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Old Forge’s Kierstyn Breig (22) moves towards the paint during a PIAA high school Class A Girls championship basketball game against Vincentian Academy in Hershey on Saturday, March 21.

Vincentian Academy’s Alexiss Griggs (42) dives for a loose ball during a PIAA high school Class A Girls championship basketball game against Old Forge in Hershey on Saturday, March 21.

Old Forge suffered a loss of historic proportions March 21 in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class A girls basketball championship game.

The Lady Devils, however, also made history in getting to the Giant Center in Hershey for the state final.

Vincentian Academy won by the largest margin in any PIAA girls basketball final in any classification and set a record for points in a Class A final when it pounded Old Forge, 86-38.

This was the second straight year that Vincentian defeated Old Forge in the final, making the Lady Devils the first Lackawanna League team to reach consecutive girls basketball championship games.

Once they got there, the Lady Devils were overmatched by a team that started four players bigger than any Old Forge starter and still had the quickness to apply suffocating full-court pressure.

Vincentian, the District 7 champion with a 30-1 record, repeated its title by forcing 45 Old Forge turnovers, 28 in the first half.

Brenna Wise, a 6-foot-1 University of Pittsburgh recruit, led the way with a triple-double of 30 points, 13 steals and 11 rebounds. Alexis Griggs, a 6-foot junior forward, added 24 points and three blocked shots.

Wise had 22 points in the first half to help Vincentian to a 48-20 lead.

Old Forge led 3-2, but when Vincentian moved ahead in the game’s third minute, it stayed there the rest of the way. A 20-point streak helped make it 26-8 after one quarter and the lead grew to 39-8 before the midway point in the second quarter.

Tori Tansley led the Lady Devils (16-11) with 14 points. Nina Pascolini added 11 points. Nicole Talgiaferri had a team-high eight rebounds.

The Lady Devils returned to Hershey with the most dramatic of their growing list of state tournament wins.

Portage opened a 16-2 lead early, hit the game-tying basket in the closing seconds of regulation, then forced a second overtime with a long buzzer-beater, but Old Forge came away with a 45-42, double-overtime victory March 17 at Cumberland Valley.

Tansley had 24 of her 28 points after halftime.

Old Forge won four state tournament games for the second straight year, including 50-38 over Shamokin Lourdes Regional March 17 in the state quarterfinal in Hazleton.

The Lady Devils trailed most of the first half in that game before holding Lourdes scoreless for stretches of more than four minutes in both the third and fourth quarters.

Tansley had 17 points and 14 rebounds in the win.

Playing almost entirely against larger schools, Old Forge was just 8-10 before winning eight straight, two to end the regular season, two in the District 2 tournament and four in state play.

The Lady Devils have won four straight District 2 Class A titles and have gone 11-4 in state tournament games over the past four seasons.