MONTOURSVILLE – The goal all season long for Warrior Run’s boys basketball team was to win a District 4 championship.

Well, the Defenders are only one win away from accomplishing that feat.

Behind 18 points apiece from both Aiden McKee and Landon Polcyn, No. 2-seeded Warrior Run used a strong second half to come back and take a 58-50 victory over No. 3 North Penn-Mansfield in a Class AAA semifinal Tuesday at Montoursville.

Warrior Run (19-3) will by vying for its first District 4 title in more than two decades when the Defenders face top-seeded Troy later this week in the championship game at a site and time to be determined.

“We’re super excited (to make the final). It’s what we set out to do from the start (of the season),” said Warrior Run coach Eric Wertman. “We’re proud of it, and we’re glad we were able to do it (after so many years).”

The Defenders got off to a strong start and led 9-6 behind a couple of buckets from Polcyn.

And despite a pair of 3-pointers from Polcyn to start the second period, Mansfield’s Jason Harer answered with a jumper and a put-back layup moments later to keep the Tigers in front 23-18.

Warrior Run closed the first half with a little run to get within a point of Mansfield (20-4), but a trey at the buzzer by Andy Hermansen kept the Tigers advantage at four (28-24).

“They completely punched us in the face and they out-played us in the first half,” said Wertman. “They were uber physical out of the gate, they knocked every single shot down, and it took us a little bit of time to kind of get into a rhythm and get in motion.”

McKee helped get Warrior Run’s offense going in the third when he hit a pair of jumpers and slammed home another bucket to fuel a 11-0 run to start the second half.

“That was really important because we were a little stagnant in the first half. But once we got moving off the ball and got some cuts going, we got some open layups and the defense was playing a little on their heels,” said McKee, who also finished with five blocks and three rebounds.

“We started knocking down some shots and that helped open up our paint a little bit, and I got a couple dunks off cuts, which was nice. My teammates made some great passes to me in the post, I made some great reads off that and it makes it real easy.”

The Defenders would weather a 9-5 run late in the third by starting the final quarter with a trey by Cooper Wilkins and another jumper by McKee to build Warrior Run’s lead to 45-37 with 6 minutes left in the game.

Polcyn followed with a pair of buckets to fuel an 8-3 spurt midway through the fourth that gave the Defenders a 51-42 lead.

Even though the Tigers knocked down two more 3-pointers down the stretch, James Keifer made 3-of-4 free throws and Polcyn made both of his attempts to seal the game.

“We just came out (in the second half) and competed. Our goal was to get to the district championship, and win it, but we couldn’t get there unless we won (Tuesday). We came out in the second half with our hair kind of on fire, and we kind of went after it a little bit,” said Wertman.

“All the things we’ve been working on the past week, we really didn’t do in the first half. We made not so many adjustments, but we adjusted how we were attacking (the basket), and we had some success.”

Now Warrior Run’s eyes are set on Troy, which took a 67-42 win over Warrior Run in the 2022 playoffs – a fact that’s still fresh in the minds of the Defenders.

Win or lose, Warrior Run’s season will extend into the state tournament.

“It’s great. We played Troy a couple of years ago and they put a smack down on us, so we’ve been waiting for our chance to get back at them,” said McKee.“I think this is our moment and our year that we can finally get them back and finally put another (district championship) banner (up in the rafters) since the 1980s.”

Warrior Run 58, N.P.-Mansfield 50

NPM (50)

Talon D’Angelo 0 0-0 0; Tayton Strange 4 0-0 11; Patrick Youmans 0 0-0 0; Alex Davis 4 0-0 9; Andy Hermansen 3 0-0 9; Brady Stetter 3 3-4 9; Cooper Shaw 3 0-0 7; Jason Harer 2 1-1 5. Totals: 19 4-5 50.

WARRIOR RUN (58)

Griff Harrington 2 1-1 5; James Keifer 0 5-6 5; Jake Bruckhart 0 2-2 2; Cooper Wilkins 3 0-1 8; Aiden McKee 9 0-0 18; Landon Polcyn 6 4-6 18; Ethan Balzer 1 0-0 2. Totals: 21 12-16 58.

NP-Mansfield 13 15 9 13 — 50

Warrior Run 11 13 16 18 — 58

3-point goals: NPM 8 (Strange 3, Hermansen 3, Davis 1, Shaw 1), Warrior Run 4 (Wilkins 2, Polcyn 2).

Records: N.P-Mansfield (20-4), Warrior Run (19-5).