The following are excerpts from an online diary from last week's District Three basketball semifinal and final games at Hershey's Giant Center.
The entire diary can be viewed on the blog, Billy Paultz Reconsidered, at LancasterOnline.com.

Monday
Boys' Class AAA semifinals: Lampeter-Strasburg vs. Eastern York and Lancaster Catholic vs. Northeastern.

The Pioneers indeed seem overmatched by Eastern, with its rep and two D-1 players, 6-6 swingman Andrew Nicholas and point guard Austin Tillotson, both headed to mid-major Monmouth.

It's 20-8 midway through the second quarter and L-S, which lives by the 3-pointer, appears to be dying by it.

But L-S manages to keep the slow tempo it wants, and slowly it turns.

Incredibly, a Ryan Berryman three gives L-S a 31-28 lead as the third quarter ends.

Then Nicholas responds. He scores twice inside.

The refs appear to miss two who-touched-it-last calls, both against L-S, and coach John Achille gets a technical (from a Mid-Penn crew that works a lot of college games, and is frankly not having a great night).

EY gets three points from the possession, but L-S ties it again, on another Berryman three, with 2:06 left.

Eastern makes 3-of-4 at the line in the final 49 seconds. A good fight, but it's over, 41-37.

Just as it did in Saturday's quarterfinal, Lancaster Catholic watches its rival, Eastern, have trouble getting out of its own way, then sends a message by putting on a clinic.

The Crusaders destroy Northeastern 62-32 with a stifling, purposeful, efficient tour de force.

"They're as good defensively as any high school team I've seen," Northeastern coach Don Kauffman admits.

During the lopsided second half, two security guards confer right behind me. It seems a Northeastern kid is planning to come sit behind Catholic's large, raucous yet organized student rooting section.

How do they, the guards, know that?

It turns out to be 3 to 4 orange-clad Northeastern kids. At first, it all seems good-natured, and a Catholic kid stands, turns and launches into a loud, eloquent, satirical speech to the effect that we will brook no rowdy behavior or foul language around here, good sirs.

But then out of nowhere, a Catholic kid (wearing a Shaq Lakers jersey and an inexplicable wig) starts up the stairs toward the Northeastern kids, vociferously trash-talking.

The Northeastern kids stand and head down the stairs.

The intrepid security guards are between them, so nothing serious happens, and the Northeastern kids soon exit.

There is, though, much woofing and posturing and consternation for a minute, which catches the attention of media photographers.

So naturally a few Catholic kids turn to the cameras, smile and give thumbs-up.

Tuesday
Class AAAA boys' semifinals: Reading vs. Red Land and York vs. Cedar Cliff.

Red Land is gargantuan, with a seven-footer and a 6-9.

Reading is gargantuan, with a student body 500 bigger than any other school in the district. It plays out as a really interesting quickness vs. size battle.

Size wins, but with an asterisk: Red Land's 5-10 point guard Nick Diller is the difference.

Diller takes a shot to the head that draws blood in the third quarter. He leaves the game, is given concussion testing behind the bench (touch your nose with your finger, etc.) and returns with an ace bandage wrapped around his head, making him look like he should he marching with a fife. Bear in mind that they're the Red Land Patriots.

Diller scores 16, goes 8-for-8 from the foul line in the fourth quarter, dishes six assists and gives his team a fighting chance against Reading's trapping press.

The Pats lead by as many as 11 and hold on, 71-68. It'll be seen as an upset. Not sure it was.

No consolation, but Reading dominates the tournament all-name team: Babatunde Waples, Ta-Jahn Walton, Lamondre Burge, Alexander Zatratz, Demerik Weglinski, Quincy Scott-Key.

A Cedar Cliff win in Game 2 would mean a district final between neighboring rivals that are actually part of the same school district.

This is Cedar Cliff's best team in memory, and it's an eclectic bunch. The point guard is a skinny 6-5 kid (Christo Majok).

The center (Tim Kelly) is the second-smallest starter at 6-1.

Cliff's Nol Aru, a 6-3-ish do-everything junior, scores his team's first 14 points.

Cedar Cliff has the ball up one in the last minute and finds Aru on the baseline. He gets the ball knocked out of his hands, picks it up and … is called for traveling.

(Refs using traveling as a bailout call whenever something doesn't look quite right has long been an unfortunate staple of girls' hoops. It's been showing up too often in boys' games this week.)

York's Deijan Williams slashes and scores at the other end. Kelly, who can play a little, wades into the paint, throws up a half hook and gets the call, putting him on the line, down one, with 3.2 seconds left.

He misses both. York gets by, 62-59.

These were two very good high school basketball games.

