Boys’ Basketball Surprise Ending
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On Thursday, March 11, the Central Mountain High School boys' varsity basketball team played in the PIAA District 4/6 5A championship title game against the Shikellamy Braves. The two teams had played each other two times this season with the Wildcats winning both previous games. The Wildcats have only ever won the championship game once when they played in 2017.
Hopeful to come out with their third win against the Braves, the Wildcats traveled to Bald Eagle Area High School, the chosen neutral location for the championship game. This year's varsity team consists of four seniors, Trevor Adair, Ryan Alexander, Nick Long, and Aidan Major.
Throughout a majority of the games played by the Wildcats, including the district championship game, sophomore Jack Hanna was the top scorer. During the game, the Braves were able to start out on top with a quick lead of 9-1. Following the first period, the Braves were ahead by 11 points. By the half, the Wildcats were still down by 13 points. After this, it would be nearly impossible for the Wildcats to make a comeback. The Braves kept pushing and eventually won their first district championship since the 1970s.
Knowing that they would be competing in the District Championship game, Hanna thought, "It was a surreal feeling. I had been at the one they won and I knew that I wanted to be part of the second one, we just came up short". The Wildcats had a tough game coming up short of the win with a final score of 59-42 in favor of the Shikellamy Braves. This year's season had countless ups and downs along the way but Hanna says his favorite memory would have been when senior Trevor Adair was able to hit a game tying three points in their game against Montoursville.
One memory that may also stick out to fans of the Wildcats would be when senior Ryan Alexander was taken off the bench during the final seconds of the championship game. Once in the game, Alexander was able to easily nail a three-point shot. Though the team will be losing key players following this spring's graduation, they will stay strong with juniors Ryan Pentz, Brett Gerlach, Owen Persun, Cayde McCloskey, Ashton Probst, and Zaine Counsil all potentially returning next season.
A week after their loss in the championship game, Central Mountain High School was informed that the Shikellamy Braves had a few Covid problems within their program. The PIAA reached out and informed the Wildcats that they would have the opportunity to join the State Playoff tournament. The team accepted and picked up practice where they had left off.
On Friday, March 19, the Wildcats took off for Lower Dauphin to compete in the PIAA 5A State Quarterfinals. Due to various reasons however, the Wildcats traveled to the state quarterfinals without several players. Thinking their season was previously over, the Wildcats went into the game with an open mindset and were simply happy to be able to play together as a team one last time.
The Lower Dauphin Falcons were the District 3 champions and were able to get an early lead on the Wildcats with a first period score of 25-10 only to extend that lead at the half to 38-17. The lead was simply too much for the Wildcats to compete with. By the end of the game, the final score was 71-46 in favor of the Falcons.
The lead scorer of the game was junior Ashton Probst. Throughout the game, Probst was able to gather 17 of the team's 46 total points. The Wildcats are staying optimistic and hoping for another chance at districts and states next season.