{"id":122708,"date":"2026-02-25T03:42:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122708\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T03:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T03:42:15","slug":"moravians-ratcliffe-continues-to-pile-up-honors-on-basketball-court-pottsville-republican-herald","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122708\/","title":{"rendered":"Moravian\u2019s Ratcliffe continues to pile up honors on basketball court \u2013 Pottsville Republican Herald"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thought For The Day\u2026This column tries to carry out the philosophy once stated by President Teddy Roosevelt, who in a 1910 speech said, \u201cThe credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher Education Yahoo Awards\u2026One student-athlete who has been outstanding \u201cin the arena\u201d all season is Moravian senior men\u2019s basketball forward\u00a0Marquis Ratcliff\u00a0(Nativity) who is piling up honors. In just the past two weeks, Ratcliff:<\/p>\n

\"Bloomsburg<\/p>\n

Bloomsburg and former Panther Valley standout basketball player Maddison Maynard. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

\"Bloomsburg<\/p>\n

Bloomsburg and former Panther Valley standout basketball player Maddison Maynard. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

\"Bloomsburg<\/p>\n

Bloomsburg and former Panther Valley standout basketball player Maddison Maynard. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

\"Kutztown<\/p>\n

Kutztown and former Marian Catholic track runner Michael Fellin. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

\"Kutztown<\/p>\n

Kutztown and former Marian Catholic track runner Michael Fellin. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 5<\/p>\n

Bloomsburg and former Panther Valley standout basketball player Maddison Maynard. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014broke the Moravian scoring record in a 79-71 win over Lycoming, scoring 28 points, giving him 1,916 career points, easily surpassing the old record of 1,891 points;<\/p>\n

\u2014 was selected as the Moravian Sodexo Student-Athlete of the Week for the third time this season;<\/p>\n

\u2014 was selected as the Landmark Conference Men\u2019s Basketball Athlete of the Week for the fourth time this season; and<\/p>\n

\u2014was selected to the\u00a0d3hoops.com\u00a0Team of the Week for the second time this season.<\/p>\n

While Ratcliff\u2019s ninth double-double of the season and 36th of his career in that record-breaking Lycoming performance (he had 10 rebounds) played a key role in earning all those honors, he also averaged 27.5 points-per-game (ppg) and 10.0 rebounds-per-game (rpg), while blocking 10 shots, and recording five assists with three steals. He ranks second in school history in rebounding (841) and leads in blocked shots (217).<\/p>\n

This season Ratcliff leads the 15-10 Greyhounds in scoring (22.4 ppg), rebounding (218 total and 8.7 per game) and blocks (64). He ranks third in assists (61) and steals (22). He also tops the Landmark Conference in scoring, rebounding and blocks, and is fifth in the conference in field goal percentage, sixth in minutes played and seventh in three-point field goal percentage.<\/p>\n

Kutztown (KU) has a lock on three more HEY Awards today.<\/p>\n

KU senior sprinter\u00a0Michael Fellin\u00a0(Marian) has been named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Indoor Track Athlete of the Week, showing that he has not lost a step from his All-American season last year.<\/p>\n

So far, Fellin, Kutztown\u2019s all-time record holder in his specialty \u2013 the 60-meter dash, has posted several PSAC cut times and NCAA provisional qualifying times in the 60-meters and has won four times in five races. His best time \u2013 6.74 seconds.<\/p>\n

In addition, he has set a new school record (6.31) in the 55 meters, and a\u00a0\u00a0PSAC-qualifying time in the 200 meters.<\/p>\n

Kutztown\u2019s other HEY awards go to two senior teammates on the women\u2019s basketball team, who were also teammates at Jim Thorpe.<\/p>\n

Center\u00a0Olivia Smelas\u00a0has been named the PSAC Eastern Division Defensive Athlete of the Week for the fifth time this season. Smelas earned the award as she helped KU hold the opposition to the two lowest point totals in two conference wins in the week of February 16. Smelas had a game-high 15 rebounds with three steals and three assists in one game, while adding seven boards and four thefts in the other.<\/p>\n

