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District 2 boys basketball tournament pairings announced

<p>The wounds are still fresh and stinging.</p><p>Holy Redeemer won&#8217;t forgive Nanticoke Area for snapping a continuous string of league titles last season.</p><p>Nanticoke Area can&#8217;t forget how Redeemer ruined the Trojanettes&#8217; longest winning streak this decade last week.</p><p>Forgive and forget?</p><p>Not when there&#8217;s a league championship on the line.</p><p>After finishing tied at the top of the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 2 standings, Nanticoke Area and Holy Redeemer will battle in a postseason league championship game &#8212; this one at 2 p.m. Saturday at Pittston Area High School &#8212; to decide the division title.</p><p>&#8220;Can&#8217;t be any more excited than we are,&#8221; Nanticoke Area guard Lisa Radziak said.</p><p>The excitement has been building through the years.</p><p>It started in 2013, when Holy Redeemer and Nanticoke Area both finished the regular season at 12-1 and tied for first place in the WVC Division 2, forcing a playoff for the championship. Holy Redeemer won it that year, 45-43, in the middle of a string of eight consecutive WVC titles while playing in Division 2 and Division 3.</p><p>That ended abruptly a year ago.</p><p>Nanticoke Area won the regular-season meeting between the two teams while handing Holy Redeemer its lone loss of the regular season. That essentially forced another league championship showdown when both Nanticoke Area and Redeemer wound up 15-1. Then the Trojanettes tripped up Redeemer 49-47 to extend Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Division 2 title streak to three straight seasons (the first two while Redeemer played down in Division 3) while stopping a nine-year run of WVC titles for the Royals that began when Redeemer was formed during the Catholic schools merger in 2007-08.</p><p>&#8220;We have to get Nanticoke back for what they did to us last year,&#8221; said Royals senior guard Sam Razja, who scored a game-high 22 points in that title game loss of 2016.</p><p>Didn&#8217;t that already happen?</p><p>After opening the 2017-18 season with a loss, Nanticoke Area ran off 17 straight victories, the school&#8217;s longest stretch of consecutive wins in at least a decade. That stopped suddenly on Feb. 9, when Redeemer ripped open a tight game with a big fourth quarter for a 69-49 victory.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely coming for them,&#8221; said Radziak, who hit a big 3-pointer in last year&#8217;s league title victory and helped seal it with two key free throws with under a minute to play. &#8220;We lost once, then won 17 straight. I think we&#8217;ll come back (Saturday).&#8221;</p><p>Speaking of comebacks, Redeemer made a big one.</p><p>The Royals lost starters Julia Andrejko, Sam Yencha and Cameron Marcinkowski over the course of two consecutive games, and lost both &#8212; to Pittston Area and Berwick &#8212; and fell to 11-2 and two games behind Nanticoke Area for the Division 2 lead with four games to play.</p><p>But Redeemer closed the regular season on a four-game winning streak, and all three injured starters returned for the critical victory over Nanticoke Area last Thursday.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really proud of the girls for not giving up, or packing it in, with those two losses,&#8221; Holy Redeemer coach John Jezorwski said. &#8220;And with the way they responded. A lot of girls stepped up for us. It really made us deeper as a team. And better.&#8221;</p><p>After a season of such success, things suddenly became worse for the Trojanettes.</p><p>They dropped two of their final four games, ending the regular season with a 59-53 loss to Wyoming Area in a game that would have clinched the Division 2 title for Nanticoke Area with a victory. Trojanettes guard Maddie Grilz missed that game Wednesday while sitting out under concussion protocol and may not be back in time for this one &#8212; although she&#8217;s hoping to return for the start of the District 2 Class 4A tournament Tuesday.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re probably the underdog,&#8221; Nanticoke Area coach Alan Yendrzeiwski said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if anybody outside of our gym is giving us much of a chance (Saturday), especially with the way the season ended. We&#8217;re going to have our hands full.&#8221;</p><p>Yet, the season is still full of promise for a Nanticoke Area team that basically suffered through only two bad quarters, which ultimately handed the Trojanettes their two regular-season losses and cost them the top seed in the District 2 Class 4A playoffs.</p><p>Yencha scored the first 10 points of Holy Redeemer&#8217;s 17-2 start to the fourth quarter against Nanticoke Area on Feb. 9, and Wyoming Area raced out to a 17-2 lead to open Nanticoke Area&#8217;s second loss within a week Wednesday.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;re going to have to put four quarters together,&#8221; Yendrzeiwski said. &#8220;Not two. Not three. There have been times when we&#8217;ve looked great and in the same game, looked not so great. Can we play the way we&#8217;re capable of playing for four quarters?&#8221;</p><p>Both teams will be playing as the No. 2 seed in districts next week, with Nanticoke Area trying to defend its championship in Class 4A and Redeemer shooting for a third straight district title and second straight in Class 3A.</p><p>For four quarters Saturday, though, avenging earlier losses with a WVC crown will be the only title that matters to both.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s really important,&#8221; Rajza said. &#8220;You want to go into districts with big wins.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;Oh definitely,&#8221; Radziak agreed. &#8220;I feel confident.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Holy Redeemer&#8217;s Sam Rajza, right, drives in front of Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Katie Butczynski for two of her game-high 22 during last season&#8217;s WVC Division 2 title game won by Nanticoke Area. That loss is fresh in the minds of the Royals, who will battle Nanticoke Area in a league championship game Saturday for a second straight season. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_Nan-RedeemerGBB_7CMYK.jpg</photo0><caption0>Holy Redeemer&#8217;s Sam Rajza, right, drives in front of Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Katie Butczynski for two of her game-high 22 during last season&#8217;s WVC Division 2 title game won by Nanticoke Area. That loss is fresh in the minds of the Royals, who will battle Nanticoke Area in a league championship game Saturday for a second straight season. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_Nan-RedeemerGBB_4CMYK.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Lisa Radziak sinks the second of two free throws to put the Trojanettes up by three points with 56 seconds left during last year&#8217;s 49-47 victory over Holy Redeemer for the WVC Division 2 title. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/web1_Nan-RedeemerGBB_4CMYK.jpg</photo1><caption1>Nanticoke Area&#8217;s Lisa Radziak sinks the second of two free throws to put the Trojanettes up by three points with 56 seconds left during last year&#8217;s 49-47 victory over Holy Redeemer for the WVC Division 2 title. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Nanticoke Area, Holy Redeemer renew rivalry in WVC title fight</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>WVC Division Dominance</strong></p><p style="text-align: left;"><strong>Year`Champion`Division`Record</strong></p><p style="text-align: left;">2017`Nanticoke Area`Division 2`</p><p style="text-align: left;">2016`Nanticoke Area`Division 2`13-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2016`Holy Redeemer`Division 3`12-1</p><p style="text-align: left;">2015`Nanticoke Area`Division 2`12-1</p><p style="text-align: left;">2015`Holy Redeemer`Division 3`13-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2014`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`13-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2013`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`13-1, b</p><p style="text-align: left;">2012`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`7-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2011`Holy6 Redeemer`Division 2`7-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2010`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`6-1</p><p style="text-align: left;">2009`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`7-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2009`Nanticoke Area`Division 3`7-0</p><p style="text-align: left;">2008`Holy Redeemer`Division 2`10-0</p><p style="text-align: left;"><strong>a &#8212; </strong>Nanticoke Area defeated Holy Redeemer 49-47 in league title playoff</p><p style="text-align: left;"><strong>b &#8212; </strong>Holy Redeemer defeated Nanticoke Area 45-43 in league title playoff</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Nanticoke Area, Holy Redeemer battle for WVC girls basketball title again