City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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SPRING GROVE — Years from now, whether they’re enjoying a sandwich and adult beverage at a downtown establishment or arguing over a minute detail during a brief production break at P.H. Glatfelter’s paper mill, thousands will claim they were there.

And while there were several thousand screaming basketball fans packed snugly into Spring Grove High School’s spacious gymnasium, those stuffed inside were treated to one of those instant classics that postseason play is designed to generate.

Obviously, the sold-out gate was just one dimension. But Thursday night’s District 3 Class 5A quarterfinal-round scrap had something for everyone, whether you were there to watch the star players make sparkling plays or the complementary performers who popped into the spotlight to pitch in with their own memorable contributions.

Yep, it was one of those epic kinds of games.

Scoring the final five points of the game — including a clutch 3-ball from the left corner with maybe 40 seconds remaining — Grant Sterner’s late surge propelled Spring Grove to a 65-63 victory over Manheim Central that wasn’t settled until the final shot went up.

Yet clanked off the back iron.

“We knew we were gonna have to fight the whole way through the game,” said Sterner, a 6-1 junior who popped off the bench to drain 3 of his 4 looks from the floor. “That’s what came it down to at the end, but we got it done at the free-throw line.”

Sterner finished with 10 points — Michigan-bound Eli Brooks paced the Rockets (20-6) with 25 points and Austin Panter added 20 — as James Brooks’ gritty club earned their way into Monday night’s semifinal twinbill at Hershey’s Giant Center.

Spring Grove, which reached the Class AAAA semis a year ago, will meet YAIAA-I playmate Northeastern in Game 2 of Monday’s twinbill. The Rockets and Bobcats — Northeastern decked Greencastle-Antrim 73-52 — split two regular-season games.

Saint Joseph’s recruit Taylor Funk also had a fabulous day for Chris Sherwood’s Barons (20-6), ringing up 32 points, snaring eight rebounds, dishing out six assists and blocking three shots. It was Funk’s last-second trey that had the partisan crowd gasping.

Until the ball clanked off the back iron and Brooks, Funk’s AAU teammate with the Jersey Shore Warriors, latched on for the last of his eight boards.

Roman Wagner added a double-double (10 points/10 rebounds) for Central, which will take on Greencastle-Antrim in a consolation semi Monday at East Pennsboro.

“He played great,” said Sherwood, who offered similar props concerning Funk.

And when Funk found Wagner for a finish at the rim with 2:50 to play, it looked like Sherwood’s Barons would be making the jaunt to Hershey since they led 60-53.

Didn’t happen since the Rockets suddenly flashed their grit.

While Brooks canned a pair of free throws — the 6-1 senior was 10-for-10 from the stripe in the fourth quarter — Panter made it a two-point game (60-58) by bagging the second of his two treys in the pivotal final moments.

Central responded by turning the ball over on its next two possessions, sandwiching those mistakes around a miss by Spring Grove’s Drew Gordon. But there was Brooks again, canning a pair with 1:02 showing to make it 60-60.

Funk pushed the Barons back in front, coolly burying a 3-pointer from the right corner with some 53 seconds to play. That lead was short-lived, however, as a Brooks delivery found Sterner all alone in the left corner.

Sterner made the most of the moment, canning a 3-ball that tied the game yet again and had the crowd on hand frothing for more and more.

“I had my chance,” Sterner recalled. “I had my feet set. And I just let it fly.”

“Those guys made big shots,” Sherwood said, referring to Panter and Sterner. “I thought that those two guys did a really good job.”

“They do it in practice, so it was only right for them to make their shots,” Eli Brooks added. “They left them open several times and in the first half they didn’t capitalize on some of them, but they have confidence to do it and they’re willing to do it.

“It was good that I didn’t have to have the ball in my hand in the last minute or whatever, but it was good for our team to get that win with those people stepping up.”

James Brooks couldn’t have been prouder. Not just about the win, but …

“It had all the elements,” James Brooks said. “It had the two big stars … and one humbled himself enough to count on someone else to win the game.

“That is more than anything that I’ve tried to teach him in our program is that depend on others and do the right basketball play,” James Brooks continued. “If you do it enough, people will trust themselves to do remarkable things.”

Another Central turnover put Sterner on the line with 20.7 to play, the junior knocking down the front end to put the Rockets up. And when Wagner stormed down the lane on the ensuing possession, his shot wouldn’t fall and Sterner latched on.

Fouled on the play, Sterner strolled back to the line for two more.

While the first look was off the mark, the second fell through the net as the gymnasium went dark momentarily. With nine seconds to go and the lights back up quickly, Central had one last chance to tie — or prevail — yet watched Funk’s rip hit the iron.

Funk had 15 points in the fourth quarter — many with Brooks trying to guard the 6-9 forward on the blocks — but he couldn’t coax another shot to fall.

“Any time he shoots the ball you think it’s going to go in,” Eli Brooks said. “We didn’t want him to get a shot up, but luckily for us he missed.”

Fittingly, in the final home game of a spectacular career during which he’s scored more than 2,200 points while rejuvenating a Rockets program, Brooks clutched the ball.

“A night like this you won’t forget probably for the rest of your life,” Eli Brooks said. “It was a good way to go out of Spring Grove like this.”

“He’s a heck of a player,” Sherwood commended. “He does everything.”

“It is pretty special,” James Brooks admitted. “Coaching staff and me and my wife [Kelly] were just talking about it. How could you beat coming out of a game like this?

“To be your last game in that gym, it’s remarkable, it’s fitting to how hard these kids have worked and how they believed they could change a program. I’m beyond words of how proud I am of all my players, my son that’s done some remarkable things.

“As a whole thing and as a program, it’s bigger than any of us.”

Next stop: Hershey’s Giant Center.

Yet even before the Rockets make the jaunt to Chocolatetown, everyone in this industrious community some 10 minutes west of York will be crowing about what their beloved basketball team just accomplished.

Basketball has always been a big deal in Spring Grove. And while the Rockets certainly encountered their share of struggles for some two decades, the program’s rebirth has brought many of those long-time fans back to the games.

Those on hand Thursday night certainly saw a dandy.

“These are games that people love to come and see,” James Brooks said. “They’ll remember this. I’ll go down to the Papertown Dairy Bar and they’ll be talking about it.

“It’s wonderful for our program. It’s wonderful for our community.”