Just call them the Fab Four. Pequea Valley, Lebanon and Northern Lebanon will represent the Lancaster-Lebanon League, and Linville Hill Christian, the three-time reigning Commonwealth Christian Athletic Conference champ, are all prepped and ready for second-round games in the PIAA girls basketball playoffs. Action resumes Tuesday. In Class 6A, L-L League champ and District 3 No. 3 seed Lebanon (26-4 overall) will take on three-time reigning District 1 champ Perkiomen Valley (26-3) at 8 p.m. at Coatesville. And in Class 3A, District 3 runner-up Pequea Valley (23-3) will square off against District 11 runner-up Schuylkill Haven (23-6) at 6 p.m. at Central Dauphin East in Harrisburg. On Wednesday in Class 4A, L-L League semifinalist and District 3 No. 3 seed Northern Lebanon (23-5) will face back-to-back District 1 champ Villa Joseph Marie (13-12) at 6 p.m. at Spring-Ford in Royersford. And in Class 1A, two-time defending District 3 champ Linville Hill (25-2) will tangle with District 1 champ Sacred Heart Academy (17-7) at 6 p.m. at West Chester Henderson. * Lebanon , back in the second round of states for the second time in three years, gets a rematch against powerful Perkiomen Valley. The Vikings won 60-45 in a nonleague clash at Lebanon back on Dec. 5, and they feature dynamic 1,000-point scorers Quinn Boettinger (Navy recruit) and Grace Galbavy (Wake Forest recruit). Lebanon’s last appearance in Round 2 was in 2023; the Cedars fell to Norwin 57-43 at Bald Eagle Area in Bellefonte. The Cedars clipped Conestoga 45-38 in the first round — Olive Brandt buried four 3-pointers and poured in 21 points in the win — and senior Kailah Correa is up to 2,157 career points, No. 7 in L-L history; she needs 13 points vs. Perk Valley to jump to No. 6 on the list. Lebanon’s Liliana Harrison is at 1,156 career points, and she’s also in the 1K rebound club. The Vikings can’t let her own the lane. Perkiomen Valley, the Pioneer Athletic Conference champ, cruised past Central York 67-37 in the first round; Boettinger (18 points), Galbavy (15 points) and Bella Bacani (6 points, four 3-pointers) spearheaded the offense. Boettinger (15.5, 23 treys), Galbavy (15.5, 46 treys) and Bacani (11.7, 52 treys) all average double-digits for the Vikings. Correa scored 20 points for Lebanon vs. Perkiomen Valley in their meeting back in December. The Vikings also beat the Cedars in a nonleague tilt last season. This time, it’s in the win-or-go-home PIAA bracket. The Lebanon/Perk Valley survivor gets undefeated D2 champ Hazleton (27-0) or D11 No. 3 seed Bethlehem Liberty in the quarterfinals on Friday. * Pequea Valley’s dream season — first L-L section title, first trip to a district championship game, first state playoff win, program-record 23 victories — continues against Schuylkill Haven. The Hurricanes toppled Bodine 51-15 in the first round, and they’re paced by McKenna Runkle at 11 points a game. Schuylkill Haven was riding a 7-game winning streak before falling to Notre Dame—Green Pond 32-28 in the D11 title game. The Hurricanes finished second in the Schuylkill League Section 1 race behind North Schuylkill. Janae Patterson (19.4 points a game) is the L-L’s leading scorer, and she’s up to 1,210 career points for PV . She scored 11 points, and Katie Stoltzfus drilled four treys and poured in 17 points in the Braves’ 61-39 first-round win over Masterman. The PV/SH winner gets D12 champ Imhotep Charter or D4 runner-up Hughesville in the quarterfinals on Friday. FYI : PV has been eliminated in states by Imhotep in the past, and Hughesville fell to Lancaster Catholic in the quarterfinals last March, on the Crusaders’ stampede to 3A state gold. * Northern Lebanon , which outlasted D4 champ Central Columbia 47-42 in double-OT on the Blue Jays’ home court in Bloomsburg in the first round, is making its deepest PIAA trip since the doomed 2020 tournament, when the Vikings were supposed to play rival Lancaster Catholic in the state quarterfinals before the pandemic hit and the season was canceled. NL — paced by 1,326-point scorer Olivia Shutter (13.3, 41 treys) — gets a Villa Joseph Marie team that is riding a 6-game winning streak, after a 2-5 clip. The Jems beat Pope John Paul II 38-27 in the D1 finale — their second straight, after no titles since 2002 — before rolling past Carver Engineering & Science 58-30 in their state opener. Villa Joseph Marie went 4-6 in Athletic Association of Catholic Academies action this season, finishing behind Villa Maria and Mount St. Joseph’s. NL was the Section 3 runner-up and advanced to the L-L semifinals, where the Vikings fell in double-OT to Manheim Township — giving NL a double-OT win and a double-OT loss in this postseason. Shutter scored 17 points — including a clutch three-point play to force OT — and Kasey Weimer scored 15 points in the Central Columbia game. Weimer (707 points) and fellow junior Hayley Sheroky (644) are both at 600-plus career points. Fellow juniors — defensive specialist Mackenzie Miller and glass-crasher Saorise Phillips (8.3) — round out the starters. NL’s five losses: Twice to Lancaster Catholic (district finalist, state qualifier), Manheim Township (state qualifier), Wyomissing (district champ, state qualifier) and Lebanon (league champ, state qualifier). The NL/Villa Joe winner gets D2 runner-up Valley View or D12 champ Audenried in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Audenried features 2,500-point