Catasauqua’s boys’ basketball team will look to keep their state playoff hopes alive when they meet Minersville in the District 11 Class 3A consolation game at Martz Hall in Pottsville Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Rough Riders were bumped in the district semifinals by Notre Dame, 74-60, Wednesday night, and it ended their defending champion run. Before last season, Catty last won a district title in 2006.

Catty beat Minersville, 61-50, in last year’s district final. They did not meet during the regular season.

Sophomore Aalani Nix poured in a team-high 18 points and senior Hamaad Jenkins added 14 in the loss to Notre Dame. Leading scorer Frankie Pujols was held to nine points in the district semifinal.

Pujols is averaging roughly 15 points per game, while Nix is at 13 points. Jenkins and fellow senior Reece Lopez are averaging roughly 10 points per contest.

Catty (20-7) had won eight straight down the stretch before they lost to Northwestern, 59-56, in the Colonial League championship. They then beat Lehigh Valley Academy, 70-50, in the opening round of district.

Minersville (23-2) had won 20 consecutive games before they were upset by Executive Education in the district semifinals.

The Battlin’ Miners are led by the trifecta of seniors guards Shazier Bethea (22 points per game, 1,000-point career scorer), and Chase Zimerofsky (11 points) along with guard/forward Jared Bowers (14 points).

Minersville did capture its first Schuylkill League title when they defeated Pottsville earlier this season.

Catasauqua head coach Eric Snyder knows his team will have to control the trio

“Bethea and Bowers are two impact players,” said Snyder. “Bethea is very slender and plays outside, but he goes inside because he’s 6-4 and very athletic. He will back down and post guys up. Bowers is a very good outside shooter, but he goes inside as well. Zimerofsky had three threes against Executive the other night.

“They play a man-to-man defense. They are bigger than us like most teams are, and that presents a problem for us.”

Snyder knows his team has to curb its shooting woes from the Notre Dame game. The Roughies advanced to the second round of the state playoffs last year.

“We have to shoot obviously much better than we did the other night from the outside,” stressed Snyder. “Notre Dame was putting four people in the lane and one guy on the ball and basically tempting us to shoot jump shots. We did and we didn’t unfortunately a lot of them didn’t go in.

“Hopefully, we can use our speed to our advantage, but we have to be able to rebound. Their size will present a definite problem. Hopefully, we can get a win out of this and advance to the state playoffs next week because only three of the four teams go.”