Basketball season heats up locally

With the Pennsylvania high schools starting basketball last weekend play on the court has heated up, despite the fact that many local colleges will take a short break for Christmas vacation.

GIRL'S TEAM OF THE WEEK

While there are plenty of top girl's teams to pick from this week, the Troy Trojans managed to win the Mansfield Tip-off Tournament again this year despite losing a starter to injury.

The Trojans used a strong defense and balanced offense to take the tournament, first beating North Penn Friday and Mansfield Saturday.

On the first day Lauren Gustin and Courtney Mattocks scored in double figures while Meghan Manning backed them up with eight points and Amanda Goodwin chipped in with six.

In the championship game the Trojans prevailed despite losing Manning to injury against North Penn and being down at the half to the Tigers. It was Gustin that picked up the slack, putting 13 points while Goodwin helped out with 10.

GIRL'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Sayre's Elizabeth Higley looked as if she didn't stop playing from last year in the Redskins' winning the Sayre tip-off Tournament.

In the first game Higley 27 points, 12 rebounds and five steals in the win over Sullivan County. The forward followed that up with a 21 points, 10 rebound, three blocked shots, four steals and three assists effort in the championship game against Bath.

With performances like these the Redskins will be difficult to knock off as reigning NTL Champions.

BOY'S TEAM OF THE WEEK

Tioga has started off the season strong, marked by a thrilling 62-61 triple-overtime win over Notre Dame last week.

Dave Ulrich, Larry Brink, Scott Foust and Luke Dougherty all reached double figures in the win.

The Tigers have gotten consistent production from their top players which has given them a 2-0 start to the young season, which looks to be an improvement over last season.

BOY'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Despite losing their tournament championship game in overtime, Jordan Brunelle did all he could for the Trojans.

In the loss to Jersey Shore Brunelle had 34 points including five assists.

Brunelle did just as well in their first round win over Mansfield with 29 points and four assists.

The first day Brunelle did the damage at the free throw line with 15 made free throws, while had three three-pointers against Jersey Shore.

WOMEN'S TEAM OF THE WEEK

The Penn State women played a statement game last week, defeating No. 15 rank Pittsburgh in thrilling fashion.

Senior Tyra Grant had a season high 27 points while Meredith Monroe posted a double-double 14 points and 13 rebounds.

It was the second win this week for the Lady Nittany Lions, who find themselves with a 7-3 record so far this season.

WOMEN'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Misericordia's Jesse Robinson continues to shine for the Cougars.

In their semester finale win over Rosemont the sophomore guard had 15 points, four assists and six steals. In the loss to Marywood Robinson posted 11 points as well.

So far this seaon the Tioga graduate is averaging 14.4 points, 5.4 rebounds with 29 assists and 34 steals on the year for the division three school.

MEN'S TEAM OF THE WEEK

The Cornell Big Red continue to look impressive, winning their only game this week.

The Big Red defeated St. Joseph University to go to 7-2 on the year.

Cornell got a team effort in the win, as senior Ryan Wittman led four Big Red players in double figures with 17 points, while Chris Wroblewski and Jon Jaques each had 15. Wroblewski added six assists and three rebounds. Jaques, in his first collegiate start, added two rebounds, and assist and a steal in 23 minutes. Also hitting for double figures was Geoff Reeves, who scored 13 points and had four rebounds. Jeff Foote had seven points, five rebounds and three assists in 22 minutes, while his backup, Mark Coury, had six points and six rebounds off the bench.

MEN'S PLAYER OF THE WEEK

Bucknell freshman center MIke Muscala was named the Patriot League Men's Basketball Rookie of the Week last week.

Muscala had three solid games that gave him averages of 13.3 points, six rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.

The highlight of the week for Muscala was a 20 points, seven rebound, four block effort against Cornell in an overtime loss.

MOUNTIE STRUGGLES

It wasn't a good week for the Mansfield men's and women's teams as the men went 0-2 on the week while the women went 0-3.

The men lost a heart breaker to Mercyhurst early in the week, then were narrowly edged by LeMoyne last weekend.

The women also lost to Mercyhurst when their rally fell short, followed by losses to Lake Erie and LeMoyne.

The men will travel to Florida before Christmas for a tournament while the women play just after the New Year and back-to-back home games.

KYLE DOUGHERTY UPDATE

The Athens native had a solid week for Villanove University last week.

Coming off the bench Dougherty had eight points, five rebounds and three assists in a win while adding two rebounds and five assists in a victory over Binghamton.

Dougherty is now averaging 3.3 points, 2.7 rebounds and had totaled 17 assists on the year for the division one school.

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If you haven any notes of local athletes playing at any level, from youth up through the pros, or if you have any regional teams you would like to see highlighted, contact *570)

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