourth seed and push the Little Lions tofive if they went in, meaning those teamswould play each other in the first round.

State College only won two games this year,both against Chambersburg, but it missedBeattie, a guard who is very capable of scor-ing 25 points in a game, for about a month.With him back, the Little Lions are quite a bitmore dangerous. However, Altoona hasbeaten State with Beattie on the floor; it justwill make things more interesting.

In the other semifinal, Hollidaysburg will try toget beyond its opening game for the secondyear in a row when it takes on Mifflin County.These teams met recently, and the GoldenTigers actually led heading into the fourthquarter before losing by 11 points. One of thekeys to that game was that 6-7 Jesse Ottaway

got into foul trouble; Mifflin County hasa good inside game.

Hollidaysburg has no seniors onthe roster, so getting an extraplayoff game and a taste of

district title game experi-ence would be huge.However, the Tigerswould have to re-bound from two dou-ble-figure losses toAltoona if theymet the Lions inthe finals.

AA BOYS

Tyrone poised for run at titleTHE SCOOP: Although it’s produced somegreat players and great teams over theyears — especially lately — Tyrone only hasone District 6 title banner, and that’s from2000 in Class AAA.

This could very well be the year to changethat.

The Golden Eagles have played well fromstart to finish the last three months, whichearned them the second seed in the District6 Class AA bracket. They can shoot, theycan score, and they look like one of thesurest things in a field that has the poten-tial for a lot of cliffhangers and upsets.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Penn Cambria

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Richland sr. F KyleFlick, Tyrone sr. G Brandon Gripp, Tyrone sr.G Jordan Miller, Bald Eagle Area sr. F BryanGreene, Bald Eagle Area sr. G BryceGreene, Penns Valley sr. G Will Jackson,Blairsville jr. F Troy Williams, Bishop McCortsr. F Nemo Trexler, Central sr. G Zach Sla-genweit, West Branch so. F Kody Trude,Marion Center sr. F Todd Fetsko, MountUnion jr. G B.J. Loner, Central Cambria sr. GTanner Ambrisco, Juniata jr. C Logan Knepp,Cambria Heights jr. G Josh Serafin

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:West Branch vs. Marion Center, Juniata vs.Blairsville, and Central Cambria vs. BishopMcCort in the first round; Marion Center vs.Richland, Blairsville vs. Penns Valley, Centralvs. Tyrone, and Bishop McCort vs. BaldEagle Area in the quarterfinals; Blairsville orPenns Valley vs. Richland, and Bishop Mc-Cort vs. Tyrone in the semifinals; Richlandvs. Bishop McCort or Tyrone in the champi-onship

SLEEPERS: Bishop McCort, Central, CentralCambria

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Tyrone

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING: Four

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTERDISTRICTS: 7-1 vs. 6-4, 6-1 vs. 7-6, 6-2 vs. 7-3, 7-2 vs. 6-3

ANALYSIS: What’s interesting is that per-haps the other surest thing in the tourna-ment is Bishop McCort, a potential andprobable opponent for Tyrone come thesemifinals. The Crimson Crushers missedout on a chance at three straight district ti-tles by losing in last season’s semifinals,but they still have a great big man in Trexlerand have done very well against the mostchallenging schedule in the bracket.

Tyrone will see a familiar face in thequarters, having beaten Mount Unionfairly easily in the regular season andsplitting with Central — the Mountain

League teams, including Penns Valley andBald Eagle Area, really beat each other upthe last 10 weeks. Central, with its grit andguard play, should get by the Trojans in thefirst round, but, on a neutral floor, give theEagles an advantage over the Scarlet Drag-ons in the rubber match.

McCort faces a tough task off the batagainst a Central Cambria team that hasbeen increasingly competitive and has qual-ity wins over Blairsville and Johnstown. TheRed Devils lost an earlier meeting by seven.Should McCort advance, it will get third-seeded Bald Eagle Area, a guard-orientedteam that can put up a lot of points whenit’s in gear.

Richland looked like a strong favorite a cou-ple of weeks ago. The Rams were rollingalong, having beaten McCort and steamrolledBishop Guilfoyle en route to the No. 1 seed.

