Schuylkill Haven poses with the Schuylkill League championship trophy and placard after defeating Lourdes 38-31 in the Schuylkill League girls' basketball championship game Friday at Martz Hall (Photo by Leroy Boyer).

Tough defense lifts Hurricanes to comeback win

POTTSVILLE — Audrey Hutchinson has a simple motto.

“Fill the case.”

When she reached ninth grade, Hutchinson said the girls’ basketball trophy case in the Schuylkill Haven High School lower hallway was virtually empty. The Hurricanes’ 1985 PIAA Class A state championship trophy was nearly 40 years old and nothing had been added to the case since.

Fast forward four years to Friday night.

Hutchinson spoke with great energy as she clutched the Hurricanes’ second straight Schuylkill League championship trophy. Haven’s lone senior, she scored six of her game-high 14 points in the fourth quarter as the Hurricanes outlasted Lourdes 38-31 in the league final at Martz Hall.

“My motto from the beginning … I like to say I created it … fill the case,” Hutchinson said. “That case, when we came up for basketball, it was empty. We put a league (trophy) in there last year, division (trophy) this year, now a league trophy this year. We’re not going to stop. Districts is next.”

Schuylkill Haven’s second straight league crown was the result of a dominating defensive effort, especially in the fourth quarter.

The Hurricanes (20-4) held Lourdes (22-2) to its lowest scoring total of the season, 21 points below their per-game average of 52.2 points, and ended the Red Raiders’ 16-game win streak.

Schuylkill Haven forced 21 turnovers, including seven in the fourth quarter. Lourdes shot just 1-for-9 from the floor in the final frame.

In the Schuylkill League championship game for the first time in 30 years, Lourdes controlled the game for most of the first half. The Red Raiders used a 9-0 run in the first quarter to lead 11-3 and held a 16-7 lead a minute into the second period.

Hutchinson had six of her points in the second quarter as Haven mounted a comeback. The Hurricanes used buckets by Hutchinson and Mckenna Runkle in the final 1:12 of the first half to slice Lourdes’ lead to 18-15 at halftime.

“They played tougher defense. They made it difficult for us to do things,” Lourdes coach Mike Klembara said. “We knew that they would play that way, but to duplicate it in practice during the week presents a little bit of a problem.

“We played our kind of game for maybe a quarter and a half, but late in the second quarter we had opportunities to be ahead by 10 or 12 and it was a two or three-point game.

“They just kind of wore us down physically.”

The key to Haven’s comeback and second-half surge was its defense on Lourdes center Hannah Lokitis. The Hurricanes continuously denied the ball to the 6-foot-1 center, holding her scoreless in the second half.

Lokitis’ presence was felt on the defensive end, where she had 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots, but Schuylkill Haven kept her quiet on the offensive end. She finished with just six points.

Like she did in Schuylkill Haven’s win over Lourdes in the 2025 Schuylkill League quarterfinals, Runkle was the main cog in that defensive effort on Lokitis, boxing her out and keeping her off the offensive glass.

Runkle, a 5-10 junior, finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

“We were preaching that all week at practice,” Schuylkill Haven coach Tony Sanders said. “I thought Mckenna did a terrific job on her, again.

“We had to pressure their ballhandlers, which made them speed up a little bit and make bad passes. I thought we did a good job with that. That negated their size.

“They couldn’t get the ball up and we did a good job defending and denying the pass away.”

Schuylkill Haven’s guard tandem of Kylie Siket and Ava Terefencko also cranked things up defensively, blocking passing lanes, pressuring Lourdes’ guards and forcing turnovers.

With the game tied at 28-28 entering the fourth, Lourdes turned the ball over on four straight possessions.

“Kylie Siket and Ava Terefencko were animals up there pressuring the ball, being careful not to foul,” Hutchinson said. “That’s what we needed. They got it started for us. We love it.”

Haven, meanwhile, got a short jumper from Runkle, a lane jumper from Hutchinson off a feed from Runkle and a foul-line jumper from Runkle to take a 34-28 lead with 4:08 remaining.

With the game on the line in the fourth quarter, Runkle took over.

“They wanted it bad tonight,” Sanders said. “That’s what they did. They put the effort in and they got the reward for it.”

A 3-pointer by Onaleigh Barnes with 1:45 remaining sliced Haven’s lead to 34-31 and ended a 6-minute, 37-second scoring drought for the Red Raiders.

Lourdes got the ball back with a chance to tie in the final minute after Lokitis blocked a shot by Runkle, but the Red Raiders couldn’t convert a pair of short shots in the paint.

Lourdes fouled Hutchinson with 23 seconds left and she drained both free throws. The senior standout then stole the ball from Lokitis moments later and went in for a layup that clinched Schuylkill Haven’s second straight crown.

“She’s a special player,” Sanders said of Hutchinson. “She’s been doing it for four years for us and I can’t give her enough credit. She’s a workhorse for us.”

Back in November, Schuylkill Haven’s returning four starters — Hutchinson, Runkle, Siket, Terefencko — talked at Schuylkill League Basketball Media Day about repeating as league champions.

Thanks to strong defensive effort and some clutch plays down the stretch, the Hurricanes have one more for the case.

“We did it last year, we hoped to do it again and we executed,” Runkle said. “I knew from the start we were going to get here and we did. We won … it was awesome.”

Game Summary

Schuylkill League Girls’ Championship

At Martz Hall, Pottsville

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN (38) — Hutchinson 6 2-3 14, Siket 2 0-0 5, Runkle 5 1-4 11, Terefencko 2 1-2 6, Strenkoski 1 0-0 2, Wade 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 4-9 38.

LOURDES (31) — Sandri 3 0-0 7, Barnes 1 1-2 4, Lokitis 2 2-2 6, Karlovich 3 2-2 8, Reiprish 2 0-3 6, Schroyer 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 5-9 31.

3-point FGs: Siket, Terefencko, Sandri, Barnes, Reiprish 2

Officials: Gerchak, Cooper, Karinch