It didn't take long before members of the Hopewell girls' basketball team wiped away any tears and broke their silence.

Soon after the Vikings dropped a 66-61 overtime decision to New Castle on Saturday afternoon in the WPIAL girls' Class AAA championship game, coach Jeff Homziak quickly took note of what some of his players were saying through in the locker room at Duquesne University's A.J. Palumbo Center.

"Our seniors, especially, and as the night went on they made a pack that they definitely didn't want to lose any more games," Homziak said. "They don't want their season to end anytime soon.

"They were already talking about going out and playing better and doing what needs to be done to keep their season going."

Hopewell (25-1), which lost for the first time since falling to Hampton in the first round of the WPIAL playoffs last year, still has a chance to make a run in the PIAA Class AAA playoffs. The Vikings will play District 6 runner-up Bellefonte (16-8) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Ambridge in the PIAA's first round.

"I don't know too much about them other than they have a very good post player," Homziak said.

"District 6 is traditionally very strong out there. They play some good teams, so I expect we're going to be facing a quality team."

Hopewell won consecutive Class AAA championships in the WPIAL and PIAA in 2006 and '07, and was very close to adding another WPIAL title.

The Vikings jumped on New Castle early, leading 20-10 after the first quarter and were up by as many as 19 points in the second quarter. Even with a 35-23 lead at the half, Homziak knew the Vikings would not breeze through the next two quarters.

"I told the girls at halftime exactly what I knew was going to happen in the third quarter," said Homziak, whose Vikings narrowly beat Section 2-AAA rival New Castle twice in the regular season. "New Castle traditionally executes a great half-court trap and they certainly executed it during the third quarter."

New Castle quickly closed the gap in the third quarter. The score was tied, 55-55, at the end of regulation. New Castle's Kaylynn Waters, who had a game-high 33 points, scored eight of New Castle's 11 points in the overtime.

"We executed well in the first half and continued executing almost to a 'T'," Homziak said. "But as time went on we started missing some easy shots and letting up on rebounding.

"New Castle picked up the intensity in the second half and put us on our heels the majority of the third quarter."

Senior guard Elise Farris led the Vikings with 24 points and senior forward Paige Alviani followed with 18. Farris and freshman guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough each grabbed 11 rebounds. Alviani also made three 3-pointers.

"Elise and Paige have played just like that all year long," Homziak said. "They are great kids and they are great players. They are definitely two players who will be playing at the next level, and they will be able to play well at that level as time goes on."

Although Hopewell had yet to deal with a loss until the final, Homziak is confident his players will rebound in the PIAA playoffs.

"Being undefeated wears on you and maybe dealing with a loss can be a good thing," he said. "We knew what our record was, but it wasn't something we talked about. It was out there and the girls knew about it, seeing it in the papers.

"We were right there [with New Castle] and had a chance to win that game even at the very end. We missed some short shots and some free throws [during the fourth quarter and in overtime]. If we don't miss those shots then we wouldn't even be talking about this."

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