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WILKES-BARRE — Perhaps it was fitting that Marissa Trivelpiece found Olivia Wolk with a bounce pass as the final second ticked off the clock.
The two cousins found different ways to give Hazleton Area a spark all night.
Trivelpiece scored 16 points to go with her dominating defensive performance Thursday, Wolk came off the bench to ignite a stagnant offense with 11 big points and the Cougars clamped down on Berwick 45-38 in the inaugural Wyoming Valley Conference Championship semifinals at Holy Redeemer High School.
“I was really pumped up for this game,” said Wolk, whose performance helped the WVC champion Cougars get back to Hazleton Area High School for another game against Division 2 champ Holy Redeemer at 6 p.m. Saturday to decide the league title. “I wanted to be home Saturday.
“I’m so psyched for it.”
It seems her enthusiasm was pretty contagious.
Brooke Boretski scored three timely baskets, Virginia Yurchak hit all of her eight points from the foul line to help hold off Berwick in the fourth quarter and Trivelpiece battled hard against bigger opponents in the paint all night.
But it was Wolk’s burst off the bench that played the biggest big part in Hazleton Area’s ability to hammer out a comfortable lead.
“Livey, she’s my first cousin, my third sister,” an admiring Trivelpiece said. “She runs around the same way all the time. I don’t know how she doesn’t get tired. It’s the same tempo.
“It’s incredible.”
She buried a 3-pointer in the opening quarter — “I knew it was going in,” Trivelpiece said — to help the Cougars carve out a three-point lead heading into the second period.
Then Wolk caught fire in the second quarter, burning Berwick with three baskets and two foul shots for eight points in the period. Her driving deuce 20 seconds from halftime hoisted Hazleton Area’s lead to 30-14.
“Wolkie came up to give us energy, did a great job with the ball,” Hazleton Area coach Joe Gavio said.
Just call her the super sub.
“I do like it,” Wolk said about coming off the bench. “It gets me pumped up. I know it’s my time to help the team out.”
Trivelpiece lent a big hand all night.
She blocked six shots inside and came up with six rebounds, using position and a keen knack for knowing when to make moves on the inside to thwart Berwick’s break-and-butter plays in the post.
“I’ve gotten a little better during the season knowing how to judge when to block,” Trivelpiece said. “Other teams have bigger girls. We have the height, but we’re not built like them. The whole team really contributes to that on defense.”
Trivelpiece was just as effective on offense while attacking from everywhere on the floor.
She scored six points to help the Cougars carve out a lead in the first quarter and knocked down a 3-pointer and a layup to give Hazleton Area a 10-point advantage in the second.
“Marissa has played great,” Gavio said. “She’s rebounding, at the front of everything. Defensively, she’s played great.”
And there was some more offense from Trivelpiece after halftime, as she scored all five points Hazleton Area points in the third quarter on her second trey and a rebound bucket as the Cougars took a 35-23 lead into the final quarter.
“I haven’t been confident in my shots lately,” Trivelpiece said. “When I’m down, I try to attack the basket. I’m always confident in my foul shot. Sometimes it doesn’t work out.”
It worked out just fine for a Hazleton Area team that’s now 18-5 after winning 16 of its last 17 games.
Berwick, which fell to 18-5 with its second loss of the year to the Cougars, rallied within eight points on Abby Burt’s 3-pointer with 2:27 to play and crept within 41-34 on Renny Murphy’s trey with 1:42 remaining.
But Yurchak’s foul shooting and a bucket from Boretski held the Bulldogs at bay.
“At this point, you just want a W,” Gavio said. “It’s good for the kids, they wanted it bad.
“It was a big game for us.”
WVC Semifinal
Hazleton Area 45, Berwick 38
BERWICK (38) — Renny Murphy 3 1-2 9, Abby Burt 1 0-0 3, Katie Starr 5 4-5 14, Megan Dalo 3 3-5 9, Emily Ouimet 1 1-1 3, Sierra Miedaner 0 0-0 0, Emily Novicki 0 0-0 0, Jadyn Michael 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 9-13 38.
HAZLETON AREA (45) — Brooke Boretski 3 0-1 6, Kyra Antolick 1 0-0 2, Faith Grula 1 0-0 2, Marissa Trivelpiece 5 4-5 16, Virginia Yurchak 0 8-10 8, Diane Garnett 0 0-0 0, Olivia Wolk 4 2-2 11. Totals 14 14-18 45.
Berwick`10`6`7`15 — 38
Hazleton Area`13`17`5`10 —45
Three-point goals — BER 3 (Murphy 2, Burt); HA 3 (Trivelpiece 2, Wolk).