However, in the last couple of weeks, theRams have looked more beatable. They’vedropped an overtime rematch to McCort,got pushed at Bedford and then lost back-to-back games against Somerset and John-stown. Now there’s blood in the water and afew teams that could knock off the topseeds just looking for a chance.

Marion Center, the eighth seed, is one ofthem. In Fetsko, it possesses a 6-foot-5player who averages almost 24 points andmore than 12 rebounds, and its losseshave come to the likes of Blairsville, Homer-Center and Somerset.

It looks like either Penns Valley or Blairsvillewill come out of the other pod in the top halfof the bracket. Penns Valley already beatfirst-round opponent Cambria Heights prettyconvincingly in the last couple of weeks, andBlairsville looks just too athletic for Juniata.

Penns Valley is a team that controls tempovery well and has several players that canlead it to victory from night to night.Blairsville would like to get up and down thecourt and score. The Rams, though, have

more impressive wins ontheir resume, includingCentral, Bald EagleArea, two over ClassAAA Huntingdon, oneover Class AAAA Cen-tral Mountain andone last weekagainst Tyrone.

Central (14-7)

Tyrone (17-5)

Mount Union (13-9) 10

7

2

AAA BOYS

THE SCOOP: Since Johnstown dropped downfrom Class AAAA about 15 years ago, District 6Class AAA has been the Trojans’ world, every-body else just lived there.

The Trojans currently are on a run of five con-secutive 6-AAA championships, the most sincethe classification began handing out trophiesin 1924. In fact, Johnstown has capturedseven of the last nine titles in the class andeight of the last 12.

This year, however, the Trojans are young,they’ve been inconsistent and they’ve justbeen managing to keep their heads above.500. It doesn’t seem likely they’ll even be oneof the top two seeds when the district bracketscome out later this week. This looks like theyear to get the Trojans.

There isn’t much separating the teams,though. In fact, it was so close that the topseed still was up in the air today and hingingon Huntingdon’s game at Central Mountain onTuesday. It might just come down to who is hotand how the teams match up.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Johnstown

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Huntingdon jr. F NateGearhart, Somerset so. F Dylan Barnes, Som-erset so. G Jake Heiple, Johnstown jr. FShaquan Reid, Johnstown so. G-F Jeremy Up-dyke, Carrick jr. F Tyler Quinten, Bedford jr. GAlex Kendall

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLEMATCHUPS: Carrick vs.Huntingdon, and John-stown vs. Somerset, orCarrick vs. Somerset,and Johnstown vs.Huntingdon in thesemifinals; Somersetvs. Johnstown, Som-erset vs. Huntingdon,or Johnstown vs. Hunt-ingdon in the champi-onship

SLEEPER: Carrick

MIRROR’STEAM TO BEAT:Johnstown

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING: One

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTERDISTRICTS: 6-1vs. 3-7

ANALYSIS: Either Somerset or Huntingdon isgoing to be the first seed, depending onwhether or not the Bearcats win at CentralMountain. That figures to be a very closegame, but, if they do, the Bearcats figure to begoing into the postseason on a five-game win-ning streak.

Gearhart is the top scorer on any of the play-offs teams, and Kobren Frederick teams withhim to give Huntingdon a nice one-two punchinside. That would give the Bearcats a leg upon smallish but balanced Carrick, the likelyfourth seed in the tournament as part of asubregional arrangement with District 8, ifthose teams met up in the semifinals. It would-n’t look quite as large in a game against John-stown, which has the 6-foot-2 Reid inside andhas some good size and speed at guard, aswell.

Carrick, by the way, might not go directly intothe semifinals. That depends on whether ornot Bedford decides to enter the playoff; theBisons did last year, and a close loss to Rich-land late in the season might be enough en-ticement to get them to give it a go.

Somerset and Johnstown could meet for thethird time this season in either the semifinalsor in a rematch of last year’s district champi-onship game. Each team has taken one of theprevious two meetings, Somerset winning the

first time by three and Johnstown respond-ing with a nine-point victory on Feb. 6.

Both teams also have topped Rich-land down the stretch, but the

Eagles have a nice winagainst McCort to theircredit, as well.

Somerset has good butnot great overall size.The thing that standsout about the Eagles istheir ability to shoot the3-point shot: Four of theirplayers have made atleast 25 this year.

