When Pequea Valley's girls' basketball team took on York Suburban in a non-league game on Monday, January 27, it was a battle between two teams vying for favorable seeding in the District Three playoffs.
The only thing is that the third-seeded PV Braves are in that position at Class-AAA while York Suburban is the sixth-ranked team in Class 5A.
What happened on Monday night was that the Braves hung tough before eventually coming up short in a 55-51 final at Kinzers. The loss dropped the Braves to 13-5 on the year.
Suburban took advantage of opportunities in the second quarter to go on a 20-14 run and build a 31-24 halftime advantage. The Braves battled back in the second half, outscoring the visitors 27-24.
An evenly distributed offensive production for Pequea featured 12 points by Bethany Bills and 11 by Caroline Horst. Abbey Leslie made it a trio of PV players in double digits. She connected on three shots from downtown and finished with 10 points. Rebecca Cox and Clara Neff scored eight and seven points, respectively.
The Braves won their 14th game of the season with a 65-42 triumph at Middletown on Wednesday evening. In the non-league game, the Braves broke it open in the third quarter. After both teams came out of the locker room tied at 22-22, Pequea went on a 21-13 run in the third and outscored the home team 22-7 down the stretch.
In this 65-point offensive juggernaut, Horst scored 20 points and Clara Neff poured in 13. Coxx racked up 10 points, Liney collected nine, and Leslie, who hit a pair of treys, finished with six.
WRESTLING
At the L-L League Wrestling Championships, which were held at Manheim Township on Friday and Saturday, January 24-25, senior Aidan Cooke and sophomore William McGinley both finished eighth in their respective weight classes.
In his first-round match in the 145-pound weight class, Cooke worked a pin against Lampeter-Strasburg's Hector Colon.
Following a hard-fought 13-11 decision in the next round - a match that went in favor of Hempfield's Kamron Fickes - the PV senior wrestled back with three pins - Cocalico's Blayke Taddei and Conestoga Valley's David Dariychhuk suffering a consolation fifth-round defeat.
Fickes and Cooke squared off again. This time Fickes again won by a two-point decision, topping Cooke 5-3.
McGinley, who came into the championships in the 106-pound class with a 20-7 record, earned a first-round bye and downed Adam Hahn of Garden Spot 4-2 before a loss to Josh Hillard of Township relegated him to the consolation brackets.
McGinley won by an 8-3 decision but had to settle for the seventh-place match following another loss - this time an 8-3 defeat to Annville-Cleona's Ethan Missimer.
It was a close battle in the seventh-place match, finishing in favor of Austin Reiff of L-S by a margin of 4-1.
In the 138-pound weight class, Caden Droege of Lancaster Catholic doubled up PV's Tyler Anderson 14-7 in the second round. Anderson, however, pinned his next two consolation-round opponents - Mike Caceres of Township and Trayvon Zerbe of Cedar Crest. He battled Penn Manor's Owen Rohrer to the bitter end until Rohrer won 12-10 in overtime.
Dustin Huber (152) also notched a win, pinning McCaskey's Eric Westfall in the second round of the consis as well as posting a 5-1 decision against Dylan Styver of Crest. He was stopped on another tooth-and-nail tussle as Conestoga Valley's Taylor Sheaffer prevailed 14-11.
BOYS' BASKETBALL
In the battle of the Braves on Saturday at Pequea Valley, the Octorara Braves scored 26 fourth-quarter points and went on to top Pequea's Braves 69-45.
Octorara took a 31-16 lead into the locker room. The PV Braves held on in the third quarter only to see the visitors go on a 26-15 run through the final eight minutes. Jason Brown finished with a game-high 18 points for Octorara.
Devon Colyer put up 15 for Pequea while Josh Jarvis supported the offense with a 10-point performance. Nevin Stoltzfus added six points.
Pequea fell to 7-13 on the year with a 76-48 loss at home to Middletown on Wednesday.
Stoltzfus led Pequea with 15 points, nailing five three-pointers. Colyer came through with 12 points. He hit a pair of treys and also went 2-for-2 at the free throw line.
Sean Liney scored eight.
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