JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com

LAMPETER-STRASBURG, LANCASTER MENNONITE, LANCASTER COUNTRY DAY STILL STANDING IN RACE FOR DISTRICT TITLES

The first two rounds of the District 3 girls basketball playoffs have come and gone, and just three Lancaster County teams are still in line to win district gold.

The county is guaranteed at least one finalist; Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 champ Lampeter-Strasburg (23-3 overall) will take on Section 4 champ Lancaster Mennonite (25-4) in a Triple-A semifinal on Wednesday in Hershey’s Giant Center.

The winner advances to the district final, set for Saturday at 11:15 a.m. back in the Giant Center. The loser goes to the third-place game on Friday. Regardless of what happens Wednesday, L-S, the No. 1 seed, and Mennonite, the No. 4 seed, have earned spots in the PIAA playoffs.

The other Triple-A semifinal on Wednesday features No. 10 Gettysburg (19-7) against No. 6 Northeastern (20-6), which knocked out a pair of L-L League teams – No. 11 Manheim Central and No. 14 Lancaster Catholic.

None of the Triple-A semifinalists has won a district championship.

Meanwhile, Lancaster Country Day, 20-3 overall and the No. 3 seed, is still dancing in the Single-A brackets. The Cougars, who fell to Lebanon Catholic in last year’s title game, are set to take on 2005 and 2006 champ Reading Central, 19-6 overall the No. 2 seed, in a Single-A semifinal Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Lower Dauphin High School.

The other Single-A semifinal features No. 1 seed Berks Christian (21-3) against No. 4 seed Lebanon Catholic (13-12), which owns a record 14 Single-A championships.

The Single-A title game is set for Thursday at 4:30 p.m. in the Giant Center.

Three county teams will try and earn a spot in the state playoffs by advancing in the district consolation round.

In Quad-A, No. 4 seed and reigning L-L League champ Hempfield (23-5), which fell to No. 5 Central Dauphin 40-36 in a quarterfinal game last Friday, will take on No. 8 Harrisburg (18-10) tonight at 7:30 at Cumberland Valley High School.

That will be a rematch of the 2005 district final, won by Harrisburg.

Also tonight, No. 11 seed McCaskey (16-9), which fell to Section 1 foe Cedar Crest 53-50 in a quarterfinal game last Friday, will take on No. 2 seed Red Lion (22-5) at 7:30 at Governor Mifflin Intermediate School in Shillington.

That will be a rematch of the 2006 district final, won by McCaskey.

Tonight’s Quad-A winners advance to Thursday’s fifth-place game. The losers are eliminated.

And in Triple-A, 13-time champ Lancaster Catholic will play two more games this week, since District 3 sends seven Triple-A teams to States.

The Crusaders (20-9) will take on No. 15 Delone Catholic (19-8) on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Dallastown High School. The winner advances to Thursday’s fifth-place game and earns a spot in States; the loser goes to the seventh-place game, also on Thursday, and must win there to advance to States.

L-S and Mennonite met in an L-L League crossover game Dec. 14 in Lampeter. The Pioneers won that game 57-48 behind Lisa Boyer, who scored 16 points, Danielle Rittenhouse, who added 12 points, and Katie Andrews, who chipped in with a career-high 11 points.

Erin LaVenice scored 17 points for Mennonite, which has gone 19-3 since that loss, including a 46-42 setback to Hempfield in the L-L League title game.

L-S, which is 8-1 in its last nine games, fell to eventual champ Eastern York in last year’s district semifinals. This is Mennonite’s first trip to a district semifinal.