Hazleton Area’s Alexis Reimold scores a basket against Scranton during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Hazleton Area’s Sofia Rodgers (12) passes through the defense of Scranton’s Johanelys Paulino Baez during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Hazleton Area’s Kaitlyn Bindas scores over Scranton’s Bianca Perez during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Scranton’s Chrissy Jacklinski (2) shoots over the Hazleton Area defense during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Scranton’s Chrissy Jacklinski (2) drives the ball past the defense of Hazleton Area’s Sophia Benyo during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Scranton’s Johanelys Paulino Baez shoots a three-pointer during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game against Hazleton Area at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Hazleton Area’s Sofia Rodgers (12) shoots a three-pointer during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game against Scranton at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Scranton Head Coach PJ Hughes hugs player Abigail Stalica while giving out medals after being defeated by Hazleton Area for the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Hazleton Area’s Anna Shafer (33) and Scranton’s Jahiya Parker battle for the rebound during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Hazleton Area players celebrate after defeating Scranton for the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Hazleton Area’s Alexis Reimold scores a basket against Scranton during the PIAA District 2 Class 6A championship game at Mohegan Sun Arena at Casey Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Twp. Friday, February 27, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
WILKES-BARRE TWP. — These Hazleton Area singers can play a little basketball. Their friends are pretty good at the game, too.
One night after wowing a packed house at their home gym with their rendition of the national anthem, Kaitlyn Bindas, Sophia Benyo and Addy Fritz returned to their regular gigs on Friday night: helping the Lady Cougars maintain its stranglehold on the District 2 Class 6A girls’ championship.
Bindas poured in a game-high 24 points, Benyo stuffed the stat sheet with 11 points, nine rebounds, five steals and four assists and Fritz came off the bench to add seven points as Hazleton Area overwhelmed Scranton, 67-30, at Mohegan Arena for their third straight district title. Alexis Reimold and Molly Temchatin contributed seven points apiece and Mariah Marolo and Kayla Lagowy delivered their usual solid play on both ends of the floor to spark the state-ranked Lady Cougars to their 24th win in 26 games.
“It was a pretty good feeling knowing that we’ve been here before,” Bindas said. “We were waiting for this (game) all week and then we came out hot, hit our shots and that kind of relaxed us a little bit.”
Indeed, Hazleton Area needed little time to assert its dominance, using its relentless full-court press to fluster the Lady Knights into nine first-quarter turnovers and its aggressive halfcourt matchup to force Scranton into 1-of-9 shooting in the quarter The Lady Cougars cashed many of those turnovers into baskets on the other end, enough to race to a 23-2 lead before many fans were even seated.
“It looked like were going to try to hold the ball a little bit there in the beginning,” Hazleton Area head coach Joe Gavio said. “But then we turned them over a couple of times and they started to unravel. … Once we got the ball, we ran our (fast) break and we mloved the ball pretty well. I thought we played pretty well, to be honest. … You come up (to the arena) and you never know what’s going to happen.”
Bindas scored 12 points, including six of two deep 3-pointers, and Benyo tossed in six points during the early run. Scranton coach PJ Hughes called two timeouts in an attempt to slow the Lady Cougars’ momentum, but to no avail.
“We really got the behind the 8-ball, didn’t we?” Hughes asked rhetorically. “You don’t want to fall behind a team that can score 80 points that big that early because we can’t score 80 points right now.”
After Fritz’s hoop off a Bindas feed and Reimold’s personal five-point run left the Lady Knights in an deeper hole (36-8) ate in the second quarter, Scranton showed some life on triples by Johanes Baez and Chrissy Jacklinski to close within 41-15 by halftime.
“I’m proud of my girls. … They fought and fought and fought against a great team,” Hughes said. “We just have to realize that we have to get better. If these girls buy in —and we bring everybody back — we have a bright future.”
Gavio stuck with his main rotation players into the third quarter, or at least until Benyo’s rebound basket kicked in the PIAA’s mercy rule at the 5:30 mark. The game was played with a running clock and plenty of reserves on the floor from that point.
“I guess our competitiveness comes from basketball, not singing,” Benyo said. “Now, we need to keep our momentum, stay calm and I think we’ll be OK.”
“We’re confident in anything we do,” said Bindas, who joined Benyo and Fritz in singing the Star-Spangled Banner before the Anthracite Junior Basketball League championship games on Thursday. “We wanted to sing it like 20 games ago, but they were like, ‘Do you think you could do it. We’re like, ‘Of course, we could do it.’ We’re a confident team.”
The Lady Cougars will stick hoops for now. They will play host to Spring-Ford, District 1’s eighth-place finisher, in the opening round of the PIAA tournament on Friday, March 6.
“Let’s call it what is: you win and you advance. … It doesn’t matter how you win from this point,” Gavio said. “We’ll take a day or two off, relax, watch some tape and get ready for a strong Spring-Ford team.. I feel pretty confident, but we’ve gotta keep working.”
Scranton will entertain Red Lion, the fourth-place finisher from District 3, also on March 6.
“We have a home game, so that’ll be nice,” Hughes said. “We’ll play a high-quality opponent, but win or lose, it will only make us better.
SCRANTON (30) — Jacklinski 6 2-3 15, M. Sweeney 0 0-0 0, Perez 0 1-2 1, E. Sweeney 0 0-0 0, Parker 0 0-0 0, Baez 2 1-2 6, Alers 0 1-2 1, Yearing 0 0-0 0, Stalica 1 0-0 2, Almonte 0 0-0 0, Pettus 0 0-0 0, Bell 2 0-0 5. Totals 11 5-9 30.
HAZLETON (67) –Marolo 1 1-2 4, Benyo 5 1-2 11, Silva 0 0-0 0, Matyas 0 0-0 0, Santiago 0 0-0 0, Rodgers 1 1-2 3, Bindas 10 1-1 24, Fritz 2 2-2 7, Lagowy 0 0-0 0, Reimold 4 3-3 11, Chupela 0 0-0 0, Pavlick 0 0-0 0, Veliz 0 0-0 0, Shafer 0 0-0 0, Blanyar 0 0-0 0, Betances 0 0-0 0. Totals 26 9-12 67.
Scranton (12-12)…….2 13 12 3 — 30
Haz. Area (24-2)……23 18 19 7 — 67
3-FG: Jacklinski, Baez, Bell, Bindas 3, Marolo, Fritz, Temchatin.