I wrote this exactly a year ago:

"There's now a good chance the Lancaster-Lebanon League will have finalists in AAAA, AAA and AA, in what we all thought was a down year.

It's got me thinking about this whole "down year" business. I'm always trying to overanalyze and unearth significance in things, but sports are just more random than we like to admit.

Of course, high school sports is cyclical. Can there be a plurality of individual school or league down cycles in a year? Of course. Why not? What does it mean, big picture? Not anything, necessarily.

Add to the above that the L-L put three teams in states in AAAA a year ago, also unprecedented. This year, one district finalist, zero quad-As in states.

We had six entries in the AAAA field and just one (Lebanon, by any objective ranking No. 6 of the six) got past the first round. And promptly lost to Red Land, 70-28.

I'm pretty sure our league was better, top-to-bottom, this year. But L-L playoff finalists Hempfield and McCaskey had to play district play-in games the day after playing each other for the fourth time for the league title.

Hempfield lost, McCaskey won, thus drawing Reading. Penn Manor was up nine in the second half on Red Land.

I'm starting to suspect that judging a basketball league solely by the district playoffs is like judging a college football league solely on bowl games.

Wednesday
Girls' AAA semifinal: Lancaster Catholic vs. West York and Gettysburg vs. Ed hardy Oley Valley. Boys' AA semifinals: Delone Catholic vs. Wyomissing and Upper Dauphin vs. Hanover.

One bad thing about getting all these games in the Giant Center is the dreaded midafternoon, midweek game with about 400 people in the stands and all the buzz of a quilting circle.

Maybe it's because of the start time, but Catholic's girls don't have any of the rabid student rooting section the boys get.

But that's the Crusaders' assignment, and they look more than up to it early, cruising to an 18-2 start. West York shows some fire and gets more comfortable with the pace, and it's 30-18 at the half.

That pace, of course, is a Catholic perennial. This doesn't look like one of Lamar Kauffman's best teams, but the Crusaders do disrupt you with endless, relentless pressure. As always.

It gets ragged, and then it gets over, Catholic moving to the final, 44-35.

It got there without Emily Martin, a sophomore averaging a double-double, who tore an ACL last week and had surgery today.

Catholic will play for Coach Kauffman's 12th district title Saturday. At age 73, closing in on 700 wins, he says he doesn't even know how many district finals he's been in. Not his first rodeo.

"The kids work hard," he said. "That's all you can ask."

Game 2 features one of BPR's favorites, Delone coach Jim Dooley.

Fun facts about Dooley: He has 100 wins at four different schools (Cumberland Valley, Shippensburg, Gettysburg and Delone). While at CV, he took a sabbatical to coach the Icelandic National team. Seriously.

His coaching uniform is perennial: saddle shoes, a short-sleeved shirt with a tie, and a rolled-up program in the back pocket. Classic.

The game itself is forgettable, Delone smashing Wyo, 71-50.

Thursday
Girls' AA final: York Catholic vs. Delone. Boys' AAA final: Lancaster Catholic vs. Eastern York.

York Catholic has been to five straight state finals. The team features Kady Schrann, a Vanderbilt-bound four-year-starting guard.

Delone features 5-11 Sierra Moore, already being recruited by Virginia and other D-1s.

These are by far the best girls' teams we've seen, and they're in the same league. YC won the first two meetings this year.

York Catholic student fans are dressed as: a cow, a bumblebee, an M&M and (2) red Crayola crayons. I believe the children are our future.

After halftime YC makes an adjustment that's weirdly decisive, considering the familiarity of these teams: Schrann often guards Moore but they really defend her as a group, almost with matchup-zone principles.

Moore can't get shots off the dribble, and that's the end of it; the game is decided long before it's evident on the scoreboard. Why didn't Catholic do that from the opening tip?

The final is 61-45. Moore scores 26, eight in the second half. Schrann, with 11, is one of of four in double figures for the Irish.

It's York Catholic's sixth straight District Three title, matched only by the Lebanon Catholic girls from 1999-2004.

Lancaster Catholic lost a two-point gut-wrencher to EY a year ago. They haven't forgotten about it.

"We were devastated," says Catholic's Will Schlosser, referring to himself and fellow seniors Phil Wenger and Paul Senkowski.

"I felt like I let the team down. We remembered how it tasted, and we decided we were going to work harder than anyone."

"I know as a player myself, I lost a district final in 1992," Catholic coach Joe Klazas said Monday. "I still haven't forgotten it."

The rematch is a fascinating battle, revolving around the matchup between YC's 6-6 Andrew Nicholas, the York-Adams league's all-time leading scorer, and Catholic defensive stopper Phil Wenger.

