Loyalsock celebrates their District 4 Championship 52-49 over Hughesville at Montoursville High School. DAVE KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

A year had passed since the previous District 4 Class AAA final, but so much felt the same. It was if last Friday’s game resumed where the 2024 contest left off at Montoursville.

After sweeping the regular season series from rival Hughesville, Loyalsock again faced a double-digit second half deficit against the motivated Spartans. While Hughesville had everything working, the Lancers struggled to find the right gear and it started looking like Hughesville would repeat as champions, doing so under the same circumstances as the previous year.

Almost as soon as many started having that thought, Loyalsock began making this championship rematch different.

The Lancers thundered back, took the lead with 2 minutes, 20 seconds remaining and won a 52-49 championship thriller. Loyalsock (25-2) captured its fourth district title in seven seasons and earned a spot in Friday’s state tournament against Biglerville while revealing that its toughness matches its talent.

“It shows that we don’t give up. At halftime we didn’t roll over,” center Alaina Dadzie said. “We had two quarters left and that’s a lot of time. We just went after it and played how we play and got it done.”

Hughesville (22-4), which faces Holy Redeemer Friday at Williamsport, built a seven-point advantage at halftime and pushed it to 33-22 a little more than two minutes into the third quarter. Right when the Lancers appeared on the ropes, they fought back.

Lacey Kriebel hit a 3-pointer seconds later and, play by play, Loyalsock started working its way back. Knowing there were no 11-point plays out there, the Lancers focused on the old cliché of making one play at a time and consistently started making those plays on both ends.

“I feel like once we saw the ball go through the net that really got us going,” Kriebel said. “It was like, ‘All right we’ve got this, and we’re going to keep going.'”

“Once we started playing our game, from then on we got back into it,” senior guard Julie Ellis said. “Putting pressure on defense, getting into passing lanes, rebounding. All that kind of stuff helped us start coming back.”

A Jillian Kennedy 3-pointer made it a six-point game, but Hughesville pushed the lead back to 10 with 70 seconds remaining in the third quarter. From there, however, Loyalsock allowed just nine more points and three more field goals.

Obviously, the offense needed points to win the game, but the defense kept Loyalsock in the game.

“It goes back to getting stops, and we weren’t getting enough stops. I don’t call us an offensive juggernaut but if you can defend, you can keep yourself in the game,” Loyalsock coach Curtis Jacobson said. “We didn’t do it all the time but we did it enough to hang in there and kind of throw that knockout punch when we could.”

As the defense tightened the offense opened up. Actually, the two converged in the third quarter’s final seconds to really start changing the dynamics. Playing along the back end of the press, Dadzie read the play and intercepted a pass at midcourt with a few seconds remaining. From there, she took a few dribbles, pulled up and banked in a jumper at the buzzer.

Just like that, Loyalsock had cut the 10-point deficit in half and suddenly trailed just, 40-35 with eight minutes remaining.

“We had to just chip away,” Ellis said. “We got that steal and basket, and we came in with a lot of momentum into the fourth quarter. We said we can’t let this happen again. This is ours.”

Hughesville certainly did not let Loyalsock take it. The Lancers had to earn the trophy the hard way. A year ago, they rallied in the fourth quarter but Hughesville held it off and won, 38-34.

Getting close again was not the goal. Erasing that memory and flipping the script was, so Loyalsock dug in, kept the faith and continued surging offensively and defensively.

“It definitely put a lot of fire in our bellies. We weren’t going to let it happen again,” Kriebel said. “We knew we were going to bounce back when we were down 11 in the third quarter. We never crash when we’re down like that. We know we have the skill and ability to come back. We never panicked.”

Kriebel found Dadzie inside to tie the game, 46-46 and Dadzie gave Loyalsock its first lead since early in the second quarter, connecting on a free throw which made it 47-46 with 2:43 left. Ellis hit a free throw on the ensuing series and then made a huge play which spoke volumes.

When the senior missed the second foul shot, she hustled off the line and grabbed the offensive rebound. That sequence said a lot about how Loyalsock started swinging the game’s complexion.

“We challenged the girls at halftime. They (the Spartans) got every one of the loose balls in the first half,” Jacobson said. “We were tip-toeing around, and they were going to go get it. I challenged them to go do the dirty work, and they responded.”

That included Kriebel making a crucial block in the paint and swatting away a potential game-tying basket as well as Jaekairah Harden making a steal along the baseline near Hughesville’s basket in a two-point game with 50 seconds remaining. Kennedy added another steal after Kriebel scored to make it a four-point game and Harden’s ensuing foul shot made it, 51-46.

Hughesville never went away either and Maddie Smith hit a clutch 3-pointer which cut the deficit to 51-49 with 8.5 seconds remaining. A Kriebel foul shot extended the lead, but Hughesville had one last chance to tie the game. Loyalsock, though, forced a turnover off the last-second inbound pass and completed its impressive comeback.

This was a test of will as much as skill and Loyalsock answered the bell. The Lancers would rather start strong and stay strong for four quarters but how they won this game likely will long mean as much to the players as the fact that they won.

“We just had to settle down and do what we knew would work,” Ellis said. “It really shows the type of team we have and people we are.”