Head coach Tony Fink won his 150th game when the Lady Pioneers earned a come-from-behind victory, 47-35, over visiting Garden Spot Saturday afternoon, Jan. 15.

The Spartans, behind Taylor Soehner's 13 points, led 13-11 in the first quarter and by as many as five, 25-20, in the second frame before L-S started to rally.

Down 23-20 at the break, the hosts outscored Spot 10-7 in the third quarter and then broke things wide open with an impressive 17-5 run through the third quarter.

"You have to give L-S credit," said Spot boss Kevin Gensemer. "We didn't match their energy down the stretch, and we turned the ball over too much."

L-S tied the game on Jenna Daveler's trey just 1:30 into the third quarter and took its first lead of the day when Ella Horst (8 points) hit the second of two free throws. But the Spartans were not going away. Tied at 30-30 with eight minutes remaining, L-S varied its defensive looks, threw in some full and half court traps and took advantage of the free throw line, canning 9-of-10 attempts to pull away.

Daveler's annoying defense and her six points in the quarter, sparked the come-back. She settled for a season-high 20.

"I felt they outworked us in the first half," said head coach Tony Fink. "They crashed the boards and Soehner did some damage with eight points in the first quarter. But we got more physical in the second half and closed things out from the foul line. Nothing is easy this year."

Maggie Visniski chipped in with ten points.

The Pioneers were coming off a 55-32 win at Donegal Friday night where a 17-2 domination of the fourth quarter was the turning point. Clinging to a 38-30 lead after three quarters, L-S again tuned up the defensive intensity, hit 7-of-8 free throws and pulled away.

"Their 1-3-1 press bothered us in the first half," said Fink. "We went to a 1-3-1 extended press and turned them over in the second half. Kiersten Hostetter and Maggie Visniski had big second halves and Daveler's defense was stellar as usual."

Hostetter finished with a game-high 14 points on a pair of 3's and an 8-for-8 effort from the stripe. Visniski added ten. Katie Ranck and Horst combined for 14.

In non-league action last Monday, the Pioneers hosted Gettysburg, currently the top ranked team in 5A, and dropped a heartbreaker, 41-39.

Down 17-7 in the first quarter, the Pioneers rallied in the second and cut the lead to two, 26-24. That proved to be the difference as both teams settled for 15 second half points.

Hostetter bucketed 9 of her 15 points in the first half and Visniski added eight of her ten.

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BOWLING

The Pioneer bowlers faced Section leader Cocalico Thursday, Jan. 20, but did not back down in a 5-2 loss.

"It was nice winning the last game against a good team," said head coach John Achille. "We were about even with them after eight frames, and everyone contributed to pull out that last game highlighted by Nick Bukowski striking out in the tenth frame."

Bukowski's 540 series, including a 187 in the final game, was tops for L-S. Ethan Snyder (502), Katie Pope (473), Gehrig Harsh (447) and Jacob Haas, with a personal best 143 in the third game, (396) provided the scoring.

Last Wednesday the Pioneers dropped a thriller, 3-2 to Garden Spot. Snyder's 595 was the top series of the day.

WRESTLING

The matmen moved to 2-4 overall with a 49-17 thumping of winless Lebanon last Wednesday at home.

L-S won four of the six bouts wrestled and took advantage of five forfeits to pull away. Ian VanDeusen (152) pulled out a 6-4 overtime thriller after Lebanon claimed a fall at 138 to open the action.

A tech fall at 160 capped the excitement for the Cedars. L-S answered with Joel Bitner's major at 172 and falls by Treson Spahr (285) and Riley Bonholtzer (120), who pinned in 14 seconds.

BOYS' BASKETBALL

The Pioneers scored over 80 points for the second time this season, hanging an 89-46 loss on visiting Donegal Friday, January 14. That win also included a season-high 17 three-pointers. Ben Wert, with a season high 27 and Ty Burton, who followed with 25 points, drained five treys each to spearhead an offense that scored 23 points or more in three quarters.

"We got out to a fast start," said head coach Ed Berryman of the 23-6 first quarter. "They beat us 16-15 in the second quarter, so we talked about coming out strong in the second half and they responded."

L-S won the second half 51-24.

Less than 24 hours later, the Pioneers were in New Holland where they improved their winning streak to 12-0 with a 69-41 come-from-behind win.

"That was a tough turnaround," said Berryman of the back-to-back games. "We got off to a slow start but then we started pressuring the ball and denying the passing lanes and that got us going. It's always a struggle up there."

L-S led 22-18 at the half and came out strong in the third to set the tone. They pulled away with a 47-23 second half advantage.

Burton led the offense charge when he tallied 27 of his 31 points after the break. Luka Vranich finished with 14 and Isaiah Parido added nine.

At Octorara last Tuesday L-S kept its unbeaten streak alive with a 78-56 victory. Wagner scored 10 of his 15 points in the first quarter as LS jumped out to a 23-9 lead. Burton netted 13 of his game-high 30 in the third quarter and Wert went 5-for-5 from the foul line in the fourth and added 17 points.

SWIMMING

Despite coming up short against Ephrata last Tuesday (91-61 for the boys and 93-76 for the girls), head coach Kylie Turner was pleased with the number of best times and competitive races.

"My grandfather used to say, 'There are never losers, only learners,'" said Turner. "That sums up our losses to Ephrata."

Standouts include Andrew Reidenbaugh with firsts in the 50 and 100 free and the 200-relay team of Ryan Smecker, Christian Rota, Kyle Spaulding, and Reidenbaugh.

"Ashley Prouse, Kara Scranton, Abby Welchans and Zara Paisley pulled out a win in the 200 free relay by .74 seconds," praised Turner.