Saturday, February 20, 2010

Pequea Valley 61, Columbia 59

Photos by Pat Kreider

The Columbia boys' basketball team closed its regular season with a disappointing 61-59 loss to Pequea Valley.
Both teams were using the game as a tune-up for this week's District 3 playoffs, which begin Wednesday.
The Tide will travel the Hershey Highway for a 7:30 p.m. game with Section 4 foe Annville-Cleona. PV takes on Bishop McDevitt. (There is an earlier post on the playoff game).
Columbia had trouble most of the game guarding PV's leading scorer. He ripped the Tide for 29 points and hit 7 of 10 from the foul line.
The Tide jumped out quick against the Braves, leading 22-14 after one quarter and looked well on the way to a win. But has been so often the case this season, the Tide struggled in the second quarter, scoring just four points. They trailed 31-26 at the half.
The second half wasn't much better for the home team as they fell behind by eight points, before putting ona furious rally, only to fall short when a three-pointer at the buzzer rimed out.
Tre Simms led the Tide with 21 points, followed by Nate Wall with 12.

Wrestling update

Just got a phone call from coach Scott Rupp at Bermudian Springs High School -- site of the Section 1 sectional.
Columbia has two wrestlers -- Joe Ronca (135) and Nate Warner (160) going for sectional titles tonight.
Five others -- Derek Zercher (119), John Markley (130, Jordan Halter (140), Brandon Felus (215) and Jake Sentz (285) going for third and fourth.
All seven advance to the District Three championships next Friday and Saturday at the ancient Hersheypark Arena.

As a side note, if Ronca wins his championship bout tonight, it should give him 100 wins for his CHS career.