Morgan Named First Team All-State

Playing District 4 Spring Ball

FARWELL — The honors keep coming for Bucktail High School basketball standout Maria Morgan.

A year ago, as a sophomore, she became the first Bucktail female athlete named to an all-state team when she was selected to the Associated Press third team; this season she did even better, named to the AP Class A first team.

Morgan is looking to push her basketball skills to the highest level in the off season this spring. She is playing for an AAU team based out of Muncy called Nexxt Level U. The girls she is playing with are from the Danville, Mifflinburg, Warrior Run, Hughesville, Montoursville, Williamsport and Muncy areas.

Coaching the team is former Williamsport High School coach Mike Bailey along with former Montoursville High School standout Kelley Mazzante.

Coach Mazzante scored over 3,200 points at Montoursville then played at Penn State where she holds most of the Nittany Lions records. She played on two WNBA championship teams and finished her career in Europe, announcing her retirement this past January.

Colleges take great interest in AAU tournaments to see athletes at their best and up against the best players. They start this month in Scranton and travel to the Pittsburgh area at the end of the month  for the Steel City Madness.

As noted last month when Morgan was named the top player in north-central Pennsylvania, the Lady Buck guard finished her junior year with spectacular numbers: 27.5 points per game, 7.9 assists per game, 5.9 rebounds and 5.4 steals per game.

As a sophomore she led north-central Pennsylvania with a point per game average of 28.3, tops in the mid-state area. She now has 1,763 points in three years of varsity play, an average of 26.3 points a game and is on a pace to break every scoring record in Bucktail High School history.