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<p>BETHLEHEM &#8212; There&#8217;s just something about seeing Hazelton Area in the state playoffs that makes Allison Harvey&#8217;s hands heat up.</p><p>And as soon as she caught fire in the first half, Hazleton Area&#8217;s hopes of reaching the PIAA girls basketball quarterfinals quickly crumbled.</p><p>The sharpshooting Harvey hit four of her five 3-point field goals over the first two quarters Tuesday and Neshaminy hammered Hazleton Area, 70-40 in a second-round Class 6A state game at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School.</p><p>&#8220;Harvey, she lit it up,&#8221; Hazleton Area coach Joe Gavio said. &#8220;She&#8217;s good. She can shoot.&#8221;</p><p>Not that the Cougars were shocked by Harvey&#8217;s shooting.</p><p>They&#8217;d seen this before, over and again, as Neshaminy ended Hazleton Area&#8217;s state run for the third time in four years. The first two times were in PIAA openers, in 2016 and last season, before the teams matched up Tuesday in a second-round Class 6A state game.</p><p>And it always seems to be Harvey, who nailed four 3-pointers against Hazleton Area as a freshman in 2016, who sticks a thorn in the side of the Cougars.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, she has about 10 3&#8217;s against us,&#8221; Gavio groaned. &#8220;We broke down there a little bit.&#8221;</p><p>More like Harvey broke Hazleton Area down, while scoring a team-high 15 points and taking the Redskins on a ride to their third consecutive PIAA Class 6A Elite Eight game.</p><p>The Cougars were right there, trailing 15-14 after a quarter, when Harvey got loose.</p><p>She dropped two treys and Bucknell-bound Brooke Mullin scored six points as the Redskins opened the second period on a 16-1 run.</p><p>&#8220;Once we went on that big run, it was definitely a momentum-changer,&#8221; Harvey said.</p><p>And when the Cougars tried to take some back, Harvey had other plans.</p><p>After Hazleton chopped a 16-point deficit to 10 points, Harvey hammered home her third 3-pointer of the second quarter and fourth of the first half, Kristin Curley followed with a three-point play and the Redskins were off and running to a 41-20 halftime lead.</p><p>&#8220;Yeah, I was feeling it today,&#8221; Harvey said. &#8220;That first shot (in the opening quarter), I didn&#8217;t think it was going to go in. Friendly rims, I guess. My teammates did a good job of finding me, they knew I was hot. That&#8217;s what it was, a team effort.&#8221;</p><p>Meanwhile, Harvey and her friends teamed up in an overpowering zone defense that kept bothering Hazleton Area passes and shots inside.</p><p>&#8220;They&#8217;re a good team, they were going to battle,&#8221; said Harvey, a senior who will play at Delaware Valley next season. &#8220;After that first quarter, we talked about playing hard on defense. Our offense was going to come if we could lock them down on defense.&#8221;</p><p>The Cougars came out at the start and immediately threatened that plan.</p><p>Faith Grula, Virginia Yurchak and Olivia Wolk all scored four points and Hazleton Area was right in the game, down by one after the initial eight minutes.</p><p>Then they found offense tough to come by, and trying to stop Harvey and the rest of the 24-4 Redskins even more difficult.</p><p>&#8220;They all can shoot,&#8221; Gavio said. &#8220;They&#8217;re real good. We knew that. They&#8217;re from a physical league and they got us. We were right there and we had a bad moment. We had about five turnovers in a row. You can&#8217;t do that against a team that good. They got up 10 and we tried to get back too quick. Once they made that run &#8230;&#8221;</p><p>The game ran away from Hazleton Area.</p><p>The Cougars cut their deficit to 17 points on a sweeping layup by Brooke Boretski early in the second half, but couldn&#8217;t come any closer.</p><p>Marissa Trivelpiece finished with 15 points to lead the Cougars and the team&#8217;s lone senior starter, Virginia Yurchak, added 11 in her final high school game for two-time District 2/4 champion Hazleton Area, which finished 20-6.</p><p>&#8220;Oh man, you win 20 games, you win your (Wyoming Valley Conference) division, won the district again,&#8221; Gavio said of his Cougars, &#8220;then they make plays to get here. I love these kids. We have a lot to look forward to.&#8221;</p><p>And Neshaminy, the District 1 runner-up will look forward to playing District 12 champ Cardinal O&#8217;Hara (15-11) in the state quarterfinals with a senior class that went 3-0 against the Cougars in state play &#8212; with the last victory cherished a little more.