A BOYS

Another Guilfoyle-Carroll final shaping upTHE SCOOP: Bishop Carroll has been adominant force over the last two seasons,obliterating most of the teams it has faced.

The one exception to Husky rule has beenBishop Guilfoyle. The Marauders defeatedCarroll in two out of three meetings lastseason — including the District 6 Class Achampionship game — and Guilfoyle pro-vided the only two games this season theHuskies didn’t prevail by at least 10.

Although Homer-Center might beg to differ— and present a strong argument — it’slooking like BG and Carroll will be decidingthe 6-A championship, which one or theother of them has won in five of the last 10years.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Bishop Guilfoyle

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Bishop Carroll jr. GBrandon Martinazzi, Bishop Carroll sr. CMarcus Lee, Bishop Guilfoyle sr. G DamonRickens, Bishop Guilfoyle sr. G C.J. Fulare,Homer-Center sr. G Joe Capitosti, Homer-Center sr. G Darren Carr, Juniata Valley sr.G Caleb Taylor, Portage jr. F Michael Bryja,Claysburg-Kimmel sr. G Austin Lamont,Williamsburg jr. F Bryce Young, St. Joseph’sjr. F Mike Jabco, Saltsburg sr. F SteveRichards

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:St. Joseph’s vs. Saltsburg in the first round;Portage vs. Juniata Valley in the quarterfi-nals; Portage or Juniata Valley vs. BishopCarroll, and Homer-Center vs. Bishop Guil-foyle in the semifinals; Bishop Guilfoyle vs.Bishop Carroll in the championship

SLEEPERS: St. Joseph’s, Portage

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Bishop Carroll

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING: Three

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTERDISTRICTS:6-2 vs. 5-2, 9-2 vs. 6-3, 6-1 vs. 9-4

ANALYSIS: Both Carroll and Guilfoyle needto only win twice to reach the final.

On Carroll’s side of the table, the Huskiesfirst must play the winner of the game be-tween St. Joseph’s Academy and Saltsburgbefore facing the winner of the quarterfinal-round game between JuniataValley and Portage.

Those actually couldbe the two most in-triguing contests in thebracket aside from Car-roll-Guilfoyle Round III.

Valley and Portage havemet in the playoffs before.This time, they are the four-five game andhave nearly iden-tical records andvery little else

with which to distinguish them. Their onlycommon opponent is Claysburg-Kimmel,which the Mustangs beat by 10 in their sea-son opener and with whom the Hornetssplit in ICC play. Portage has a bit moresize, but Valley is very quick. It should be agood matchup.

St. Joseph’s is making its debut and has asignature win of knocking Cameron Countyfrom the unbeaten ranks about 15 gamesinto the season but also has several lop-sided losses. Several of its players cameover from larger schools like Bellefonte.Saltsburg is a former 6-A power that has ablend of scoring and rebounding. St. Joe’shas a higher ceiling. Saltsburg is more con-sistent.

However, none of those four teams looklike a good bet to knock out Carroll. TheHuskies have a great big man in Lee andmaybe the most dynamic guard in the re-gion in Martinazzi. Their role players arevery effective, and they have the experi-ence of beating Vincentian and pushing Lin-coln Park to the limit in last year’s playoffs.It will take a perfect game and maybe a per-fect storm for BC to lose before the districtfinal.

Guilfoyle opens with Williamsburg. Thatseems to be a very difficult assignment forthe Blue Pirates, who, while solid all-around, don’t have the kind of win on theirresume to make one think they can takeout the Marauders. For instance, BG beatJuniata Valley by 30 and Central by 40.Those two teams accounted for four of thePirates’ losses

The winner of that game gets the winner ofthe Claysburg/Homer-Center contest. Clays-burg-Kimmel is making its first playoff ap-pearance in years and has been thefeel-good story in regional basketball thisseason. The Bulldogs play with a lot of bal-ance and spunk.

That said, they might be over-matched by Homer-Center.

The Wildcats made arun to the districtsemifinals and statetournament last yearand return the coreof that team, includ-ing quick, athletic,high-scoring guardsCapitosti and DarrenCarr. Homer also hassize inside.