scorer Shayla Smith , a Penn State recruit who is the all-time leading scorer in Philly girls prep history. * Linville Hill barreled past Benton 67-50 in the first round behind Courtney Good (21 points), Ellie Rishel (19 points) and Desiree Smucker (17 points, five 3-pointers). Smucker is the only girls player in school history in the 1,000-point club. The Warriors must curtail Sacred Heart low-post standout Keara McCaffrey . The DeSales recruit had 16 points, 26 rebounds (!) and six blocks in the Lions’ win over Delco Christian in the D1 title game, and she is just the fourth player in program history to reach 1,000 career points. Sacred Heart topped Linville Hill’s CCAC rival, Lancaster County Christian, 37-32 in the first round. The Lions have won eight D1 championships in the last nine years, so they know their way around a PIAA bracket. The Linville Hill/Sacred Heart survivor gets D3 No. 3 seed Greenwood or D1 No. 3 seed Upper Bucks Christian in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Linville Hill topped Greenwood 46-33 in the district semifinals — one year after falling to the Wildcats in the state quarters. A friendly reminder that after the state quarterfinals on Friday and Saturday, the PIAA playoffs won’t resume until March 21-22 — a full week off — because of a scheduling conflict with Hershey’s Giant Center. There’s also a full week off between the semifinals and the championships, set for March 27-28-29. Be patient. Mostly chalk in the state brackets so far. The biggest first-round upset was in Class 1A, where 25-0 WPIAL champ Union was ousted by D6 No. 4 seed Williamsburg by a 49-33 count. That got everyone’s attention in the lower West bracket. D8 champ Allderdice lost to WPIAL No. 3 Canon-McMillan in 6A; as mentioned, Northern Lebanon KO’d Central Columbia in 4A; D12 champ SLA Beeber lost to D3 runner-up Shalom Christian in 2A; D4 champ Muncy fell to D2 runner-up Elk Lake in 2A; and in 1A, D11 champ Notre Dame—East Stroudsburg lost to D1 No. 3 seed Upper Bucks Christian, and D1 champ Motivation lost to D11 runner-up Bethlehem Christian. All six D3 champs — 6A Dallastown, 5A York Suburban, 4A Wyomissing, 3A Trinity, 2A York Catholic and 1A Linville Hill — won their first-round games, and are still dancing. Most intriguing second-round matchup : In Class 3A, D10 champ Northwestern (25-0) vs. WPIAL runner-up Shady Side Academy (25-1) at Union at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. That survivor — get this — will take on either D3 champ Trinity or D6 runner-up River Valley (27-1) in the quarterfinals on Friday. Shamrocks/RV is Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Bald Eagle Area. That’s a heck of a pod. Archbishop Wood continues its march toward a potential fifth state championship in a row with a Round 2 Class 5A game on Wednesday against D1 No. 3 seed Villa Maria. That tilt is at Bensalem at 7:30 p.m. The 5 p.m. game is 6A girls, Dallastown vs. reigning champ Cardinal O’Hara; the middle game, at 6:30 p.m., is a 5A boys clash featuring Upper Moreland against York Suburban; and the 8 p.m. nightcap is the Lebanon vs. Perk Valley girls showdown. Lancaster Catholic’s senior class — Carleigh Anderson , Stella Higgins , Hailey Cox — just finished off a 4-year run where the Crusaders compiled a (wait for it) 100-18 record. … Anderson , a key-cog returning starter from the 2024 state title team, finished her career with 767 points on her way to Bloomsburg. Sadly, Higgins missed her entire senior season with a knee injury; she’ll play at Kutztown. Cox contributed off the bench. FYI : Nevaeh Kennedy (13.5, 20 treys, our Section 3 MVP), Morgan Gaylord (6.6), Charlotte Albertini (5.6), Jacy Shane (1.8), Ava Pisano (1.4) and Natalie Cellucci (1.1) are all due back next season for Lancaster Catholic. And we’ll see if Sophie Hall (ACL) and Emma Stefanow (ACL) will be ready to go come December after suffering knee injuries earlier this season. Plus, we hear the Crusaders have a crop of eighth-graders who should be ready to hit the court running in their ninth-grade debuts next winter. Never a dull moment at Catholic. Stay tuned. Speaking of senior classes … Lebanon’s 12th-graders — including four-year starters/contributors Kailah Correa , Liliana Harrison and Jae Burrus — have helped the Cedars go 92-21 heading into the Perkiomen Valley game. Safe to say it’s been quite a resurgence in the girls hoops department at Lebanon over the last four years. Lebanon senior Kailah Correa is at 2,157 points — 13 points shy of overtaking former Elco great (and current Cedar Crest coach) Ashli (Schwab) Shay for No. 6 on the L-L League’s all-time chart. … Speaking of 13: A quirky stat, but Correa has scored 13 points in Lebanon’s last three games in a row. … Lebanon senior Liliana Harrison is at 1,156 points, and she’s also in the 1,000-rebound club. … Northern Lebanon senior Olivia Shutter is at 1,326 points, after she popped in 17 points — including a clutch three-point play late in regulation to force OT — in Round 1 vs. Central Columbia. … Pequea Valley junior Janae Patterson is at 1,210 points; she scored 11 points in the Braves’ first-round triumph over Masterman. … Linville Hill senior Desiree Smucker is the only girls player in school history in the 1K-point club. She drilled five 3-pointers and scored 17 points in Linville Hill’s first-round dub over Benton.
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