</p><p>&#8220;I would say this one, because it&#8217;s my senior year,&#8221; Harvey said. &#8220;This is my last go-&#8216;round. The four seniors, we want to make the most of it. It&#8217;s been a pretty special season. We want to keep making it more special.&#8221;</p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>PIAA CLASS 6A SECOND ROUND</strong></p><p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Neshaminy 70, Hazleton Area 40</strong></p><p><strong>NESHAMINY (70) &#8212;</strong> Emily Tantala 3 0-0 6, Brooke Mullin 5 2-2 12, Kristin Curley 4 2-2 10, Kelli Kowalick 3 2-5 8, Allison Harvey 5 0-0 15, Alexa McCoy 2 2-2 6, Olivia Scott 2 2-2 6, Meghan Ansel 3 0-0 6, Sydney Tayon 0 1-2 1, Mia Lewis 0 0-0 0. <strong>Totals 27 11-15 70.</strong></p><p><strong>HAZLETON AREA (40) &#8212;</strong> Brooke Boretski 1 1-2 3, Kyra Antolick 0 0-0 0, Faith Grula 2 0-0 4, Marissa Trivelpiece 6 1-2 15, Virginia Yurchak 4 2-2 11, Olivia Wolk 1 3-4 5, Diane Garnett 1 0-0 2, Alyssa Holodick 0 0-0 0, Allie Zumar 0 0-0 0, Madelyn LaBuda 0 0-0 0, Megan Fae 0 0-0 0, Katie Lipinski 0 0-0 0. <strong>Totals 15 7-10 40.</strong></p><p><strong>Neshaminy`15`26`14`15 &#8212; 70</strong></p><p><strong>Hazleton Area`14`6`12`8 &#8212; 40</strong></p><p><strong>Three-point goals</strong> &#8212; NESH 5 (Harvey 5); HAZ 3 (Trivelpiece 2, Yurchak).</p><style>
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<div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Diane Garnett tries to dribble around Neshaminy defendcer Olivia Scott during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball second-round game Tuesday at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton1.jpg</photo0><caption0>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Diane Garnett tries to dribble around Neshaminy defendcer Olivia Scott during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball second-round game Tuesday at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School. </caption0><photoCredit0>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s Marissa Trivelpiece finds the going inside tough against Neshaminy defenders Kelli Kowalick (25) and Alexa McCoy (23) in a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball second-round state game Tuesday at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Hazleton Area&#8217;s Marissa Trivelpiece finds the going inside tough against Neshaminy defenders Kelli Kowalick (25) and Alexa McCoy (23) in a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball second-round state game Tuesday at Bethlehem&#8217;s Liberty High School. </caption1><photoCredit1>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton3.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area&#8217;s top scorer Marissa Trivelpiece attenpts a shot against the tight defense of Neshaminy during the second round of the PIAA girls basketball playoffs in Bethlehem. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton3.jpg</photo2><caption2>Hazleton Area&#8217;s top scorer Marissa Trivelpiece attenpts a shot against the tight defense of Neshaminy during the second round of the PIAA girls basketball playoffs in Bethlehem. </caption2><photoCredit2>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton4.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area guard Olivia Wolk dribbles into the paint in a PIAA Class 6A second-round girls basketball game at Liberty High School in Bethlehem. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton4.jpg</photo3><caption3>Hazleton Area guard Olivia Wolk dribbles into the paint in a PIAA Class 6A second-round girls basketball game at Liberty High School in Bethlehem. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit3></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton5.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Hazleton Area senior Virginia Yurchak drives the ball toward the basket against Neshaminy defender Emily Tantala (right) during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball game Tuesday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo4>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/web1_TTL031319Hazleton5.jpg</photo4><caption4>Hazleton Area senior Virginia Yurchak drives the ball toward the basket against Neshaminy defender Emily Tantala (right) during a PIAA Class 6A girls basketball game Tuesday. </caption4><photoCredit4>Aimee Dilger|Times Leader </photoCredit4></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Neshaminy 3-point ace knocks Cougars from state tourney once again</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>

Harvey haunts Hazleton Area in Neshaminy’s PIAA girls basketball win