The Wildcats have theability to give Guilfoyle agood game, but BGbeat them in the play-offs last year by 13and would be the fa-vorite in a rematchthis time around.

Penns Valley (13-7)

Blairsville (21-1)

Penn Cambria (15-6)9

8

1

Bellwood-Antis (20-2)

Bishop McCort (17-5)

Mount Union (12-10)12

5

4

Johnstown going for sixth straight

Homer-Center (20-2)

Claysburg-Kimmel (12-10) 6

3

Bishop Guilfoyle (17-5)

Williamsburg (12-9) 7

2Saltsburg (10-11)

Bishop Carroll (22-0)

Saint Joseph's (9-8)9

8

1

Juniata Valley (18-5)

Portage (15-6)5

4

Central Cambria (11-10) 11

Bald Eagle Area (17-4)

Bishop McCort (15-7) 6

3

Marion Center (16-6)

Richland (17-5)

West Branch (15-7)9

8

1

Blairsville (18-3)

Juniata (11-10)12

5

Penns Valley (17-4)

Cambria Heights (8-14)13

4

AAAA GIRLS

Hollidaysburg shooting for repeatTHE SCOOP: It doesn’t seem to matteranymore who the faces or names are, Hol-lidaysburg is going to be a major player inthe District 6 championship picture.

After winning two Class AAA crowns, theLady Tigers moved up to Class AAAA lastyear and won convincingly.

Now, with four new starters, Hollidays-burg, so often the bridesmaid in decadespast, is the top seed and odds-on favoriteagain.

It probably won’t be as easy this timearound, but this has become the LadyTigers’ time of the year.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Hollidaysburg

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Holidaysburg sr. FCourteney Storm, Hollidaysburg sr. F Mor-gan Jennings, State College so. F KylaIrwin, Mifflin County sr. G AshleighWilliams, Altoona sr. F Darby Lee

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLEMATCHUPS: Altoona vs. Hollidaysburg,and Mifflin County vs. State College in thesemifinals; State College vs. Altoona orHollidaysburg in the championship

SLEEPER: Altoona

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Hollidaysburg

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING:One

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTER-DISTRICTS: 6-1 vs. 7-5

ANALYSIS: Hollidaysburghas a very nice mixDeanna Jubeck puts ontothe floor. With Storm andJennings, the Lady Tigershave two players goodenough to play for ascholarship-level col-lege who have bothgood size and goodathleticism. They areteamed inside with

Alex Scheel, who has been coming on asa rebounder, defender and now even ascoring threat.

If opposing teams are overly aware ofthem, Ashley McClain will kill you from theoutside.

When things are clicking, it makes Holli-daysburg a fun team to watch.

The Lady Tigers will earn it if they are towin back-to-back 6-AAAA titles for the firsttime in program history. Although the finaldistrict seedings don’t come out until laterthis week, it looks very likely they’ll have toplay archrival Altoona in the semifinals anda State College team to which they recentlylost if they get back to the finals.

Both of Hollidaysburg’s games this seasonwith Altoona were close — the Lady Lionsactually came back from a big early deficitto grab the lead late in the second meetingbefore falling. A Hartford recruit, Lee cantake over a game. What Altoona needs towin is consistent guard play, and Jill Helselprobably will play some young girls key min-utes there.

State College, meanwhile, presents its ownset of problems for the Lady Tigers. Sopho-more Kyla Irwin is right up there with Leeas the 6-AAAA player who is the biggest

headache for opposing coaches, abig player who can take hergame to the outside if sheneeds to and draws a lot offouls — depth, particularly inthe front line might be Holli-daysburg’s biggest concern.Fellow forward Jalyn Shelton-Burleigh burned the LadyTigers for more than 20 pointsin a 62-35 win last week.

State College will have tobeat Mifflin County to reachthe finals, and that’s no surething. Their two meetings thisseason were decided by ninepoints, State winning both.

AA GIRLS

Bellwood faces harder road back

THE SCOOP: Bellwood-Antis seemed on thecusp of winning a District 6 Class AA champi-onship for several years now, and the LadyDevils almost pulled it off last year beforefalling to Blairsville in the finals.

