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EspañolPOTTSVILLE — The 2025-26 Minersville Battlin’ Miners are not used to losing.
Before Wednesday evening’s District 11 Class 3A semifinals matchup, it had been 77 days since the Schuylkill League champions had to swallow a defeat. That loss came back on December 11, a 62-51 loss to the Pottsville Crimson Tide. It was the only loss for Chris George’s program this season, at least until Wednesday.
In the Class 3A semifinals, the Battlin’ Miners suffered their second defeat of the season to Executive Education 59-49. While Minersville will not be adding a District 11 title to their trophy case this season, their season is not over with the loss. The Battlin’ Miners will have an opportunity at redemption in the Class 3A consolation round against Catasauqua on Saturday afternoon at Martz Hall.
With the opportunity to keep their season alive, George wants his team to let the loss marinate.
“We said to the team tonight, like, go home and let this one hurt a little bit because you haven’t had this feeling for a little while,” he said. “We’ll find out what we’re made of character-wise.”
If Minersville’s response to their loss to Pottsville in December was any sign of things to come, the Battlin’ Miners will be alright. Following their first loss, the Battlin’ Miners would go on a tear, winning their next 20-games in a row.
“I have faith that we’re going to respond on Saturday after this. We just have to be better. We have to shoot better, we have to finish,” George concluded.
Executive Education may not have boasted the 23-1 record that the Battlin’ Miners did entering the semifinal matchup, but it was evident that the 13-6 Raptors were well tested and would not be intimidated by Minersville’s No. 1 seed or remarkable record.
The Raptors’ losses this season came against Devon Preparatory School, Bishop McDevitt, Scranton Prep, Bethlehem Christian, Cheltenham, and Harrisburg. Of those losses, Bishop McDevitt, Scranton Prep, and Bethlehem Christian are all potential state championship-caliber winning teams. Cheltenham and Harrisburg were both strong teams in their own right.
“I think that’s our luxury for being independent,” Executive Education coach Ray Barbosa, a former William Allen standout who played collegiately at James Madison and the University of Maryland, Baltimore-County, said. “When the snow hit, we actually lost a couple of games. But my mindset was, let’s play those guys because we’re in the playoffs already. We had 12 wins or 11 wins at the time. We just all wanted to get better at that point in the season. We didn’t care if we won or lost. And I think, you know, those games that we played, I think, helped us tonight.”
While Minersville wouldn’t win the day, the Battlin Miners did get off to a quality start, scoring each of the first five points of the game to take an early two-score lead. The two sides would go back and forth for most of the first quarter. Including the exchanging of leads at 8-6 in favor of the Raptors following an Eshaan Tung layup before Minersville retook the lead, 9-8, on a three-pointer from Nolan Plesnarski.
But a finish at the rim from Raptors senior Eliajh Styles with 15 seconds remaining in the first quarter put Executive Education back up, and from there, the Raptors took over the game.
In the second quarter, the Raptors would extend their lead quickly to 13-4 on a free throw from freshman guard Cameron Micheal before Tung added another pair of points to his ledger. The junior was highly impressive in the win for Executive Education, totaling 17 points in the win. Micheal, despite being the youngest player on the court, had 16 points as well.
Minersville’s Jordan Bowers cut the lead down to two with back-to-back free throws. The All-Schuylkill League coaches’ first team selection had 17 points in the loss for the Battlin’ Miners.
The small deficit wouldn’t last for long, however, as Executive Education embarked on a 9-0 run to grow their lead to 22-11 by the 3:43 mark of the first half. While the Battlin’ Miners were able to eventually contain the bleeding, the extended run from the Raptors proved to be a fatal blow, as they never were able to bring the game truly back within arm’s reach.
While Executive Education played quality defense throughout the semifinal matchup, George believes his team missed several opportunities throughout the game.
“They (Executive Education) want to play a sped-up game, but they were giving us looks,” George detailed. “Those were better looks than we had in both the Schuylkill League games. Blue Mountain and Pottsville had their defense blanketed all over us. But we had looks tonight, and we just didn’t finish.”
Notably, it was Minersville’s first game back in action since their Schuylkill League championship win over Pottsville on February 13.
One of George’s major conclusions from the loss wasn’t about the potential rust on his team offensively or defensively, but the rust on his team’s grittiness. While the Battlin’ Miners fought till the very end on Wednesday, their fourth-quarter, all-out effort was much more reminiscent of the team that dominated throughout the regular season than the one they showed up in the opening minutes of the contest.
“I think the difference was, like we said after the game, if we had been diving on the floor and playing like, you know, spilling our guts out like we were in the fourth quarter, if we had done that from the get-go, I think it could have been a different game,” he said. “Weird thing is, we got off to a good start, which is different than what we had in the two Schuylkill League games. So we got off to a good start, we hit a couple shots, but we just weren’t gritty early on.”
After trailing 45-31 entering the fourth quarter, Minersville had its best quarter of the night in the fourth, outscoring Executive Education 18-14. However, it was far too late for the Battlin’ Miners.
Ultimately, for Minersville, while perhaps a more gritty style of play early could’ve been the difference maker. The Battlin’ Miners also struggled shooting in the loss, with several uncharacteristic misses throughout the evening, including at the rim. In the second half, trailing at times by double-digits, the Miners had to rely more on the three-pointer.
As fellow Schuylkill League power, Pottsville found out on Tuesday evening in Orwigsburg in a 55-43 loss, so Southern Lehigh, when the three’s don’t fall, it’s tough to win. The Miners made just three three-pointers on nearly two dozen attempts in the loss, with just one three-pointer being made following Nolan Plesnarski’s pair of triples in the first quarter.
Executive Education will now face No. 2 seed Notre Dame Green-Pond in Saturday’s Class 3A championship game. On the other side, the Battlin’ Miners will face perhaps their first true gut-check game of the season as they face Catasaqua with a trip to the state playoffs on the line. With a win, the Battlin’ Miners will make the PIAA playoffs for the second-straight year, last accomplishing the feat during the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons.