Weatherly girls claim district title

POTTSVILLE – They hadn’t hoisted the trophy since 1986.

They hadn’t tasted the nectar of the winning gods for what seems like ages.

Its thirst has now been quenched!

Weatherly girls’ basketball team has put an end to the championship drought capturing their first District 11 championship in 32 years.

The Wreckers rode the play of terrific junior guard Emily Zoscin to defeat a perennial District 11 Class A entrant Pottsville Nativity Saturday afternoon at Martz Hall.

Scoring a 40-37 victory in capturing he gold medal, the Wreckers’ fourth-year head coach Kevin Kringe would tell about his expectations. A once terrific player at powerhouse Hazleton Area, Kringe said he was “growing impatient,” with results.

“I’m not a patient guy,” he said as emotions started to swell in his voice. “I was ready for a title a couple years ago.

Late in the game, with Weatherly leading 37-33, Megan Peifer retrieved maybe the biggest rebound of the game for Weatherly, got it in the hands of Zoscin who was fouled with 3:30 to play. Zoscin, who scored her career 1,000th point last month, calmly sank two for a 39-33 spread. She would finish as the leading scorer on the day with 22 points.

However Nativity wasn’t fading into the late winter sunset, when freshman Samantha Heenan, who led her side with 12 points. dropped in a pair of fouls, and added a field goal off a fastbreak to creep within 39-37.

Despite the narrow lead and the clock winding down, Weatherly attempted a couple of shots from three-point range every time Zoscin had to give the ball up, and firing away no matter who touched the ball.

“That’s the way we play I want us to be aggressive,” said Kringe.

Thankfully, Nativity was having its woes at the foul circle missing two straight two-shot tries. Even the ever-so steady Zoscin missed on a one-and-one with 18 ticks to play.

Finally, with 09 seconds to go, the Wreckers’ Tabitha Hinkle made the game’s final point, pushing the lead to three points and forcing Nativity to take a desperation shot as time was running out.

A block, a defensive rebound and Weatherly celebration followed.

Early on, the teams were struggling with turnovers and it seemed as if there was going to be more turnovers than total points. Weatherly built a 13-9 lead after eight minutes, riding an eight-point surge from Zoscin, a triple from Lindsey Hoffman and a pair of Peifer foul conversions while teams combined for 13 turnovers.

Steady was the key word for the Wreckers even though it had miscues, it never panicked and looked victory-bound rushing off with a 20-9 lead to open the second quarter. Hoffman buried another trey, Peifer had a put-back goal and Zoscin knifed through the defense for two more points. However, Nativity dug in, and rattled off seven unanswered points.

“Our number one goal was to keep (Zoscin) off the foul line, keep (her) from going in the paint,” said Nativity coach Scott Forney. “She’s a great player … Weatherly’s very well coached and a great well-rounded team.”

By halftime, Weatherly had gone up 22-16, and again seemed on the way to victory when it jammed in nine points surging to a 31-22 lead and held on for a 35-29 lead after three quarters.

After Zoscin hit two fouls (37-29) to start the final eight minutes, it became a frantic pace to the finish line. “We had to hang on there at the end,” confessed Kringe.

LOST IN SHUFFLE … There were some outstanding plays by the Wreckers including Grace Miller, a freshman, who created some defensive stops, as did Abigail Hernandez, Ashley James and Katelynn Ache. Hoffman banged home three key triples.

WHERE TO NEXT … Wreckers open play in PIAA tournament Saturday against the District 1, third place finisher. The game will be at Blue Mountain High School at 4:30 p.m.

NATIVITY

Heenan 4-4-4-12, Rushannon 3-1-7-9, A. Clark 2-3-7-7, M. Clark 1-2-6-4, Matlock 1-0-0-3, Hunyara 1-0-2-2, Klembara 0-0-0-0, Zemantauski 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 12-10-26-37.

WEATHERLY

Zoscin 5-12-12-22, Hoffman 3-0-0-9, Peifer 2-2-2-6, T. Hinkle 1-1-2-3, G. Hinkle 0-0-0-0, James 0-0-0-0, Ache 0-0-0-0, Hernandez 0-0-0-0, Miller 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 11-15-17-40.

Nativity 3 13 13 8 - 37

Weatherly 13 9 13 5 - 40

Three-pointers: Nativity - Rushannon 2, Matlock 1; Weatherly - Hoffman 3.