Although seeded just fifth, a lot of fans andmost 6-AA coaches have an eye on Bellwoodas one of the strongest contenders for thedistrict title this year. However, this field isabsolutely loaded, and the Lady Devils mighthave to beat their best competition in therounds leading up to the finals because ofthe luck of the draw.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Blairsville

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Blairsville jr. C ChelseyKoren, Blairsville jr. G Laurel O’Barto, West-mont Hilltop sr. G-F Alyssa Miller, Juniata jr.Victoria Varner, Bishop McCort so. F MorganInstone, Bishop McCort fr. G Haley Thomas,Bellwood-Antis jr. G Ana Hollen, Bellwood-Antis fr. G Karson Swogger, Tyrone sr. G Jor-dyn Swogger, Marion Center sr. F ChantelGlasser, Penns Valley fr. G Kourtney Beames-derfer, Penn Cambria sr. G Kaitlyn Krug, Cen-tral sr. F Ashley Smith, Central Cambria sr. GBri Wasser, Mount Union jr. C Tynita White

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:Central vs. Marion Center in the first round;Penn Cambria vs. Blairsville, Bellwood-Antisvs. Bishop McCort, Central or Marion Centervs. Westmont Hilltop, and Tyrone vs. Juniatain the quarterfinals; Penn Cambria orBlairsville vs. Bellwood-Antis or Bishop Mc-Cort, and Tyrone or Juniata vs. WestmontHilltop in the semifinals; Tyrone vs. Bell-wood-Antis, Bishop McCort vs. WestmontHilltop, or Blairsville vs. Westmont Hilltopin the championship

SLEEPERS: Tyrone, Penn Cambria

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT:Blairsville

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANC-ING: Three

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTER-DISTRICTS: 7-1 vs. 6-3, 7-3 vs.6-2, 6-1 vs. 7-6

ANALYSIS: Playing in a league ofpredominantly Class A teamsworked to Bellwood’s disadvan-tage because, in spite of a greatrecord, the Lady Devils weren’table to get enough playoffpoints to be seeded higherthan fifth. That means they’llhave to play four games towin the tournament andhave to play No. 1 seedBlairsville — the de-

fending champion — in the semifinals if theyget that far.

Bellwood shouldn’t have any problems in thefirst round with Mount Union, a team it beattwice convincingly in Inter-County Conferenceplay. The trouble starts in the next roundwhen B-A goes up against Bishop McCort, ayoung but talented team that exceeded ex-pectations this year.

McCort’s size presents an issue for Bell-wood, which lacks the height it had last year.Bellwood’s guard play, however, is excellent.The key, though, would seem to be the LadyDevils’ ability to create turnovers with thepress and on the perimeter to get easy bas-kets and to negate McCort’s size. If it can’tdo that, Bellwood might be out of the PIAAtournament hunt quickly.

There’s not much in the way of common op-ponents, but Bellwood has beaten BishopGuilfoyle which defeated McCort handily earlyin the season. Bellwood also has bestedsixth-seeded Tyrone.

Either Bellwood or McCort would present atest for Blairsville. The Lady Bobcats beatBellwood by two earlier in the year and alsoown victories over Bishop Guilfoyle, DeloneCatholic and second-seeded Westmont Hill-top while losing only to 6-AAAA top seed Holli-daysburg.

The other half of the bracket isvery wide open. Westmont isthe second seed but has wona lot of close games anddoesn’t particularly wow youin any way aside from findingways to win. It’s alreadybeaten potential quarterfinal-

round foe Marion Center by 10this year, but watch out for Central

pushing the higher-seededLady Stingers in their first-round game.

Tyrone played Bellwoodtough in the regular sea-son and would like nothingbetter than another shot atits rivals in the districtfinal. Tyrone has a favor-able path to the semis,first playing CentralCambria and then fac-ing Juniata, which hada high seed but not a

very challenging sched-ule.

AAA GIRLS

THE SCOOP: Huntingdon has played somepretty good basketball over the years, butmost of it has been on the boys side. Whilethe Lady Bearcats have produced some goodplayers and strong teams, it’s been decadessince they’ve been a real power.

