First Posted: 3/2/2013

Old Forge had been the indisputable king of District 2 Class A boys basketball for five years. After Susquehanna took that title away last year, the Blue Devils wanted it back.

Jimmie Aversa scored 13 of his 16 points in the second half Friday night to rally Old Forge to a 47-42 victory and its latest championship.

“We can’t do anything about what happened last year,” said Old Forge coach Al Semenza. “We can’t take the game back. They beat us. But, we waited. We waited a year for this.”

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When the Lackawanna League made Susquehanna the team Old Forge would face twice in Division 3-4 crossover play, the Blue Devils liked the idea. Friday’s win made it a sweep of the three-game season series between the two teams.

“We were happy about it because we wanted to prove we were the better team,” Semenza said. “We told our guys. ‘We’re going to play them three times. We’re going to beat them three times’.”

The latest win gave Old Forge the only remaining berth for District 2 in the state Class A tournament. The Blue Devils will play District 11 runner-up Pius X Friday night.

Aversa is a big reason why.

After scoring 15 of his 19 points to lead a second-half rally in the last meeting at Susquehanna, he did it again.

The 5-foot-10 junior guard hit his first four shots of the half, two of them from 3-point range, doing all the scoring in a 10-4 run over the first 2:45 of the third quarter for a 30-27 lead.

“We did a better job penetrating and I left like I was coming off screens quicker,” Aversa said.

In a game that featured six lead changes, Susquehanna was in front for just 25 seconds the rest of the way.

Old Forge held on by going 5-for-6 from the line in the final 1:02.

Brendan Wahl, who had eight assists and three steals, and Brian Tomasetti scored 11 points each for the Blue Devils.

Cole Mallery led Susquehanna with 17 points and 15 rebounds.