The pinnacle is easy to define.

On the night of March 27, 2018 at the Giant Center in Hershey, the Abington Heights boys basketball team reached the top, winning a Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association Class 5A state title with a 67-55 victory over Mars.

The state title was part of a lengthy run of success that, by some measurements, came to an end in the recently completed season.

Defining the most impressive long-term accomplishment is not as easy as recognizing the most significant single moment. The run has included coach Ken Bianchi becoming the all-time leader among District 2 coaches and picking up his 800th career win.

Even saying the run is over is not definitive because, after all, the Comets did win a Lackawanna League Division 1 title again this season, their third straight, starting with the state championship team.

Longer streaks, however, were halted in a pair of District 2 tournament losses.

Abington Heights had won eight straight district championships before falling, 49-39, in this seasons semifinals against Dallas, a team that is still one of eight quarterfinalists left in the suspended state tournament.

Dallas also ended a 27-game winning streak by the Comets in District 2 or District 2-4 Subregional playoff games.

The Comets still had a chance to find a way into their 14th straight state tournament.

All semifinalists in Class 5A have two shots at the state tournament because the districts top three teams advance. Corey Perkins, a starter on the state championship team two years earlier, made sure the second chance was available with his buzzer-beater to complete a 48-46 rally over North Pocono in the quarterfinals when the streaks first appeared in jeopardy of ending.

Abington Heights, however, was unable to repeat that dramatic finish in the districts third-place game, losing to Pittston Area, 37-35, to stop the streak of state tournament trips at 13.

The loss also ended any chance of the Comets reaching the state Final Four for the fourth straight season and of posting 20-plus wins for a ninth straight season.

Still, there are many impressive cumulative numbers that have been run up by the Abington Heights boys basketball team in the 14-year stretch that started with qualifying for the state tournament in 2007.

Here are some of them:

Division titles. The Comets have nine in 14 years, beginning with four straight titles in what was then an eight-team Division 1 of the Lackawanna League from the 2006-07 season through 2009-10. They won back-to-back titles again in 2012-13 and 2013-14, then the current streak of three straight.

Perfect seasons. Abington Heights went 14-0 in the Lackawanna League in 2008-09 and 13-0 in 2012-13, 2013-14 and 2018-19.

Winning records. The Comets have finished in the top half of the league all 14 seasons with the nine titles, three second-place finishes in the current five-team division plus a tie for third and a fourth-place finish in the old eight-team Division 1.

Winning percentage. The Comets have gone a combined 164-24 in the league for an .872 winning percentage in that time.

Better in playoffs. Prior to losing two straight to Dallas and Pittston Area, the Comets had been 39-3 in district playoff games over the past 14 seasons. Even with the losses, they have a higher winning percentage in district playoff games (.886) than league play with their 39-5 record.

State success. Beginning in 2009, Abington Heights won at least one state playoff game in nine of 11 seasons and at least two in seven of those seasons. After going 2-11 in state playoff games since 2009, the Comets are 19-9 since.

Overall record. Despite consistently seeking out a non-league schedule that includes some of the states top programs, the Comets have won 22 or more games in 12 of the last 14 seasons for an overall record of 329-67 and overall winning percentage of .831.

The first state final appearance came about only after the Comets escaped a controversial technical foul in the final second for fans throwing Hersheys Kisses on the floor in celebration. The resulting free throws put the game in overtime where Abington Heights prevailed over Bonner-Prendergast, 56-51, to reach the 2018 final.

Once there, first-team, all-stater George Tinsley scored 29 points, including 19 in the second half.

At the beginning of the second half, I started taking it to the rack a little bit more, Tinsley, the America East Conferences Rookie of the Year at Binghamton University this season, said after reaching 1,000 points for his career with his final points of the night.

The Comets overcame some serious obstacles.

The teams other first-team, all-stater, Jackson Danzig, now a two-year starter at the University of Scranton, was limited to 11 points and four assists because of foul trouble. He left the game for good with 5:23 to go.

Notre Dame-bound Robby Carmody scored 27 of his 34 points in the second half for Mars, but there was no stopping the Comets.

Tinsley took over in a game that the Comets had trailed in at halftime.

Jack Nealon went 5-for-6 from the line in the final 1:26 to finish with 13 points and 4 assists.

Perkins went 3-for-6 on 3-pointers while providing 11 points and six rebounds.

They left me open, so I made them pay for it, said Perkins, who joined Mike Malone as sophomore starters on the state championship team that went the bulk of the season without returning all-star Trey Koehler, a current Ursinus College player, because of a foot injury.

The championship was the highlight of a successful run by the Abington Heights boys basketball program while also representing an end to struggles by District 2 teams.

The state title was the first by a District 2 basketball team since Bishop OReilly had won back-to-back in 2004 and 2005 and the first by a Lackawanna League team since Bishop Hannan in 2002. All three of those titles came in Class A boys, as opposed to the Abington Heights championship in the second-largest of six enrollment classifications.

Abington Heights players and coaches celebrate as the final seconds tick off the clock during the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball game at the GIANT Center in Hershey.

Abington Heights co-captains Jackson Danzig, left, and George Tinsley hold the championship trophy and a chocolate bar after the Comets won the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball title in Hershey.

Abington Heights guard Jackson Danzig drives to the basket during the 2018 PIAA Class 5A boys basketball title game in Hershey.

The Abington Heights players and coaching staff pose for a photo after the Comets won the first boys basketball championship in school history in 2018.

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Comets have enjoyed extended run of success on court - The Abington Journal