The Pequea Valley boys' basketball team wrapped up its 2020-21 season with a three-game stretch of heartbreaking defeats. The Braves finished the year 3-9 and were 2-6 in the Lancaster-Lebanon League.

Coming off their 10-point victory over non-league foe Kutztown from Wednesday, February 17, the Braves visited Hanover for another non-league contest on Saturday afternoon. They came up one point short in a 53-52 loss.

The Nighthawks came back from a 46-41 deficit to double up the Braves 12-6 in the fourth quarter.

The loss spoiled a tremendous offensive effort by Pequea's Devon Colyer, who led all scorers with 33 points. Colyer scorched the net with four three-pointers. He made 11-of-14 free throws on the day.

Hanover's Kyle Garman finished with 21 points.

Lancaster Country Day outscored Pequea Valley by two points in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game at Kinzers. Well, two points in the final period of close games can be crucial. The Cougars edged the Braves 50-48.

Antonio Lazar led all scorers. The Pequea senior scored 20 points, getting nine of those on a trio of three-point baskets. Luke Peifer added 12 points while Colyer finished with eight.

Grant Landis led LCD with 19 points. He was on fire from three-point range, connecting five times.

Oley Valley eked out a 43-41 victory at Pequea on Wednesday as Wes McCalpine (12 pts) and Daniel Turchi (11 pts) led the Lynx.

Nevin Stoltzfus had a sensational game, connecting from three-point land five times on a 17-point performance. Colyer poured in 11.

WRESTLING

The Braves competed in the District Three Class 2A Section 2 sectionals at Central Dauphin on February 20. As a team, the Braves finished eighth with 78 team points, claiming a championship in the 126-pound weight class to go with two second-places finishers and a third-place finish.

Brandywine Heights compiled 136.5 team points with four first-place finishes. Hamburg was second with 130 points and Bishop McDevitt third with 128.

Jace Beegle was the champ at 126, claiming two decisions en route to the title bout. He defeated Ethan Missimer of Annville-Cleona 8-5 and Marvin Armistead of Berks Catholic by a 6-4 margin.

After holding off those two opponents in close decisions, he claimed the title via default against previously unbeaten Gary Deyarmin of Schuylkill Valley.

Taking second place in the heavyweight class was the Braves' Nate Miller.

He opened with a pin, taking down Daregan Motto of Hamburg 1:42 into the 285-pound opening round. He posted a killer pin against Killer Raye Wiliam before suffering a loss via fall to Riley Rubell of McDevitt in the finale.

Dustin Huber also lost on a fall, coming up short against unbeaten Dalton Gimbor of Hamburg.

Huber made his way to the championship with a 9-2 defeat of Columbia's Jim Brady and an 8-3 defeat of Wyomissing senior Xavier Ailternajouh.

Third place in the 106-pound brackets went to Liam McGinley. In a competition that began coincidentally enough between Liam McGinley and Annville-Cleona's Liam Pulaski, the Liam from Pequea prevailed 9-3.

Following an 8-0 major decision by Northern Lebanon's Owen Lehman, McGinley went through the consolation brackets first pinning Aiden Moyer of Schuylkill Valley before winning the third-place match in a 7-0 decision, defeating Cael Rosen of McDevitt.

Luke Brown (172 pounds) earned a consolation pin, defeating Wyomissing's Lucas Kramer before losing a tough 4-1 decision to Gaven Hartranft of Berks Catholic.

Injuries hampered Zach Hollenbaugh in the 215-pound class. Tyler Anderson came up empty at 145. His consolation brackets included a close 4-2 loss to Kobe Moore of Camp Hill.

GIRLS' BASKETBALL

In a stretch of five days, the Pequea Valley girls' basketball team played four games. Winning three, the Braves improved to 6-9 on the year (5-5 league). Two of those victories came against league rival Octorara.

Pequea posted a 51-42 non-league victory at home over Susquenita in a mid-day Saturday game. The first of the two wins over Octorara came on Monday, February 22.

Helping her team win on Friday night was Brooke Liney, who scored 16 points. One dozen of those points came on the four three-point baskets.

Shania Stoltzfus complemented the scoring nicely with a 13-point performance. Sarah Arment added 10 points.

The Braves increased their slim two-point lead to 12 points by halftime. Susquenita erased nearly all of that deficit with an 18-8 third quarter.

In a game with both teams called "Braves," the Pequea side dominated the visiting Octorara Braves 60-20 on Monday evening. Rebecca Cox led all scorers with 17 points. Deena Stoltzfus and Liney each tallied 10 points while Shania Stoltzfus contributed seven points.

Both of Pequea's wins over Octorara were dominant. In Wednesday's game, the visiting Braves were too much for the Octorara Braves in a 54-10 final. In fact, Pequea led by 34-9 at halftime and blanked the opponent in the third quarter.

Cox came through with 16 points while Liney nailed three treys in her 13-point game. Arment put up nine points.

Sandwiched between the two Octorara games was a Tuesday evening loss at Northern Lebanon. The Vikings took a 22-14 lead into the locker room at halftime and outscored the Braves in third quarter as well, holding on for a 44-34 win.

Liney led the Braves with 11 points. The Vikings' top scorer, Ashlyn Messinger,

was the game's leading scorer with 13 points.