This year, though, it looks like Huntingdon willbe the first seed when the District 6 ClassAAA pairings are unveiled later in the week.Even if the Lady Bearcats get edged out byForest Hills for the top spot, they’ll still bewell-positioned to play for their first districtchampionship since they won back-to-back in1987 and 1988.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Forest Hills

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Huntingdon jr. F Bri Riv-ello, Forest Hills sr. G Caitlyn Gallaher, ForestHills so. G-F Jill Scott, Westinghouse sr. G-F Brit-tany Jackson, Bellefonte so. G-F Jess Book,Ligonier Valley sr. G Taylor Rudnik, Johnstown jr.F Tashayla Smith, Somerset sr. G Ashley Welsh

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:Westinghouse vs. Ligonier Valley, and John-stown vs. Bellefonte in the quarterfinals;Bellefonte vs. Forest Hills in the semifinals;Forest Hills vs. Huntingdon in the final

SLEEPER: Johnstown

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Forest Hills

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING: Two

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTERDISTRICTS: 6-1vs. 7-5, 10-1 vs. 6-2

ANALYSIS: It looks like this will be a seven-team field, with Westinghouse com-ing in from District 8 andJohnstown and Somersetboth entering as they be-came more competitivelater in the season. Real-istically, though, Hunt-ingdon and ForestHills look a cutabove the restof thebracket.

Getting the top seed is a big advantage, then,because the No. 1 team is the only one thatwon’t have to win three games to win the tour-nament. Should Huntingdon pull it off, theLady Bearcats are likely looking at just beatingthe Bellefonte/Ligonier Valley winner to punchtheir ticket to interdistricts. That also would bea favorable draw for Huntingdon, because it’sbeaten the youthful Lady Raiders twice already— albeit in close games — and Ligonier hasbeen .500 against a schedule primarily com-prised of small double-A and single-A teams.

Huntingdon is a team that likes to get up anddown the floor and take open 3-pointers intransition if it can. If the Lady Bearcats are on,they are capable of scoring 18-30 points frombehind the arc, and they have some athletesup front who can clean up the misses. How-ever, if they are cold, any game can be an ad-venture.

That style, though, would make for an enter-taining championship game against a ForestHills team that doesn’t like to slow it downmuch and has scored 60 points or more sixtimes this season. The Lady Rangers havegone through a few lulls near the middle ofthe year but seemed to have gotten things ingear in the last month before being upset byPenn Cambria on their home floor to end theregular season.

Still, Forest Hills is a very legitimate threat torepeat as 6-AAA champ and win its thirdstraight district championship.

If seeded second, the Lady Rangers will needto beat Somerset in the first

game — they won an early-season meeting by almost50 — and then beat theWestinghouse/Johnstownwinner. Both the latterteams are athletic andhave played better bas-ketball late in the year,but Forest Hills wouldbe a strong favoriteto handle either.

A GIRLS

Guilfoyle hopes it has enough for eight

THE SCOOP: For the last seven years,Bishop Guilfoyle has ruled the District 6Class A scene, winning every champi-onship and often going virtually unchal-lenged.

This year might be a different story.

No doubt the Lady Marauders still aretough and rank among the favorites, butthis BG team is very young and inexperi-enced compared to its predecessors, andthat’s shown in a few games this regularseason.

Portage, meanwhile, has breezed throughits schedule in an effort to get back to thefinals, where the Lady Mustangs would liketo put memories of a one-sided loss in lastyear’s title contest to rest and stop theLady Marauders’ run. Stay tuned.

DEFENDING CHAMPION: Bishop Guilfoyle

PLAYERS TO WATCH: Portage sr. C OliviaMcCabe, Portage sr. G Emily Chobany,Bishop Guilfoyle fr. F Lili Benzel, BishopGuilfoyle fr. G Macy Adams, Claysburg-Kim-mel sr. G-F Abby Kulick, United sr. F EdenBloom, Bishop Carroll fr. F Britt Krug, Cone-maugh Valley sr. F Emily McCray, Williams-burg jr. F Madison Detwiler, Juniata Valleysr. G Haley Myers, Homer-Center sr. F Sid-ney Horel, Saltsburg sr. F Emilie Okopal

