Lady Hornets run past NEB in NTL Showdown semis

By: Ed Weaver  /  February 16, 2018  /  Photo: Dr. Robert Bair

The Wellsboro Lady Hornets cruised past Northeast Bradford to kick off the NTL Showdown semi-finals on Thursday, February 15.

The Lady Hornets jumped out to a 14-6 lead after the first quarter, led by senior Tory Self with 9 points. Wellsboro outscored NEB 17-4 in the second to go up 31-10 at halftime and put the game out of reach. Wellsboro kept up the scoring in the second half, even from their bench, and outscored the Lady Panthers 24-22 to win 55-32.

"We wanted to have good ball movement on offense. We knew they would be in a zone and we worked on that, and could do a little better with it, but we'll face a different team Saturday, so we'll have to get ready for that tomorrow," said head coach John Davis.

Self led all scorers with a game-high 23 points and added 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and 7 steals. Self is now up to 485 points in a Lady Hornet uniform, and currently sits in 5th all-time for points in a single season in Wellsboro Girls Basketball history.

Senior Lizzie Poirier backed Self up with 12 points, sophomore Cathryn Brought scored 8, junior Emma Poirier had 5 in her first game back from injury, senior Rachael Tuttle finished with 3, and junior Luna Alexander and senior Mikel Shabloski chipped in with 2 points each. Tuttle had 10 rebounds and 4 steals, Lizzie Poirier added 6 rebounds with 2 assists and 2 steals, Brought and Shabloski both grabbed 2 rebounds, and sophomore Liza Manning blocked 2 shots.

The win improves the Lady Hornets' to 21-2 overall. Next up for Wellsboro is a rematch of last year's NTL Showdown final. The Lady Hornets will face off with Athens for the third time this season at Mansfield University's Decker Gym starting at 6:00 p.m.