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The Holy Redeemer Royals rolled through a second straight undefeated Division 2 regular season and the Dallas Mountaineers made it to the top of Division 1.
				Neither are around for the Wyoming Valley Conference girls basketball championship.
				Instead, regular season runners-up Hazleton Area and Lake-Lehman will play for the overall league crown at 6 p.m. Saturday at Berwick Middle School, after both top seeds fell at the hands of those heavy underdogs.
				Which raises an interesting question.
				Is the league really that balanced, or did the favorites just have a bad night?
				&ldquo;I think anybody can beat anybody on a given night,&rdquo; Lake-Lehman coach Charlie Lavan said. &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t think anybody was that far ahead of the pack.&rdquo;
				So in the end, one of those No. 2 teams will wind up out in front of everyone &mdash; at No. 1 in the WVC.
				Division 1 champion Dallas entered the four-team tourney at 20-3, Holy Redeemer came in 18-4 after cruising through Division 2 at 14-0 and setting its sights on defending its overall WVC title.
				But back-to-back upsets Thursday at Lake-Lehman High School reconfigured fans&rsquo; expectations.
				Lehman&rsquo;s impressive 50-35 win over Dallas closed the night, as the Black Knights scored twice as much as Dallas &mdash; 30-15 &mdash; in the second half to win convincingly and erase memories of an 11-point loss to the Mountaineers back in December. Lehman&rsquo;s 6-foot center Claire Dougherty poured in a game-high 16 points in the win and senior guard Sarah Salus &mdash; the regular season Division 2 scoring leader &mdash; added 12, including her career 1,000th.
				&ldquo;This year, it meant a lot to them to get in it,&rdquo; Lavan said of his Black Knights, who missed making last year&rsquo;s league tourney as a wild card by mere percentage points in the power ranking system. &ldquo;It meant an awful lot to them, especially since we were hosting (the semifinals). We played well, had a really good game. We&rsquo;re thrilled to be in the field.&rdquo;
				A bruising semifinal battle under the boards knocked Redeemer out.
				Hazleton Area started semifinals night by bouncing back from losing the Division 1 title in a playoff against Dallas Tuesday and controlling a 60-54 victory over Redeemer in the WVC semifinals.
				Redeemer scoring star Sam Yencha fouled out of a four-point game with 90 seconds to play, but was held to two baskets and four points by Hazleton Area&rsquo;s pestering press defense.
				Meanwhile, Hazleton Area defensive ace Kyra Antolick made three blocks and six steals on the defensive end and guard Olivia Wolk got loose for 15 points as the Cougars avenged last year&rsquo;s loss to Redeemer in the inaugural WVC league championship game.
				&rdquo;You saw the intensity from everybody,&rdquo; Hazleton Area coach Joe Gavio said. &ldquo;Everybody did their job. Our pressure was relentless.&rdquo;
				That pressure punished Lehman in Hazleton Area&rsquo;s 56-31 victory in the finals of the Lady Cougars Tipoff Classic back on Dec. 7, the second game of the season for both teams. But that was then, this is now.
				&ldquo;We&rsquo;re a young team, we had three new starters,&rdquo; Lavan said. &ldquo;And Hazleton is an excellent team. They bring that pressure. We weren&rsquo;t ready to play with a team like that at that time. We&rsquo;ve matured. We corrected a lot of things.&rdquo;
				And as Lehman showed against Dallas, past meetings &mdash; or predicted favorites &mdash; may not matter much once the opening tip is tossed up.
				&ldquo;I think,&rdquo; Lavan said, &ldquo;we&rsquo;ll give them a much better game.&rdquo;

Lake-Lehman, Hazleton Area square off in girls basketball league title game