MOST INTRIGUING POSSIBLE MATCHUPS:Homer-Center vs. Juniata Valley, and Salts-burg vs. Williamsburg in the first round;Conemaugh Valley vs. Claysburg-Kimmel inthe quarterfinals; Bishop Carroll vs.Portage, and Claysburg-Kimmel vs. BishopGuilfoyle in the semifinals; Bishop Guilfoylevs. Portage in the championship

SLEEPERS: Bishop Carroll, Conemaugh Val-ley, Homer-Center

MIRROR’S TEAM TO BEAT: Portage

NUMBER OF TEAMS ADVANCING:Four

WHO THEY’LL PLAY IN INTER-DISTRICTS: 5-2 vs. 6-4, 6-2 vs.5-3, 9-2 vs. 6-3, 6-1 vs. 9-4

ANALYSIS: Bishop Guilfoyle seems tohave a pretty clear path to the champi-onship game, the biggest obstacle beingClaysburg-Kimmel, which plays with somesimilarities to the Lady Marauders when itis on its game. Guilfoyle would face theClaysburg/Conemaugh Valley winner afterit played either Williamsburg or Saltsburg,neither of which seems to be in a reallygood position to offer the Lady Maraudersa strong challenge on a typical night.

Claysburg, though, would be capable. Al-though they haven’t had much playoffsuccess recently, the Lady Bulldogs dohave a little more playoff experience, andthey’ve either won or been competitive ingames with quality opponents like Bell-wood-Antis, Tussey Mountain and Central.Conemaugh Valley might not have beenits typical self from a record standpoint,but the Lady Jays do possess the heightto give Claysburg some issues.

Although Homer-Center has the size andstrength to give Portage some problemsin the quarter finals, it isn’t even a giventhat the Lady Wildcats will get past Juni-ata Valley to make that match happen.The biggest threat to Portage’s bid to re-turn to the district finals is Bishop Car-roll.

Although Portage has played an upgradedschedule this year, Carroll’s is still a littlestronger. Five-foot-11 Brooke Mento wouldprovide a balance to the Lady Mustangs’6-1 McCabe, and Carroll has shown it canscore with anyone. Portage, though, hasbeen more consistent and better defen-sively, so it should advance.

Unlike last year, Portage matches upmuch better with Guilfoyle this timearound. McCabe, a UPJ recruit, providesthe kind of inside presence that has giventhe Lady Marauders problems from time

to time this year, and Chobany is anexcellent floor general. Lance

Hudak complements themwith some great, albeitsmall, shooters, andhis team knows it is ona par with BG at thevery least — it almostbeat Penn Cambria earlyin the year withoutChobany, and Penn Cam-bria beat BG last week.

Guilfoyle will try tocounter with better size onthe perimeter. Either way,this should be a much morecompetitive game the sec-ond time around.

Huntingdon in unusual position

State College (14-7)

Mifflin County (11-9) 3

2Hollidaysburg (16-2)

Altoona (8-10)4

1

Marion Center (18-4)

Westmont Hilltop (18-3)

Central (11-8) 10

7

2

Tyrone (17-4)

Juniata (19-2)

Central Cambria (9-13) 11

6

3

Mifflin County (11-10)

Hollidaysburg (6-13) 3

2State College (2-20)

Altoona (10-9)

Central Mountain (6-14)4

5

1 Somerset (14-8)

Johnstown (12-10) 3

2Bedford (5-17)

Huntingdon (13-7)

Carrick (12-11)4

5

1

Claysburg-Kimmel (18-4)

Conemaugh Valley (12-9) 6

3

Williamsburg (11-10)

Bishop Guilfoyle (17-5)

Saltsburg (8-12) 10

7

2

Juniata Valley (11-10)

Portage Area (21-1)

Homer-Center (10-12)9

8

1

United (13-8)

Bishop Carroll (10-10)5

4

Forest Hills (15-6)

Somerset (6-13) 7

2

Westinghouse (13-7)

Johnstown (9-13) 6

3Bellefonte (12-9)

Huntingdon (16-5)

Ligonier Valley (12-10)5

4

1

Sam MansbergerHuntington

Marcus LeeBishop Carroll

Lili BenzelBishop Guilfoyle

Bailey SwoggerBellwood-Antis

Brandon GrippTyrone

Morgan JenningsHollidaysburg

Devon ClarrHuntingdon

Manny SpanAltoona