Youngsville's Ethan Kesterholt erupted for a career-high 20 points in Friday's win at Saegertown.

SAEGERTOWN, Pa. – With just one game remaining in the regular season, the Youngsville Eagles are riding a wave of momentum.

Behind a career-high 20 points from Ethan Kesterholt, the Eagles improved to 16-5 overall and 9-2 in Region 3 with a 70-62 road win at Saegertown on Friday.

Freshly-minted 1,000-point scorer Gage Hendrickson had 19 in the win, as the Eagles went 18-of-21 from the free-throw line, including 10-of-11 in the fourth quarter.

“We continue a trend of not executing well defensively, but fortunately we did enough offensively,” said Youngsville coach Jesse DeLoof. “Shooting 18-of-21 from the free line helped out, especially down the stretch when the outcome was still in doubt.”

Kesterholt got going early, drilling a pair of first-quarter 3’s and Brady Olewine scored six of his 10 points in the first eight minutes as YHS raced out to a 24-16 lead.

Saegertown (8-12, 1-9), which put four players in double figures, led by Max Fuller’s 17, wouldn’t go away, however. They outscored the Eagles 17-11 in the second quarter, as Fuller and Zach Simcheck both knocked down long balls to cut the lead to two at the half, 35-33.

Kesterholt, who finished with four 3’s on the night, connected on two more in the third quarter.

“Ethan was on fire from three,” noted DeLoof. “He went 4-for-5 and also attacked the hoop consistently.”

Still, Youngsville led by just one going into the fourth quarter.

But as DeLoof alluded to, his club’s foul shooting was superb in the final eight minutes. Olewine was 4-for-4, Kesterholt 3-for-3 and Hendrickson 3-for-4 as they closed out a gutty region road win.

The Eagles will host Eisenhower on Tuesday in their regular-season finale. They will also be looking closely at how Reynolds does in its final game on the same day against Rocky Grove.

The Raiders lost by 18 in the first meeting, and should a similar outcome unfold, they would be tied with Mercer for seventh-place in Region 2. The seventh-place team would travel to Youngsville on Friday for the first round of the District 10 Class 2A playoffs.

Reynolds has opted out, however, so if they lose out on the power points tiebreaker with Mercer, Youngsville would receive a first-round bye. If not, the Eagles will host Mercer.

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YOUNGSVILLE (70)

Hendrickson 7-3-4-19, Mack 4-1-2-9, Olewine 3-4-4-10, Kesterholt 5-6-7-20, Peterson 2-2-2-6, Dell 1-2-2-4, Procter 1-0-0-2, Totals 23-18-21-79

SAEGERTOWN (62)

Johnson 0-1-2-1, Ingram 1-0-0-3, Fuller 7-1-1-17, Wilkins 3-6-6-12, Green 5-2-2-14, Shaffer 1-0-0-2, Simcheck 5-3-3-13, Barner 0-0-0-0, Totals 21-13-14-62

By Quarters

Youngsville 24 11 16 19 – 70

Saegertown 16 17 17 12 – 62

Three-point FGs: Youngsville (6) – Kesterholt 4, Hendrickson 2; Saegertown (7) – Simcheck 2, Green 2, Fuller 2, Ingram