City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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WEST YORK — For a pair of basketball squads that enjoyed plenty of first-half success navigating their respective schedules, Saturday’s matchup between York Catholic and Lancaster Catholic might best be described as a midseason benchmark.

Yet while Lancaster Catholic bounced confidently into West York High School for the inaugural War of the Roses showcase with a perfect record, a once-beaten York Catholic outfit happily countered with its nifty nine-game winning streak.

Once one considers that both units carried state-wide rankings into the year-old building — Lancaster Catholic was No. 7 in Class 4A, while York Catholic checked in at No. 5 in Class 3A — it didn’t take long to figure out the game meant plenty.

So, everyone who stepped on the floor competed as if it was a playoff game — even though no one’s season was riding on some all-or-nothing outcome.

Fiercely contested throughout, York Catholic popped a handful of players into double figures, parlaying that remarkable balance into a satisfying 70-60 victory over Lancaster Catholic that had the partisan crowd on hand cranking out all sorts of noise.

Although D’Andre Davis paced the Irish (10-1) with 15 points, Andrew Forjan (14), Steven Nigro (13), Torrey Thomas (12) and Melik Martin (10) were right behind him as York Catholic went at the Crusaders from all sorts of directions.

Thomas netted his dozen by burying four 3-pointers, including three in the opening half as York Catholic turned a 7-0 spurt in the closing moments into a 36-30 lead.

“Oh, my goodness,” gushed Forjan, who dished out seven assists and grabbed a handful of rebounds from his lead guard position. “He can shoot the ball.

“We had like a six, seven-point lead, he extends it and the crowd goes crazy,” Forjan continued. “That gets us going so much. It helped us a lot.”

Thomas’ first-half boost helped the Irish so much — York Catholic wound up making eight of its 15 looks from beyond the arc — Joe Klazas’ Crusaders (10-1) never got closer despite 21 points from Jon Ware, 14 from Sean Landis and 12 from Danny Bomberger.

The Irish, in fact, led by as many as 13 in the second half.

“We love the challenge of coming over here and having the chance to play these guys,” said Klazas, whose Crusaders sliced their deficit to seven several times but could not get any closer. “It’s kind of our halfway point and we definitely want to extend our season, so we thought this was a great test at our halfway point to see where we’re at.

“We did some good things, but the one big difference tonight versus our previous 10 [games] is we were able to get some stops when we really needed them,” Klazas added.

“Tonight, we didn’t get those.”

Not with York Catholic knocking down all sorts of shots — from all sorts of spots.

“When we take great shots, then we’re good shooters,” second-year York Catholic head coach Blaine Claiborne said. “When we don’t worry about one-on-one or looking up and seeing how many points I have and I’ve got to get three more, that’s what happens.

“When we take good shots, we’re really good shooters. There’s five or six guys who probably can shoot 38 percent or better from 3, if they’re taking good shots.”

In addition to Thomas — Thomas was 4-for-5 from deep — Forjan made both of his deep looks, Robbie McNamara was 1-for-3 from beyond the arc as was Martin.

“They played D’Andre hard on the wing and that opened me up a little bit,” Forjan recalled. “Once I started doing things, everyone else gets open. Yeah, I looked up and there were four of us with 11, 12, 13 points.

“That’s what we’re gonna need to win these games.”

While Ware netted 13 of his 21 points in the second half and Chad Wenger collected all nine of his in the fourth quarter, the Crusaders really couldn’t make a dent.

Ware was sensational, penetrating at will against the Irish man.

“He’s been really aggressive,” Klazas said. “Love his style getting to the rim. We tried to chip away at it there, we were in the bonus and we wanted to keep being aggressive and he’s one of our best finishers around the rim.

“Again, we had one there where we could have maybe got it to seven, I believe it was, and that one didn’t fall.”

Not against an Irish side that refused to yield.

York Catholic, in fact, canned 12 of its 15 free-throw attempts in the final eight minutes to sock away yet another victory — and this one mattered a lot to the Irish.

“That was key,” Claiborne said. “That was clutch.”

“We haven’t been in those situations,” Forjan added. “We did make a few mistakes, but closing it out, just the fact that we did that boosts us for every other team that we play.

“We know we can close out games now,” Forjan continued, “and that’s something we might have struggled with in the past.”

And the Irish can close out games against quality opponents, a needed element for those hoping to accomplish neat stuff in February and beyond.

“It was a good win,” admitted Claiborne, who has watched his Irish tumble only to unbeaten Trinity in their season-opening scrap. “We’ve been talking about winning these statement games, so that was a good win for us.”

“This is just fantastic, especially being here,” Forjan said. “It was so much fun. Coming in they were ranked like first in District 3-4A [in the power rankings], something like that. That didn’t faze us. We came out here running … and it was fun.

“My past couple years, our out-of-division games we have struggled, but this year we beat Berks [Catholic], we beat Bethlehem [Catholic] and this is huge for us.”

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Central York needs overtime to escape Conestoga Valley, run win streak to four

Finally able to gain some needed separation in overtime — after needing some late heroics just to get to the decisive extra session — Kevin Schieler’s surging Central York Panthers downed Conestoga Valley 74-65 in Game 5.

Getting a conventional three-point play from Courtney Batts with 18.9 seconds remaining in regulation, Central York (7-4) opened OT by rattling off the first nine points and turning a tight contest into a comfortable victory that let everyone exhale.

Batts finished with 23 points as Schieler’s Panthers recorded their fourth victory in succession. Central also picked up 14 points from Garrett Markey — including five in OT — and 13 more from Evan Czulada.

Logan Monroe and Austin Monroe pocketed 23 points apiece for Brad Herr’s hard-luck Buckskins (1-11), who dropped their third game in a row.

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Manheim Twp. gets big outing from Crespo, turns back host West York

Although a late sequence pushed the finale into extra play, Manheim Twp. parlayed a timely surge in overtime into a 72-65 triumph over host West York in Game 6.

Tyler Crespo scored nine of his 29 points in the extra session to lead Matt Johns’ Blue Streaks (6-4). Township also picked up 13 from Nick Vicidomini.

Township’s win, its second straight, enabled the Lancaster-Lebanon League to walk out of West York with its second victory of the night against four earlier setbacks.

Kenton Meckley racked up 25 points for the host Bulldogs (5-6), including a tip-in of a missed Dayvon Cortez free throw as the horn sounded ended regulation. Cortez was awarded three freebies with 1.2 left and made the first two before missing the third.

Cortez also reached double figures, finishing with 12 points.