The high school basketball regular season is building to an exciting finish, especially on The Heritage Conference “Road to the KCAC, presented by First Commonwealth Bank”.
There was in-conference and out-of-conference play for both boys and girls last night as teams battle it out for final positioning.
In boys play, top Heritage Conference West team United traveled to Marion Center, and the Lions came up with an easy win. Todd Marino reports.
United will finish first in the West.
The River Valley Panthers are locked in at number two in the West and last night they played out-of-conference at Central Cambria. Jake Slebodnick has the story.
River Valley coach Don Stitt says his team has to play better basketball to be competitive.
Two teams in the hunt for the second spot in the Heritage Conference East battled last night, and Cambria Heights came up a winner over Penns Manor, 69-65. Parker Farabaugh had seven three-pointers , four of them in the first quarter. He led all scorers with 23 points. Logan Baker had 19. For Penns Manor, Max Hill scored 28, with four threes. Kolten Kerchensky had four threes on his way to 14 points, and Mark Bagley also scored 14.
Cambria Heights is tied for second in the East with Northern Cambria, with Penns Manor a game back and set for a Wednesday night home game against the Colts, who were idle last night.
The first place team in the East, Portage, scored the first 27 points of the game and trounced Purchase Line, 78-23. Luke Scarton led the Mustangs with 14. Andrew Beer scored 15 for the Red Dragons.
West Shamokin knocked off Homer-Center, 58-44. Bradyn Rodgers led the Wolves with 18 and Devin Hatch-Cousins had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Angelo Alexander led the Wildcats with 18 points and Owen Siani scored 11.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
In Heritage Conference girls play, Homer-Center’s Molly Kosmack (left, with coach Nick Moore) collected her 1,000th career rebound, a week after scoring her 1,000th career point, as the Wildcats stopped Cambria Heights, 56-30. Kosmack was one of four Wildctas in double figures. She and Meegan Williams each scored 12. Macy Sardone led the way with 22. Alayna Fabin added 10.
United topped Marion Center, 63-54, avenging an earlier loss to the Stingers and keeping them alive in the race for the second spot in the Heritage Conference West. They are a game behind Homer-Center. Mollee Fry scored a career-high 29 points as United finally broke free with a 19-point fourth quarter. Fry had five three-pointers. Lauren Donelson had 16 for the Lions. Lydia Miller led Marion Center with a double-double, 18 points and 10 rebounds. Kaelee Elkin scored 14. Mya Lipsie and Natalie Black each had 10 and Lipsie had 14 rebounds.
Northern Cambria topped Ferndale, 34-30 as Ella Miller scored 18 for the Colts.
In the WPIAL, Katie Kovalchick scored 21 points to lead Indiana over Gateway, 61-34. Eve Fiala added 17 and Bella Antonacci 11 for Indiana, which is 13-6 overall and 9-0 in 5A Section 1.
