Mylique Sutton
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In a tough year for the Hazleton team, every game was a battle and they headed into each contest thinking it was theirs to win. However, the game plan didn’t always go as intended and the squad often found themselves holding the short end of the stick.
Despite the setbacks and the hard- ships, the team persevered entering the playoffs with high energy and looking at each team as a target to defeat.
A victory could have kept the door open. A loss could have slammed it shut.
The Hazleton team, sporting an 11-11 record, has had a habit of either blowing teams out or losing tightly contested match-ups and unfortunately for them, the game against York was the latter.
York, who was having a great season with a 16-6 record overall, took the game by a score of 93-83 and put a damper on Hazleton’s playoff push. Hazleton slipped to a game under .500 to end its year but a 9-7 conference record overall could be enough to get them into the postseason.
Hazleton finished second in its conference behind 16-8 Worthington Scranton and didn’t do nearly as bad as Wilkes-Barre or Penn College who finished their years off 7-17 and 4-20 respectively. The loss to York may not spell the end for the Hazleton squad, but they cannot al- low it to be a sign of things to come if playoff dreams become reality.
When the Penn State University Athletic Conference begins tomorrow with Hazleton at York at 7 p.m., the Hazleton men’s team needs to take things to a new level or face the possibility of heading home empty-handed for the season.