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District 3 6A: Reading Chambersburg advance to championship

02/28/2018, 12:00am EST
By Michael Bullock

Wesley Butler (above) and Reading are back in the District 3 6A championship game. (Photo: Michael Bullock/CoBL)

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)

HERSHEY — With his team facing an uphill climb as the first half continued to play out against an inspired Manheim Twp. squad, Wesley Butler figured it was time to leave an imprint on a critical game he and his Reading teammates wanted to win desperately.

So the multi-talented Red Knights junior — the player on the floor with the most experience in postseason contests — started making some things happen.

Whether it was setting up a teammate, snaring a key rebound at either end of the floor or knocking down a timely look, the 6-1 youngster with the big-time game delivered. And each time Butler made an impact in some manner, Reading kept creeping closer and closer.

Eventually, the Red Knights caught up and passed their latest adversaries.

With Butler stuffing the stat sheet — he finished with 14 points, five rebounds and five assists — Reading rallied for a 57-49 victory over Manheim Twp. in the second of two District 3 Class 6A semis  Tuesday night at Giant Center. Xavier Starks led Rick Perez’s club with 15 points and Hector “R.J.” Dixon scored 10 of his 12 in the second quarter to fuel the Red Knights’ balanced attack.

Larry Wingo also brought plenty of energy off the bench, adding nine points as top-seeded Reading (23-4) secured its invite to Saturday’s 3-6A championship game against Chambersburg.

Tyler Crespo banked 15 points to lead Manheim Twp. (19-7) — Crespo fouled out with 1:01 remaining — while Zach Oldac tacked on 11 more. The No. 5 Blue Streaks are far from finished, as they will meet Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 rival Hempfield in Thursday’s 6A third-place game.

And with Township able to solve Reading’s defensive looks for the first 12 minutes or so — the Blue Streaks led 26-15 after Crespo found Oldac for a finish with 3:50 to play — the Red Knights needed to dig in and start the comeback. Dixon got them started, but Butler kept them moving forward.

“They were outplaying us,” Butler said. “They were outhustling us, that’s what it was.”

One Butler dime set up both of Dixon’s 3-pointers, but the second one had Reading down by six (26-20). While Township’s Brendan Mellott got to the bucket for two, Butler answered with his own finish at the rim with 46 seconds left to keep the Knights within six (28-22).

Crespo buried both ends of a one-and-one, but Wingo’s stickback and Butler’s elbow jumper just before the break made it a four-point game (30-26) and had Reading abuzz.

“Just making the right play, that’s what point guards do,” Butler admitted. “When a shooter like X gets hot, I feel like it’s going in every single time. And R.J. was knocking them in today, so I did a great job of getting him the ball.”

“Wesley’s experience on this floor, his sense of urgency just really kicked in,” Perez said of Butler, the lone starter to return from the state championship squad that celebrated a state title at Giant Center. “It wasn’t there at the beginning, unfortunately, but you go through these situations for a reason.

“And Wesley was a catalyst. He got things going offensively. Guys like Xavier and Bobby Heath had awesome defensive games here today,” Perez added. “And in our program what’s very important is it’s not just who’s leading but who are the followers.”

Reading continued to keep coming and coming in the third quarter and Butler found Bobby Heath for a game-tying trey (36-36) with 2:48 left, the Knights were all square for the first time since it was 8-all. Moments later, after freezing a Township defender with a slick crossover, Butler’s pop from the right elbow handed the reigning Class 6A state champions their first lead of the game.

And it was a lead the Red Knights never relinquished.

“When I hit that, I felt the energy from the bench,” Butler recalled. “I looked up and we were up by two — we can control the game now. We don’t have to rush anything and we can take our time to get shots and end the game the way we want to.”

Another Butler stickback with just over a minute to play in the third, made it 42-39.

With his team in front — in this case to stay — Butler was content to facilitate and direct traffic as an assortment of Reading players stepped to the forefront and made plays. Dixon made two free throws, Butler set up a Starks trey from the top of the circle, Wingo rolled off a curl and finished with his left hand at the rack, Starks added four freebies and Ricki Lopez was 4-for-5 at the line.

Every time the Knights needed someone to step into the void and make something happen, someone did just that. Butler, however, was just the guy behind the wheel who put them in that position.

Now Perez’s bunch will be back here on Saturday hoping to bag the school’s 21st District 3 crown.

“I’m proud of them,” Perez said. “They seized the moment. They’ve been here before and they’ve learned from some great people and I’m just proud of them. This is their opportunity.”

~~

Chambersburg back in District 3 final for the first time since 2012

Cranking up its collective defensive effort after the break, Chambersburg churned out a 52-35 victory over Hempfield in the first of the Class 6A semifinal-round scraps contested at Giant Center.

“At halftime, some of our senior leaders spoke up and said, ‘Hey Coach, let’s play man-to-man only. Let’s get after them,’” Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said. “When those guys are making decisions like that, making leadership calls like that, that makes your job a lot easier.”

Joel Torres tossed in 16 points to lead the Trojans (19-4) — the 6-6, 280-pounder with the terrific feet even canned a 3-pointer from the right wing in the second half — while Seth Brouse, Tyler Collier and Tyron Williams added eight points apiece for Shreffler’s third-seeded bunch.

Chambersburg, which captured the 2012 District 3 Class AAAA title with a win over Harrisburg, limited Danny Walck’s Black Knights to just 13 second-half points. And considering the game was tied 22-22 at the break, his team’s work at the defensive end of the floor pleased Shreffler.

Although Chambersburg led 33-29 after three quarters, the game remained tight. One late burst, however, enabled the third-seeded Trojans to pull away and win rather easily.

Eli Washington and Temple football recruit David Martin-Robinson paced Hempfield (22-4) with nine points each, while Cade Brindle’s work on Ryan Moffatt was another tangible factor that swung the result toward the Franklin Countians. Moffatt wound up scoring eight points.

“Cade Brindle did an awesome job,” Shreffler commended. “He did a very nice job.”

Halifax parlays huge outburst into second straight Class 2A championship

Unleashing a huge run that bridged halftime, Halifax turned its decisive outburst into a 62-44 victory over neighboring Millersburg in the Class 2A championship that was the second of four games held at Giant Center. It was the second straight 2A crown for Will Sagle’s Wildcats.

Nate Blasick scored 16 points and Dylan Wells tossed in 14 for Halifax (24-2), which was down 23-15 with with 5:39 left in the opening half. Some four minutes into the third quarter, the Tri-Valley League champions were sporting a 36-23 advantage.

Although Lance Hoover splashed a trey to halt Halifax’s surge briefly, Sagle’s squad responded by closing out the quarter with an 8-0 salvo punctuated by London Johnson’s line-drive trey just before the horn. Halifax, in fact, finished the game 9-for-19 from the arc.

Up next for Halifax — the Wildcats sit just six miles from Millersburg and defeated the Indians all three times they met — is a date in the opening round of states against the District 1 runner-up on March 10, either Christopher Dock Mennonite or Delco Christian at a District 3 venue.

“When you have a list of goals and you accomplish each and every one of them, it’s good to get them all done,” said Sagle, Halifax’s second-year skipper and the former Greenwood standout.

Connor Zimmerman dropped in 13 points to lead Millersburg (13-12), which was trying to collar its seventh District 3 championship — but its first since the 1987-88 team prevailed.

“At the beginning of the year, nobody ever imagined that we would be here,” said Millersburg coach Todd Wingard, whose Indians lost by nine and 11 points to the neighboring Wildcats. “We didn’t play them near as well as I thought we would, but the kids battled.

“It was fun.”


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