Catholic, and Wenger, have slightly the better of it most of the way, but through three quarters its tied, 41-41.

"I was sitting on the bench thinking: 'Eight minutes,'" Wenger said. "All we have to do is play our game, and we'll have all we worked for all year."

Nicholas scored first, and it's 43-41. But Wenger slashes inside at the other end, scores and gets fouled by Nicholas.

Schlosser hasn't scored yet, evoking the memory of last year's final, when he was scoreless and had "a bunch of turnovers."

But now Wenger penetrates and dishes to Schlosser in the corner, and the jumper goes. Next time down, Schlosser is cruising the perimeter when he suddenly rises for a deep three and … kaboom.

There's a turnover and a run-out, and the lead is double figures, and Catholic's relentlessly brilliant defense isn't going to let that slip away.

"I really think we wore them down," Wenger said.

The final is 64-49. Catholic shoots 23-for-45, 13-of-17 from the line.

Paul Senkowski scores 15 (6-of-11 FGs) with eight rebounds. Sophomore Devonne Pinkard gets 12 and eight boards.

Schlosser, who shot only twice in the first three quarters, gets all of his nine points in the fourth.

And Wenger scores 16 (6-of-11, 4-of-5 shooting) with five assists and, far more importantly, a defensive job for the ages on a guy 5 inches taller, a guy who's scored more than 2,400 career points and, in the first three rounds of this tournament, went for 41, 22 and 22. Nicholas scores 14, on 5-for-21 shooting.

Wenger, BPRs runaway player of the week, is something else, the rare non-big who never shoots a perimeter shot but does tons of everything else.

In finding an analog, for some reason we keep thinking Celtics — John Havlicek, Dennis Johnson, Rajon Rondo — but the real answer, it suddenly occurs to me, is Jason Kidd. Except that Kidd's a point guard.

Maybe he's the first and only Phil Wenger.

Bravo, Crusaders.

Friday
Boys' Class A final: Reading Central Catholic vs. Greenwood. Boys' AA final: Hanover vs. Delone. Girls' AAAA final: Red Lion vs. Wilson.

Boys' A is an insane game in which Greenwood plays a very deliberate style (but no full-on stall), and RCC can't disrupt the Wildcats until they go to half-court traps in the fourth quarter.

Greenwood leads 10-8 after a quarter, 14-12 at the half and 18-12 after three. (Yes, RCC didn't score in the third quarter.)

But, incredibly, the Wildcats don't score again. The final, yes, the final, is 24-18. Nobody can remember a lower-scoring boys' district final.

RCC wins its umpteenth district crown and has most of the personnel — stud big guard Marcus Dawkins, 6-9 Donovan Jack, Donyell Marshall's son Marquis — from last year's state-final club.

Something seems to be missing, though.

In AA, chuck-and-duck Hanover leads 19-10 after a quarter, but then impatience starts to hurt, and it's 25-25 at the half.

Delone leads by as many as six, but Hanover's all-senior group digs deep. Delone throws the ball away with 100 seconds left as coach Jim Dooley is trying desperately to call time, leading to a three by Nighthawk gunner Pete Yingst. 49-48, Hanover.

They scream to the finish, Delone's Cody Kump, who's scored 20, gets a high-arching 30-footer at the buzzer that … just barely misses.

Terrific game. Dooley is entertainingly anguished afterward, especially about the non-time out.

He has 650-plus wins, all in District Three, but, incredibly, still no district titles.

Saturday
AAAA boys final: York vs. Red Land.

There's a nice, noisy crowd for the week's final game, the heavyweight title on the line.

A Lancaster-Lebanon League crew, Travis Sorenson, Mel Newcomer and Dinny Kinloch, gets the officiating assignment.

It figures as a size vs. athleticism matchup, exemplified early when York's Kelvin Parker, charitably listed at 6-4, gets a monster alley-oop jam.

Still, Red Land's Stephen Zach (7 feet) and Mike Zangari (6-9) don't allow York to play the throw-it-up-on-the-glass-and-get-it game.

The Bearcats are going to have to make shots, and they do, from the arc, on run-outs, and everywhere in between.

But the Patriots are severely damaged when point guard Nick Diller gets in foul trouble. Athleticism (read "quickness") starts to matter a lot.

York guards Dejian Williams (17 points) and Collin Smith (18) are superb. Parker (15, including at least three power jams) would be right at home at the NFL draft combine.

York is 27-2, one of the losses just nine days ago to Eastern York for the York-Adams christian louboutin League title. Hard as that is to figure, the Bearcats look like they can play for a while.