Monday was the consolation round of Districts to play for 5-8 place. They took on Elizabethtown over in Etown. Didn’t go over. See last week as for why. York won 61-49 and will take on Shippensburg for 5th place on Thursday at Shippensburg.
Car went in on Tuesday for inspection and a new set of tires. All ready for the upcoming baseball season and I will hopefully be due for an oil change right before I head off on my baseball trip. I doubt I will be that lucky but we’ll see. I want to use that as a pre-trip check if I can. But, a new set of tires makes quite a difference.
On Wednesday the CAC semifinals took place at York with Mary Washington coming to town. I was able to make it to that game. The first half was a struggle. Lots of lead changes and lots of missed shots too with Mary Washington’s talented freshman Trey Barber being unstoppable for the first few minutes of the game. His length at 6’8 altered a lot of shots too. The momentum changer came in the last few seconds when Daren Gordon hit a 3 as time expired in the half. After a few minutes going back and forth again in the second half York took over. It didn’t take long to build a 10+ point lead thanks to David Giuliani hitting 2 3’s. He’s hit 10 now all season and I am shocked he had that many. At that point the Eagles began to fold as fouls mounted up. York got the lead up to 21 and sat on cruise control for the last few minutes to win 74-60 even being content to let the shot clock run out on one possession.
Didn’t go to Shippensburg on Thursday. It’s just a bit too far to go on a weeknight, though I might have should the town have a brewery other than an Appalachian brewery. That is a bit surprising, especially with a university town. Think about that won’t you town leaders. York won pretty easily so they grab the 5th seed and will take on the District 11 champ Southern Lehigh. They’ll play at Bethlehem Freedom next Friday. And how about the fall from grace for Gettysburg? #1 seed entering the tournament and finishing 7th after losing by 30 on their home floor to Etown. It’s a good thing they won that first game against Hershey.
Headed up to Hershey on Friday for the Class A finals and the Class AAAAA finals. Didn’t have to worry about getting there too early since the A girls game was first up. Pregame dinner at Tattered Flag since I chose to take the back way up through Marietta and Middletown to avoid traffic and tolls. Arrived at halftime of the girls Class A final between Lancaster Country Day and Greenwood which Lancaster Country Day won. In Class A Mt. Calvary took on Halifax. Halifax had probably the best player on the court but Mt. Calvary had 2-7. Mt. Calvary chugged along and while that player kept Halifax in the game it wasn’t enough. Mt. Calvary wins 71-56.
After the AAAAA girls game between Twin Valley and Gettysburg which Gettysburg won (and it took forever to play) Muhlenberg took on Milton Hershey for the AAAAA finals. A battle of the last two teams to beat York in Districts before this year. Milton Hershey was bigger and taller, Muhlenberg was faster and quicker. This was probably the most entertaining of the games played this day. Milton Hershey led for most of the game but Muhlenberg came back to take the lead late. They had one player hit something like 7 3 pointers in the game. Milton Hershey’s best player had a chance to take the lead in the waning seconds and had a good look at the basket on a drive but he put it up too strong so the game went to overtime. Muhlenberg took control from there and while Milton Hershey didn’t go away in the end they shot themselves in the foot when a player inbounded the ball while stepping in bounds. Muhlenberg wins 71-62 in overtime.
Headed back to Hershey on Saturday for the Class AAAAAA finals. This was planned already since York lost to coinflip to Christopher Newport once again so the championship would be played in Newport News. I didn’t think that St. Mary’s would beat them and they didn’t, in fact it wasn’t close. St. Mary’s won 9 games this year which I don’t get because there was some talent on that team. OK, yes one of their losses was to a Division 1 team in UMBC and they did lose current #2 Randolph-Macon as well. To my surprise York won by 2 and is headed to the NCAA Tournament. We’ll find out who they play and where on Monday.
First up was the girls final between Central York and Central Dauphin which Central Dauphin won. Central Dauphin is apparently the #1 team in the state but Central gave them all they could handle. They had a chance to tie the game late but couldn’t do it. Wilson then took on Reading for the 4th time this year and Wilson has handled them easily each time so I wasn’t expecting much but I did want to see Wilson star player Stevie Mitchell play. Reading found a way to finally slow down Wilson and that was Mid-Penn referees. I am guessing that Mitchell got the Eli Brooks treatment in Berks County and got to shoot a lot of undeserved free throws just like Brooks did during his time in York County. He looked genuinely shocked when he was whistled for a foul. He spent part of the second half on the bench in foul trouble but Wilson was able to maintain a nice lead and held Reading to 18 first half points. Reading rallied in the halftime, taking advantage of Mitchell turning his ankle in the 3rd quarter, and tied the game late. Wilson hit their free throws down the stretch but Reading had a chance with .4 seconds left to tie the game when they fouled a Reading player. But that player missed the free throws allowing Wilson to win 58-56.
Stayed up for the Bears game against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Visited the Vegetable Hunter downtown with dinner at Appalachian. First time at Vegetable Hunter, not a huge selection of beer but it was good enough. Tiny place though. Wanted to visit Troegs too but the lot was filled so I moved on. This game was sold out, 10,500 in the building. It was the first time that the parking attendant asked if I had tickets already because of that. Fortunately I did have tickets in hand already. Things started well for the Bears. Garrett Pilon picked off a Penguin pass and scored on a breakaway. This was a theme for the Bears, I haven’t seen them have this many breakaways all year. Wilkes-Barre’s defense was not good, I am guessing most of their defensemen are in Pittsburgh. Recently acquired Daniel Sprong tallied another goal on a nice pass from Mike Sgarbossa that caught Pen’s goalie Casey DeSmith out of the net. Hershey took control in the 2nd with Sgarbossa tallying two goals of his own on top of a Phillippe Maillet scoring on his own breakaway. WBS did get on the board with a David Warsofsky power play goal that was deflected and beat Vitek Vanacek. The Penguins got to spend a lot of time on the power play, they got 8 of them with only 2 for Hershey. In this game it didn’t matter as Hershey wins 5-1.
Nothing to do on Sunday so I walked downtown for a beer.
