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District 2-4 Class 3A Swimming Championships: Hazleton Area makes statement on Day 1

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<p>WILKES-BARRE TWP. &#8212; The big stage and bright lights of Mohegan Sun Arena blinded the Williamsport girls basketball team for awhile.</p><p>Then, as their structure started to shake, the Hazleton Area Cougars began to buckle.</p><p>In the end, though, Kyra Antolick and Marissa Trivelpiece refused to let them fall.</p><p>Antolick and Trivelpiece each scored 13 points Friday, Trivelpiece completed a double-double with 15 rebounds and the Cougars kept their District 2/4 Class 6A crown by surviving a furious Williamsport rally while clinging to a 48-41 victory in the championship game at the Arena.</p><p>&#8220;Awesome,&#8221; Antolick said. &#8220;It&#8217;s the best feeling ever.&#8221;</p><p>For the longest time, Hazleton Area was feeling a bit sick.</p><p>Playing without 6-foot starting forward Faith Grula, who jammed her finger in practice Wednesday and wasn&#8217;t medically cleared for Friday&#8217;s title game, the Cougars stormed to a 17-point lead in the first quarter and were ahead 31-21 at halftime.</p><p>&#8220;I was happy being up 10 at the half,&#8221; Hazleton Area coach Joe Gavio.</p><p>But that lead was chopped in half by the end of the third quarter and was whittled to one when Jada Whitley hit a foul-line jumper to pull Williamsport within 38-37 less than two minutes into the fourth quarter.</p><p>The Cougars never lost the lead, though.</p><p>Faced with the prospect of playing a District 2 title game against Scranton on Tuesday if District 4 representative Williamsport won, Trivelpiece scored her final five points from the foul line in the fourth quarter and Antolick hit two huge buckets to send Hazleton Area to the PIAA Class 6A tournament.</p><p>&#8220;Pretty sweet to me,&#8221; Trivelpiece said of the victory. &#8220;We did not want to play that game Tuesday.&#8221;</p><p>Instead, the 19-5 Cougars will play next Friday, against the winner of the District 1 ninth-place game between 21-5 Plymouth Whitemarsh and 17-9 Central Bucks West.</p><p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll take it,&#8221; Gavio said. &#8220;You&#8217;ve just got to win. It doesn&#8217;t matter how you do it.&#8221;</p><p>Initially, Hazleton Area did it with defense.</p><p>The Cougars pressed Williamsport into 11 turnovers during the opening eight minutes, 17 turnovers in the first half and 28 for the game.</p><p>That translated into a lot of early points for Hazleton Area, as Brooke Boretski scored six of her eight in the first quarter, Antolick scored five and Trivelpiece and Olivia Wolk connected on 3-point goals as Hazleton Area stormed to a quick 17-1 lead.</p><p>&#8220;I thought the first couple minutes, we were a little overwhelmed &#8212; not being here (before),&#8221; said Williamsport coach Terrill Seward, whose Millionaires suffered their fifth loss in the last seven games and finished at 11-13, &#8220;and playing Hazleton. We haven&#8217;t beaten them in a long time.&#8221;</p><p>The Millionaires wouldn&#8217;t go away, though.</p><p>Trivelpiece scored five points in the second quarter and Antolick added four more as Hazleton Area carried a double-digit lead into halftime while substituting freely.</p><p>&#8220;We just had good passes, played well together,&#8221; Antolick said.</p><p>But each time the Cougars extended it to 12 or 14 points, Williamsport found ways to keep the game from getting away to stay within 10 points.</p><p>&#8220;They didn&#8217;t quit,&#8221; Seward said of his Millionaires. &#8220;They keep playing as hard as they can. As long as you have maximum effort on the court, there&#8217;s nothing to hang your head about. It still hurts. But I told them I&#8217;m proud of them.&#8221;</p><p>That Williamsport pride grew greater in the through the first 10 minutes of the second half, as the Millionaires kept chipping away.</p><p>They held Hazleton Area to four points in the third quarter and Emily Pardee scored six points as Williamsport closed within four points during one stretch and was within five with a quarter to play.</p><p>&#8220;As (Gavio) would say, we turned into us,&#8221; Trivelpiece said. &#8220;Sometimes, we just get a little tight. I think we get a little too excited when we get those big leads.&#8221;</p><p>Only Trivelpiece&#8217;s monster effort under the boards prevented that advantage from completely evaporating. She wrestled away seven rebounds in the third quarter and five more in the fourth, preventing a plethora of second chances for Williamsport and giving plenty to the Cougars.