NEW CASTLE - Two games, two outcomes - and double the disappointment for Todd Schoeffel.

Minutes after the Seneca Valley girls basketball coach watched Kelsey Spencer's desperation 3-point attempt sail wide, sealing the Raiders' 44-41 loss to New Castle Monday night, Schoeffel learned that Shaler had pulled off an overtime upset against Pine-Richland.

Despite Seneca Valley's loss, the Raiders would have clinched a WPIAL playoff berth with a Shaler defeat.

Instead, it was New Castle celebrating the outcome of both games.

The Red Hurricanes' win, coupled with Shaler's victory, clinched at least a share of the Section 3-AAAA title for New Castle (17-4, 10-3).

Seneca Valley had hope of pulling off an upset of its own up until the final seconds.

After New Castle's Ryenn Micaletti missed the back end of a one-and-one with eight seconds left, the Raiders grabbed the rebound and pushed up the floor.

Spencer ended up with the ball and was forced to take an off-balance shot from beyond the arc.

Only three Raiders scored in the game, led by Chelsey Pavlick's 23 points.

Accustomed to being the Raider's top contributor from the bench, Pavlick made her second straight start and caused problems for New Castle's defense all night.

She scored 15 of the Raiders' 21 points in the second half.

"She did everything you need a player to do on the court," said Schoeffel. "She rebounded, drove to the basket, played well defensively."

The low-scoring affair shouldn't have come as a surprise. New Castle won the first meeting 36-29 on Jan. 7.

But one aspect of the Raiders' game was out of sync in the first two quarters.

By halftime, Seneca Valley's defense, which entered the game giving up an average of 37.6 points in its 12 section contests, already allowed 31 to the Red Hurricanes.

"It was a mistake on my part not emphasizing their top threats to our players," said Schoeffel. "But we just didn't expect them to shoot the ball as well as they did in the first half."

New Castle shot 11-of-20 for 55 percent from the field in the first half, including six 3-point goals, with Kara Joseph hitting three of them.

The effort helped the Red Hurricanes build a 31-20 lead by the intermission.

"By the second time you play a team, they know just about everything you like to run," said New Castle coach Luann Grybowski. "So we put a few new things in.

"We knew they wanted to double down and smother Jaleesa (Sams) in the post," added Grybowski. "Our guards were able to step up. We hit six 3-pointers in that first half."

Seneca Valley's defense came out in the second half with something to prove and its effort was heard loud and clear.

The Red Hurricanes scored only 13 points in the final two quarters, including four in the third period.

Micaletti, who ended the game with 11 points, scored five crucial points from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

Sams led New Castle with 15 points.

Ashley Turici (10) and Kelsey Spencer (8) rounded out Seneca's scoring effort.

New Castle can win the section title outright with a victory Friday at Butler or if Seneca Valley defeats Pine-Richland Thursday.

The latter would suit the Raiders (11-10, 7-6) just fine, for that result would clinch a playoff spot for the team.

SENECA VALLEY 41

Kelsey Spencer 2 4-5 8, Ashley Turici 4 2-5 10, Chelsey Pavlick 9 5-6 23, Laura Ness 0 0-2 0, Ryan Ingrassia 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 11-18 41.

NEW CASTLE 44

Ryenn Micaletti 2 6-8 11, Nikki Karatinos 3 0-0 7, Jaleesa Sams 6 2-3 15, Kara Joseph 4 0-0 11, Natalie Wallace 0 0-0 0, Logan Hartman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 8-11 44.

3-point goals:

Joseph 3, Sams, Karatinos, Micaletti.

JV:

New Castle 53-44 (SV-Courtney Grootegoed 17 points; NC-Logan Hartman 20)

Thursday:

Pine-Richland @ Seneca Valley