For the season, Smelas leads the Golden Bears and is fourth in the conference in rebounding (9.5 rpg), leads her team and is at the top in the Eastern Division in steals with 63 (2.6 per-game), and leads KU and is ninth in the conference in blocks (27). Her 68 assists is second on her team and she averages 6.8 ppg.<\/p>\n

Guard\u00a0Leila Hurley\u00a0has been named a scholar-athlete by the Lehigh Valley Small College Basketball Organization (LVSCBO). The LVSCBO is composed of six small college institutions around the Lehigh Valley, two in Division II and four in D-III.<\/p>\n

Hurley is an elementary education major with a 3.88 gpa. She was a fall Dean\u2019s List honoree, a PSAC Scholar-Athlete and a member of last year\u2019s CSC Academic All-District Team.<\/p>\n

On the court, Hurley is tops on the team in minutes played (28.0 per-game), and second in scoring (9.5 ppg). She is fourth in steals (22) and averages 1.8 rpg with seven blocks and 10 assists.<\/p>\n

More Hoops Happenings\u2026Bloomsburg women\u2019s basketball sophomore guard\u00a0Maddison Maynard\u00a0(Panther Valley) is averaging 23.0 minutes-per-game and has started 17 of 23 games. Her 6.3 rpg average is second on the team and her 9.1 ppg average is third. She also has 29 assists, 15 steals and nine blocks.<\/p>\n

In the Pool\u2026At the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championships, Misericordia\u2019s women\u2019s swim team finished second, with a lot of help from sophomore\u00a0Tori Ellex\u00a0(Blue Mountain). Ellex won two individual events \u2013 the 50 freestyle and the 100 free. She swam the anchor legs on the second place 200 medley and 400 free relays.<\/p>\n

In the PSAC women\u2019s competition, Clarion senior Erika Zimmerman (Schuylkill Haven) swam a leg on the Golden Eagles\u2019 third place 200 freestyle relay team, and took sixth in the 50 freestyle, with her time of 23.72 just a tenth of a second shy of an NCAA B cut. She also won the 100 free B Final, finishing ninth overall.<\/p>\n

The Bloomsburg women took third at the PSAC\u2019s. Senior\u00a0Taleah Ruben\u00a0(Pottsville) took 17th in the 100 breaststroke, 19th in the 200 and 24th in the 400 IM.<\/p>\n

In the PSAC men\u2019s championships, Kutztown sophomore\u00a0Matheson Bair\u00a0(Blue Mountain) swam the second fastest time ever (20.87) for KU in the 50 free preliminaries, finishing eighth in the finals. He also was part of the 800 free relay team which set a new school record in the finals, finishing eighth. The 400 medley really team, with Bair anchoring, also set a new school record, finishing eighth. In the prelims of the 100 butterfly, even though he failed to make the finals, Bair swam the school\u2019s second fastest time ever (51.87). He finished 12th in the 100 free.<\/p>\n

Also at the PSAC\u2019s, Edinboro junior Jake Hillibush (Mahanoy Area) helped the 200 medley relay team to a sixth place finish.<\/p>\n

At the Landmark Conference Championships, Moravian sophomore women\u2019s swimmer\u00a0Gabby Blasko\u00a0(Tamaqua) set a new school record (2:41.28) in the prelims of the 200 breaststroke. She joined with fellow sophomore\u00a0Lydia Konosky\u00a0(Panther Valley) on three relay teams, all of which finished eighth. The 400 medley relay team set a new school record of 4:29.26.<\/p>\n

At The Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships, Iona women\u2019s senior\u00a0Katherine Sarnes\u00a0(Blue Mountain) was 15th in the 1,650 free and 24th in the 500 free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thought For The Day\u2026This column tries to carry out the philosophy once stated by President Teddy Roosevelt, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,726],"class_list":["post-122708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}