Opening night a tough one for District 3 teams in PIAA Tournament

Berks Catholic wasn’t the only District 3 boys basketball champ to go down on the opening night of the PIAA Tournament.

Lampeter-Strasburg, which won its first 27 games on the way to the Class 5A title, was stunned by Penn Hills 62-39 on the Pioneers’ home court Tuesday. Penn Hills came in as the No. 7 seed from District 7, though that may have been a little misleading. The Indians lost a district quarterfinal by two points to Highlands and were expected to finish among the top four teams in the district.

Lampeter-Strasburg beat Shippensburg 66-57 for the District 3 title; earlier it beat Hempfield for the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship.

Berks Catholic, which played perhaps its best game of the season in beating Middletown 60-37 for the Class 4A title, was knocked out in the opening round Tuesday by Archbishop Carroll, the No. 5 team out of District 12. The Saints (23-5) trailed by as many as 27 points before closing the gap in a 68-61 loss.

It was a tough night overall for District 3 boys teams.

In Class 5A seven of the nine entries saw their seasons end. The only winners were No. 2 Shippensburg, which beat District 1 fourth-place Upper Moreland 56-46. and No. 3 Hershey, which beat District 7 sixth-place Shaler 71-45. Shippensburg and Hershey each had home games.

The No. 4 thru No. 9 seeds all lost, including No. 7 Exeter, which fell at Chester 61-52. The Eagles were tied with six minutes to go in that one.

District 3 teams fared even worse in Class 4A where only one of five state entries survived. No. 3 Trinity beat District 1 champ Collegium Charter 77-63. No. 2 Middletown lost at home to Scranton Prep, 53-50.

In Class 1A, three of the five District 3 entries advanced, including champ Linville Hill Christian, which beat Fannett-Metal 75-60. No. 4 High Point was eliminated 63-40 by District 4 champ St. John Neumann.