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KINGSTON — Wyoming Seminary weathered an early storm Monday night and then struck with one of its own.

Center Ethan Meuser scored a game-high 19 points, grabbed a game-high 21 rebounds and blocked six shots to help Seminary shake off an early deficit to defeat Holy Redeemer 61-45 in a District 2 Class 3A boys basketball semifinal game.

Second-seeded Seminary (14-2) gets top-seeded Riverside (16-2) in the championship game at 8 p.m. Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena. Riverside upset Seminary in the semifinals last year and will be trying to prevent the Blue Knights from returning to the state playoffs for the first time since 2019. The PIAA is only advancing district champions to the state tournament this year because of COVID-19 concerns.

Defending champion Redeemer (12-9) saw its nine-game winning streak and season come to an end.

Redeemer jumped to an 8-0 lead behind 3-pointers by Alex Rymar and Jake Pizzolato. The Royals continued their hot shooting from behind the arc, canning two more to take a 13-8 lead after one quarter.

“We were kind of worried,” said Meuser, a 6-foot-7 senior, “but we knew as soon as we took those threes away, that was like all their points. We were really excited when we took them away and played good defense.”

Redeemer had four 3-pointers in the first quarter and just two more the rest of the game.

“I didn’t anticipate going down 8-0,” Seminary coach Pete Moses said. “We preached all weekend about finding shooters. We knew that Rymar could knock shots down and (Matt) Prociak could knock down shots from the perimeter. We talked about making sure we closed out on those guys and not lose them.”

Seminary then switched all the momentum midway through the second quarter, outscoring Redeemer 14-2 over the final four minutes to take a 32-29 lead into halftime.

The Blue Knights’ run to close out the half came from the usual contributors — a bucket by Meuser and two baskets from guard Jake Koretz, the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 MVP who was returning after missing four games with an ankle injury. And a player not considered a main threat on offense also contributed as Jakson Amend hit just his fifth 3-pointer of the season.

Another Seminary run — this one 12-0 midway through the third — started with Gavin Flanley hitting only his third 3-pointer of the season. Flanley, an inside player who picked up some of the slack when Koretz was hurt, finished with 16 points.

Although Redeemer hit a couple early shots in the third, the Royals’ shooting touch abandoned them. They were 12-of-24 in the first half, then shot 8-of-36 in the final two quarters.

“Terrible shooting. I’m just looking at some of these numbers here,” Redeemer coach Paul Guido said. “Not for the lack of trying. I can’t fault our guys. We executed, we ran our stuff, we got the shots that we wanted to get — middle range, post-ups, open shots on the perimeter.

“Early on in the game, we were shooting the ball nicely, sharing the ball, playing together. But I don’t know, we just kind of hit a wall there where we couldn’t make a shot.”

Koretz, who was averaging 24.1 points when he was injured, finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. There was a scary moment in the fourth when he fell to the court after making a shot, but the diagnosis was a calf cramp and he returned.

Prociak scored 12 points and Justice Shoats added 10 for Redeemer. The duo averaged 34 points in the previous two meetings.

District 2 Class 3A Semifinals

HOLY REDEEMER (45) — Justice Shoats 4 2-4 10, Darryl Wright 1 0-0 2, Jake Pizzolato 2 0-0 5, Alex Rymar 3 0-0 9, Matt Prociak 4 3-4 12, Zach Perta 2 0-0 5, Alex Hajkowski 1 0-0 2, Matt Carty 0 0-0 0, Peter Khoudary 0 0-0 0, Pat DelBalso 0 0-0 0, Max Rosen 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 5-8 45.

WYO. SEMINARY (61) — Jake Koretz 6 0-0 13, Andrew Maddock 2 1-2 7, Jakson Amend 1 0-0 3, Gavin Flanley 6 3-4 16, Ethan Meuser 4 11-12 19, Isaiah Stull 1 0-0 3, John Coates 0 0-0 0, Dylan Ostroski 0 0-0 0, Phil Evan 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 15-18 64.

Holy Redeemer`18`11`9`7 — 45

Wyo. Seminary`13`19`16`13 — 61

Three-point goals: HR 6 (Pizzolaro, Rymar 3, Prociak, Perta). WS 6 (Koretz, Flanley, Amend, Maddock 2, Stull).

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H.S. Boys Basketball: Wyoming Seminary storms past Holy Redeemer to D2-3A championship game