</p><p>&#8220;I knew I had to do something,&#8221; said Trivelpiece, who connected on just two of her 11 attempts from the floor &#8212; with both makes being 3-pointers. &#8220;When my shot&#8217;s not falling, rebounding is the least I can do.&#8221;</p><p>What Williamsport did was apply some pressure of its own, making a tight game of it when Hazleton Area turned the ball over 20 times.</p><p>And when Katelyn Wilson connected on three straight points and Whaley swished a jumper, the Millionaires were a point away in a 38-37 game with 6:04 to play.</p><p>A little nervous were the Cougars?</p><p>&#8220;Oh, yeah, I was,&#8221; Antolick said. &#8220;All of us knew we had to get our heads on straight. I think we just hit a little rut. We knew we had to come together if we really wanted to win this game.&#8221;</p><p>Not to worry.</p><p>Trivelpiece hit two foul shots for a five-point Cougars lead with 2:05 to play and Antolick hit a huge layup for a 45-39 advantage with 55 seconds on the clock.</p><p>That made the clock strike midnight on Williamsport&#8217;s hopes of pulling a Cinderella-like upset in the Class 6A final.</p><p>&#8220;They played hard, they never gave up, they caught fire,&#8221; Gavio said of the Millionaires. &#8220;It&#8217;s a big game, you lose and you go home. But these kids (the Cougars) have battled all year after a rough start. It&#8217;s the will to win right now.</p><p>&#8220;They wanted to win.&#8221;</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>District 2/4 Class 6A Championship</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Hazleton Area 48, Williamsport 41</strong></p><p><strong>WILLIAMSPORT (41) &#8212;</strong> Jada Whaley 4 2-2 10, Katelyn Wilson 3 1-2 7, Emily Pardee 2 3-6 7, Fondrea McClain 1 1-4 3, Samiyah Little 1 0-0 2, Enya Green-Pratt 0 0-0 0, Kailee Helmrich 2 2-4 7, Whitney Felix 1 0-0 3, Kalindi Maggs 0 0-0 0, Jessica Robinson 1 0-0 2. <strong>Totals 15 9-18 41.</strong></p><p><strong>HAZLETON AREA (48) &#8212;</strong> Diane Garnett 0 0-2 0, Brooke Boretski 3 2-4 8, Kyra Antolick 6 0-0 13, Marissa Trivelpiece 2 7-10 13, Virginia Yurchak 2 5-8 9, Olivia Wolk 1 2-4 5, Carley Krizansky 0 0-0 0, Isabella Colyer 0 0-0 0, Katie Lipinski 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Holodick 0 0-0 0, Megan Fay 0 0-0 0, Madelyn LaBuda 0 0-0 0, Allie Zumar 0 0-0 0. <strong>Totals 14 16-28 48.</strong></p><p><strong>Williamsport`5`16`9`11 &#8212; 41</strong></p><p><strong>Hazleton Area`19`12`4`13 &#8212; 48</strong></p><p><strong>Three-point goals</strong> &#8212; WIL 2 (Felix, Helmrich); HAZ 4 (Trivelpiece 2, Antolick, Wolk).</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Marissa Trivelpiece, left, battles Williamsport&#8217;s Katelyn Wilson for a rebound in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Marissa Trivelpiece, left, battles Williamsport&#8217;s Katelyn Wilson for a rebound in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </caption0><photoCredit0>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Diane Garnett passes out of the lane away from Williamsport&#8217;s Emily Pardee in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Diane Garnett passes out of the lane away from Williamsport&#8217;s Emily Pardee in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Virginia Yurchak looks to pass after falling on a loose ball against Williamsport in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Virginia Yurchak looks to pass after falling on a loose ball against Williamsport in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </caption2><photoCredit2>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Brooke Boretski goes in for two points against Williamsport in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Brooke Boretski goes in for two points against Williamsport in the District 2/4 Class 6A girls subregional championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </caption3><photoCredit3>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">The Hazleton Area Cougars celebrate their 48-41 victory over Williamsport and the District 2/4 Class 6A subregional championship at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL030219GBB-Hazleton-Williamsport_5.jpg</photo4><caption4>The Hazleton Area Cougars celebrate their 48-41 victory over Williamsport and the District 2/4 Class 6A subregional championship at Mohegan Sun Arena on Friday. </caption4><photoCredit4>Bill Tarutis | For Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Hazleton Area withstands Williamsport rally to win District 2/4 title</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Paul Sokoloski</p><p>psokoloski@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Paul Sokoloski at 570-991-6392 or on Twitter @TLPaulSokoloski</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Antolick, Trivelpiece lead Hazleton Area girls basketball team to title