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District 2 Girls Basketball: Hazleton Area comes out smoking, scorches Scranton in girls basketball

HAZLE TWP. &#8211; The District 2 Class 2A Wrestling Championships tournament is unique this season.
				For example, Tunkhannock&rsquo;s Gavin D&rsquo;Amato wrestled twice on Friday evening at Hazleton Area High School. Meanwhile, three of his teammates didn&rsquo;t step on the mat for competition.
				D&rsquo;Amato, the Tigers&rsquo; 145-pound returning state qualifier, got a good start to his event winning by fall twice to reach today&rsquo;s semifinals, which begin at 10 a.m. His teammates Dave Evans and Nick Marabell got byes until the semis, while Frankie Scranta has a bye right to the finals due to number of participants.
				Those four are part of 11 Tigers still wrestling in the championship rounds as the team looks for its first district title in 35 years. Because four Tunkhannock grapplers didn&rsquo;t wrestle on Friday, the team sits in a distant second place behind Lackawanna Trail. Even though the Tigers are behind the Lions by 33 points, there are still a lot of points to be gained as long those who had byes win their next matches.
				&ldquo;We gotta wrestle like we did at Trail (in the D2 duals final). We got all hyped up in every single match, and we wrestled with a purpose,&rdquo; D&rsquo;Amato said when asked what the team has to do to win the title. &ldquo;If we wrestle with a purpose (today) we can come out on top and have seven or eight district champs, and that would be crazy.&rdquo;
				D&rsquo;Amato was glad to have wrestled a pair of matches and picking up a pair of pins spending just a total of 2 minutes, 50 seconds on the mat. But also knows that his teammates will be fine without wrestling on Friday, especially Evans, who is also a returning state qualifier.
				&ldquo;It feels really good to get all the jitters out and take the edge off. Wrestling the pigtail match and the quarterfinal really helped me get in a groove,&rdquo; D&rsquo;Amato said. &ldquo;I think Dave will be OK because he&rsquo;s been there a hundred thousand times. Another big part is warming up.&rdquo;
				The Tigers also picked up a big win at heavyweight from Brett Sickler, who entered as the No. 6 seed. He defeated Hanover Area&rsquo;s Tavon Hines 7-6 on a last-second escape to pull off the upset.
				Another of Tunkhannock&rsquo;s semifinalists is 106-pounder Owen Woods, who could possibly see Wyoming Area&rsquo;s Jaden Pepe in the finals. Pepe, a freshman who has been ranked No. 1 in the state this season, has defeated Woods twice this season, but both times were by just two points.
				&ldquo;Hopefully he can finally close that gap all the way and win the district title against the No. 1 kid in the state,&rdquo; D&rsquo;Amato said about his sophomore teammate.
				All four Wyoming Valley Conference teams have a participant in the semis. Hanover Area has five led by top seeds Cael Davis and Joey Rowley at 113 and 120. Lake-Lehman has four semifinalists, including defending champions Zack Stuart (138) and Nick Zaboski (160), and Wyoming Area has three in the semis as past champion Connor Wrobleski (170) and Kyle Emsley (132) join Pepe in the final four of their brackets.
				Like Evans and Marabell, Rowley, didn&rsquo;t wrestle on Friday having a bye until the semis. But coach Mike Griffith doesn&rsquo;t see that as a problem for his returning state qualifier.
				&ldquo;He was here for his guys. If anyone told him to leave, he&rsquo;d say &lsquo;No. I&rsquo;m here for my guys.&rsquo; He doesn&rsquo;t need to wrestle to support his guys,&rdquo; Griffith said. &ldquo;He knows what to do. Whether he wrestled (Friday) or not, his first match (today) would be in the semis, right where he wants. So he&rsquo;s ready to go.&rdquo;

D2 Class 2A Wrestling: Tunkhannock in good spot after Day One