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SALEM TWP. — The sting of losing out on a piece of history lingered with the Hazleton Area Cougars for a week.
Time to make it go away.
Marissa Trivelpiece and the rest of the Cougars did just that Saturday, when Trivelpiece scored all of her game-high 12 points and blocked four shots in the first 16 minutes as Hazleton Area dominated Delaware Valley, 58-21 in a District 2/4 Class 6A girls basketball subregional semifinal at Berwick Middle School.
“We did what we had to do,” Hazleton Area coach Joe Gavio said.
That meant, in large part, getting over a loss to Holy Redeemer in last Saturday’s first-ever Wyoming Valley Conference overall league championship game — when the Cougars crumbled after taking a 10-point lead late in the third quarter and went scoreless for more than eight and a half minutes.
“This was kind of like our comeback game,” Trivelpiece said. “At first, we were down on ourselves. We wanted to brand ourselves as Hazleton — we can get the job done.
“We’re still here.”
Now, the defending champion Cougars will be going back to where they won last year’s subregional title, and two of the last three crowns. They’ll face 11-12 Williamsport, a 41-32 winner over Scranton in the other subregional semifinal, at 6 p.m. Friday for the Class 6A championship.
Hazleton Area got there with a devastating press defense that forced nine turnovers in the first eight minutes, 17 in the first half and 25 through three quarters before reserves took the floor for the entire final quarter with the Cougars in control, 54-14.
When the Cougars weren’t preventing shots with aggressive defense, Trivelpiece was blocking them. She stuffed four Delaware Valley layup attempts in the opening six minutes.
“Our press is not a good matchup for them,” said Gavio, whose Cougars improved to 18-5. “If you sit back on them, they’ll be in the game. They’re susceptible to the press. That’s the whole game.”
As for the beginning of the game, Trivelpiece popped a 3-pointer and scored nine points in the opening quarter as Hazleton Area rolled to a quick 18-4 lead.
“Marissa’s playing good, that’s why she’s the (Wyoming Valley Conference Coaches) MVP,” Gavio said. “She hits that first three, that’s setting the tone for us. We’re all playing pretty good.”
Trivelpiece hit another trey in the second quarter, Faith Grula scored her first six points in the period and Brooke Boretski scored nine of her 11 in the opening two quarters as the Cougars built a 36-9 halftime advantage and coasted into the subregional championship.
“It definitely was good to get out fast,” Trivelpiece said. “I think most teams get frustrated with our press. We played our game. I think we did very well.”
District 2/4 Class 6A Subregional Semifinals
Hazleton Area 58, Delaware Valley 21
DELAWARE VALLEY (21) — Ashley Thalassinos 1 0-0 2, Brooke Acoveno 3 1-6 9, Kaitlyn Hernandez 0 1-2 1, Mia Van Wie 0 0-0 0, Amber Reeksick 1 0-0 2, Elizabeth Bobo 3 0-0 6, Erin Hartley 0 1-3 1, Lexi Sickler 0 0-0 0, Rose Lombardo 0 0-0 . Totals 8 3-11 21.
HAZLETON AREA (58) — Brooke Boretski 5 0-0 11, Kyra Antolick 2 3-4 7, Faith Grula 3 2-2 8, Marissa Trivelpiece 4 2-3 12, Virginia Yurchak 3 1-2 7, Diane Garnett 2 0-0 4, Olivia Wolk 1 1-2 3, Katie Lipinski 0 0-0 0, Carley Krizansky 1 0-0 2, Megan Fay 1 0-0 2, Alyssa Holodick 0 2-2 2, Allie Zumar 0 0-0 0, Maddison Plesh 0 0-0 0, Madelyn LaBuda 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 11-15 58.
Delaware Valley`4`5`5`7 — 21
Hazleton Area`18`18`18`4 — 58
Three-point goals — DV 2 (Acoveno 2); HAZ 3 (Trivelpiece 2, Boretski).