The Lady Spartans captured the Eastern Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference title in a very exciting tournament played in the Spartan Center this past weekend.
Northampton Community College was seeded first, and defeated Harrisburg, the fourth seed, 66 – 47 on Saturday, February 9. Number two seed Luzerne was defeated by the third seed, Manor Community College with a score of 73 – 47. The championship game, Northampton vs. Manor, was played on Sunday, February 10.
Coach Art Wolfe said to his team before the finals, “You worked the whole season to get to the playoffs, now you need to bring your “A” game to the floor.” He said Manor is a bigger and more physical team than NCC, but both teams played exceptionally well. The game was exciting right down to the last 2 seconds.
At half-time NCC was up with a score of 31 -27, however, in the start of the second half, the Spartans fell behind 45 – 40. According to Wolfe, the ladies kept fighting and turned the game around, going up by 12 points. Then the momentum changed and Manor was on a roll. With less than a minute to play, Manor sank two field goals coming within four points of NCC. With two seconds left to play, NCC had the ball on a rebound out of bounds, but got a penalty call, turning the ball over to Manor. Manor shot, but missed as time ran out and NCC won 67 – 63.
Taylor Mastrianni was named MVP. Wolfe said, “Taylor doesn’t start, but came off the bench and played great defense and controlled the offense when she was in the 
game.” She contributed 16 points. Sharnay Rehm, the team’s 6’1” center (pictured at left cutting down the net) also had an exceptional game with 18 points and 9 rebounds.
To top off a fantastic weekend, Coach Art Wolfe was named Coach of the Year!!
"We are very proud of Coach Wolfe, Assistant Coach Tara Bellfield, and, of course, the young ladies on the team and their efforts all year," said Assistant Athletic Director Adrian Yaguez following the big win. "They have played their hearts out all season. They are very athletic and fun to watch. They play hard from start to finish. This was a tremendous coaching and recruiting effort, and the team really bought into the program with the coaches from day one. This was a team win - and we are extremely proud of all of them."
The Lady Spartans now advance to the Pennsylvania Collegiate Athlete Association state championship game. They will take on the Catamounts from Potomac State College at 2 p.m. this Saturday (February 16) in the Spartan Center. The Catamounts are the Western Pennsylvania Collegiate Conference champions.
Come out and support the Lady Spartans in their quest for the state title.
