Coming off a tune-up loss to Lower Dauphin, the Pioneers convincingly earned a 57-38 District Three Class 5A first round win at home Tuesday, March 2 against No. 11, Northeastern.

"That loss to Lower Dauphin hurt but it was a good barometer for who we are," said head coach Ed Berryman. "They are the second seed in districts, and we held the lead for 95% of the game. I have to do a better job coaching what to do at the end of these close games," he added. "We have to execute better down the stretch."

That execution was on point Tuesday night. With three straight buckets by Shawn McTaggert and a basket by Luka Vranich, the Pioneers, seeded sixth, ended the third quarter with their largest lead of the night, 39-23.

The Bobcats, starting three seniors, opened the fourth with back-to-back threes, cutting the lead to 10 and tried some full court pressure to inch closer.

"After Lower Dauphin we worked on handling the half court pressure at the end of a game," said Berryman. "When they cut it to ten, we had a couple of turnovers and I called timeout. We needed to focus on what we worked on and we did a nice job moving the ball and finishing at the rim after that. We were more patient at the end," he added.

That end result was an 18-point fourth quarter and a handful of layups, including three by Vranich who netted a career-high 18 points, 12 in the second half.

"Luka had a great game," praised Berryman. "His best game of the year."

Ty Burton chipped in with four fourth quarter layups and racked up a game-high 27 points. McTaggert finished with eight points and Berkley Wagner added four, all in the second quarter.

L-S opened with an 8-0 run on a pair of treys by Burton and a backdoor bucket by Vranich. They led 10-8 at the break and pushed the lead to 24-17 at the half.

"Isaiah Parido also did a nice job on the defensive end and finished with at least three blocked shots," Berryman noted.

In that 54-51 loss to Lower Dauphin on Friday, Feb. 26 at home, L-S held the lead for most of the game, including pushing out to a 42-33 advantage in the third quarter, but came up short in the final minute. McTaggert's three-pointer with 2:30 left kept L-S in front, 51-46. Lower Dauphin rallied, scoring the last seven points of the game, taking advantage of three turnovers and a charge.

Behind McTaggert's 10 first quarter points, the Pioneers held a 14-8 first quarter lead. LD charged back but only grabbed the lead for a short time. A Brayden Landis layup put the visitors in front 27-26 but L-S responded with a trey by Wagner with 12 seconds left in the half.

With a balanced third quarter, the hosts held a 44-39 lead with eight minutes remaining. The Pioneers got a pair of treys from McTaggert in the fourth and a free throw from DelGrande while LD, with 11 points from Josh Gardner, poured in 15 points to steal the victory.

Gardner knocked down a game-high 23 points, including 10-of-16 free throws while McTaggert led the hosts with a career-high 19.

"Shawn had his best game of the season to date," said Berryman. "He was 4-for-6 from three-point range and 3-for-5 from two.

"Isaiah did a nice job on the boards with six, but overall, we only had one offensive rebound," he added. "We didn't have a lot of second opportunities, and we committed 12 turnovers in the game, some at crucial times."

Burton backed McTaggert with 15 points and Wagner hit double figures with 10.

WRESTLING

Zac Shelley and Arik Harnish made the trek to Spring Grove High School on Saturday, February 27 for the PIAA Class 3A South Central Regional Championships in hopes of advancing to one more tournament, the Super Regional, on the road to states. Both wrestlers fell short of that goal.

Shelley, coming off a gold medal performance, got off to a strong start, pinning Spring Grove junior Logan Herbst in 1:06 the quarterfinals. His semifinals opponent was Red Land's Dylan Rodenhaber, the eventual champ. The undefeated senior held a slim 3-2 lead in the first period but took control with a pair of second period takedowns and an escape to go up 8-3. Shelley won the third period 4-3 but it wasn't enough in an 11-7 loss.

In the consi-semis, Shelley suffered a first period fall against Garden Spot's Dustin Swanson. The Spartan senior defeated Shelley 9-3 during the regular season and went on to place third.

Harnish suffered a similar fate. The senior opened with a solid 8-2 decision over York Suburban junior Bryson Neidigh (20-1) but was dropped to the consolation round with a tight 4-0 decision against the eventual champ, Griffin Gonzalez of Lebanon. He also faced a familiar Spartan in the wrestlebacks. Harnish fell behind 4-1 after two periods and was dealt a 6-3 loss by Garden Spot's Garrett Gehr, the eventual third place finisher.

GIRLS' BASKETBALL

On the road Wednesday night, the girls' basketball team suffered a District Three Class 5A opening round loss to No. 6 Lower Dauphin (14-4).

The Pioneers (9-6), without starting point guard Kiersten Hostetter, turned the ball over five times in the last three minutes of the first quarter and fell behind early, 14-5. They took care of the ball in the second quarter, and buckled down on defense, but still struggled to score. The Falcons extended the lead with an 18-10 second quarter and held a 32-15 advantage at the break.

The third quarter was nip-and-tuck with L-S holding a slim 12-11 edge. The hosts pulled away down the stretch, 13-8.

L-S struggled in knocking down three pointers but did manage one more than Lower Dauphin (4-3). Unfortunately, they were outscored from two-point range, 20-5. The Pioneers were an impressive 13-for-20 from the free throw line.

Emma Drouillard netted a team-high 15 points, including six in the third quarter. Katie Ranck added five and Hailey Leaman, Jenna Daveler, Maggie Visniski and Maggie Swarr all added three points.