St. Joseph’s boys’ and girls’ basketball teams suffer district semifinal losses — but seasons not over yet

St. Joseph’s Catholic Academy suffered two tough district losses Saturday night in both boys’ and girls’ basketball.

The No. 2-seed girls’ team opened the night at home with a 51-41 loss to No. 3-seed Purchase Line in the District 6 Class A semifinals. The No. 2-seed boys’ team then lost 78-75 in overtime to No. 3-seed Juniata Valley in the district semifinals.

Despite the losses, however, the Wolves’ seasons aren’t over just yet.

Because three District 6 teams qualify for the Class A state tournament, both the St. Joseph’s boys’ and girls’ teams will play another game Tuesday to decide whether they move on to states or spend March from the bleachers. Both the boys’ squad and the girls’ group will take on the same opponent school in Blacklick Valley on Tuesday at a neutral site.

“It’s unfortunate we couldn’t close it out, but the bright side is we just keep playing,” boys’ coach Richard Ciambotti said.

On the boys’ side, SJCA seized the early advantage with a 33-28 halftime lead. But Juniata Valley chipped away at the lead and, with a tie game and less than eight seconds left in regulation, SJCA let a floater go from the paint — and watched it bounce in and out.

In overtime, SJCA trailed by three in the final seconds and missed a desperation trey to force a second overtime.

“My message to the team was that I love them and I’m proud of them, and I had such a great time with that group in our building,” Ciambotti said. “It’s been a special ride with these eight seniors.”

Jack Mangene paced St. Joseph’s with an impressive double-double of 21 points and 16 rebounds. Cameron Khoza added 16 points, and Brendan Scanlon had 15.

No girls’ information was provided to the CDT.