EDINBORO, Pa. — The District 9 Class AAA basketball runners-up were bounced from the PIAA Playoffs by the District 10 third place teams in a play-in double-header at Edinboro University Tuesday night.
In girls action, General McLane (23-5) outscored Punxsutawney (18-7) in every quarter en route to a 58-40 victory to advance to the first-round of the state tournament. The Lady Lancers will meet District 7 (WPIAL) champion Hopewell (26-2) Saturday at Ambridge High School.
Lauren Martino scored 15 points to finish her career with 1,036 points for the Lady Chucks. Samantha Reitz hit four three-pointers and had 14 points, ending her career total to 873.
For the Lady Lancers, who led 27-22 at halftime, Tori Hanson had 13 points, Sara Hanson 11 and Kelly Lewis 10.
In the boys game, Warren (20-7) converted four St. Marys (15-11) turnovers into a 10-0 start in the first 1:22 and rolled up at least 22 points in every period except the third to record its first state playoff win since 1974, 84-56.
The Dragons, whose offensive output was a season high, got 17 points from Ben Paul, 16 from Christian Woods, 13 from Jeff Eaton and 12 from Stephen Beach in reaching the 20-win plateau for the first time since 1982-83.
Senior guard Louis Pisani led the Flying Dutch with 23 points to cap an outstanding season in which he netted 640 points to boost his career total to 1,150. Levi Welder added 12 points.
Warren will play West Allegheny (17-11) Friday at North Allegheny High School in Wexford. West Allegheny had to win a play-in game to earn the No. 16 seed in the WPIAL Tournament and then engineered four consecutive upsets to claim the District 7 championship.