Bucktail girls battle but fall in D4 playoffs
By John Lipez
WILLIAMSPORT, PA – It had been seven years since the Bucktail girls basketball team had been a District 4 playoff participant so you might have expected the Lady Bucks to struggle Wednesday night when they traveled to the St. John Neumann Catholic Center to take on the home-standing Neuman Lady Knights before a partisan, enthusiastic home crowd.
But the underdog Lady Bucks hung right with Neumann into the third quarter before the Lady Knghts pulled away for a 65-50 win.
The Lady Bucks had forged a 24-24 tie late into the second period before Neumann put up a couple two-pointers for a 28-24 halftime lead. And when Bucktail’s Kayla Probert drained a 3-pointer early in period three, the visitors pulled to within one, the deficit at 28-27. But Neumann went on a 10-2 run to open a 38-29 lead and kept the lead around 10 for much of the second half before pulling away down the stretch for the 15 point win.
The Lady Knghts used their powerful junior center, SheianaTutler, to open things up in the second half. She scored 13 points alone in period three, from both inside and outside, on the way to a 28 point night. Tutler came in averaging just over 14 points a game and despite the Bucktail defensive effort, was all but unstoppable.
On the other side, the Buck’s Mak Wagner did her best to keep pace; she drained three 3s in the second period, part of an 11 point period to help keep the score close; Wagner finished with 20 points. Teammate Julie Green put up 13 points before exiting the game for a final time, going into the books with better than 500 rebounds in her four-year varsity career.
Probert finished with 6 points, Lily Francis with 4, Raileigh Isaacs and Matti Mason with 3 each and Bella English with 2.
Lady Buck coach Carl Gentzyel had nothing but praise for his team: “They did what we needed to do..played good defense in the first half…they played hard and gave it their all; I’m proud of them.” Gentzyel said he thanked his seniors in the locker room for their four years in the program, stating “they contributed so much…all leaders.” And he noted the squad returns a good nucleus of younger players, called the game against Neumann “a great experience” for all involved and said after a seven year absence the Buck program will be looking for another playoff berth next season.
With the win, St. John Neumann moved to 11-10 on the year and into the District 4 Class 1A semifinals to meet top seed Northumberland Christian later this week; Norry opened the playoffs with a 61-11 win over Montgomery on Tuesday night. Bucktail ended a solid campaign at 10-12.
SJN 10 18 22 15 = 65
B 10 14 13 13 = 50
