City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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LEBANON — Even though the opening quarter had yet to reach its midway point, Kevin Schieler repeatedly glanced at the scoreboard perched on the wall nearest his team’s bench — as if he was urging the clock to run at mach speed.

And his Central York Panthers were leading.

Schieler, however, was extremely antsy. Yet he had a valid reason for wanting to quicken Saturday night’s game at the Cage.

Particularly since do-everything senior Evan Horn was part of the Cedar Crest contingent that was playing host to the undefeated Panthers.

Central’s coach had watched Horn torment Central each of the past two seasons — Horn’s baseline heave to the opposite foul line led to an Andrew Eudy bucket that pushed Crest into the 2014 District 3-AAAA championship game, while last season Horn canned a late hoop to win a regular-season contest — and he certainly didn’t want to relive a similar type of experience yet again.

Well, he nearly did.

Despite holding a double-digit lead at the start of the fourth quarter, Schieler watched Horn fuel a furious comeback that nearly erased every bit of Central’s substantial cushion. This time, however, Schieler’s Panthers were able to fend off Crest and board the bus home with a 75-69 victory.

“[Horn’s] a great young man, first off, and he’s an extremely gifted athlete,” Schieler said. “I was telling my guys beforehand — Jared Wagner, Nathan Markey, [Evan] Czulada — all these guys play on the AAU circuits and I said, ‘He’s the fastest, strongest, highest-jumping guy you have ever seen all rolled into one.’

“And Jared and Nathan both confirmed it afterwards. He’s just such a unique athlete. He’s tough. As soon as it got into single digits there in the fourth quarter, I knew he was gonna get it every time. I had replays of the past three years rolling through my head.”

While the 6-foot-1 Horn erupted for 36 points and grabbed 12 rebounds — Horn’s freebies with 54.9 ticks showing pulled Crest within one (70-69) and bumped his career total to 1,000 points — Schieler’s perfect Panthers countered by popping five players into double figures while winning their eighth game in as many tries.

Markey paced the Panthers with 23 points and nine boards, while Wagner collected 14 points and dished out eight assists — despite foul difficulties that had him tied to the Central bench at different points in each half.

Onterio Edmonds, Niko Sobestanovich and reserve Czulada each pocketed 10 points for Schieler’s club, which bolted to a 6-0 advantage at the start, increased its cushion to 43-31 at the halftime break and led 58-43 when the fourth quarter began.

A pair of technical fouls on the Crest bench at the close of the third quarter sent Markey to the line, where he buried all four looks. Raymie Ferreira also posted a double-double for Tom Smith’s Falcons (4-2), banking 13 points while grabbing 17 rebounds.

“Definitely pleased with the way we finished, I’m proud of the guys,” said Smith, whose Falcons suffered an 84-55 setback Friday night at Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 1 playmate McCaskey. “We knew we had that fight in us and it finally came out. We talked in there and it’s hopefully something to build on, that fourth quarter, and take it into Hempfield on Monday.”

“I can’t tell you the last time they lost two in a row, so we thought for sure they’d come out fired up,” Schieler added. “Coming all the way up here, that made us real nervous.”

And the Panthers began to get really nervous as the fourth quarter played out.

Still leading by 13 (64-51) with 5:29 to play after Wagner found Sobestanovich for an easy finish, Central watched as Crest promptly responded with a 14-4 outburst that had the Falcons within 68-65 with just over two to go.

Horn bagged eight of Crest’s 14 points, but he also set up a Ferreira score that enabled the hosts to shave their deficit to three.

Wagner was able to get to the bucket to temporarily stymie the Falcons, but an Iziah Trimble score and Horn’s freebies cut Central’s lead to 70-69.

Just 54.9 seconds remained.

While the 6-0 Wagner canned both ends of a one-and-one opportunity to make it a three-point game, he also knocked Trimble’s 3-point try out of bounds for the last of his three blocks. Moments later, after Horn’s trey clanked off the iron, Markey was fouled in transition and his soft layup curled in.

Horn’s hex on the Panthers was over … for now.

“We have off next week, but this is a nice one, said Schieler, who will lead the Panthers into Hempfield’s Holiday tournament and a date with Wilson West Lawn.

“It’s going to make the drive home a lot more pleasant.”

So will Central’s crisp ball movement, which allows the smallish Panthers to find open looks on the perimeter. It also helps Central — Schieler’s bunch was outboarded 38-25 — compensate for their lack of length.

Schieler’s Panthers shot 47.1 percent from the floor — 48.1 percent before the break — and knocked down eight of their 19 treys. Seven of those 3-point hoops arrived in the first half on just 12 attempts (58.3 percent).

“I told them last night, after our [62-42] win against Red Lion, ‘I think this is the best group in terms of team chemistry and guys that understand it’s a five-man game that I’ve ever coached,’” Schieler said. “I’ve had taller teams. I’ve had faster teams. I’ve had more-talented teams — but never a team like these guys are.

“They all understand that anyone can knock down a shot or they can move the ball until someone can knock down a shot and the same thing defensively. I can’t tell tonight because of the way Horn played, but we’ve been doing a great job of keeping teams below 50 points night-in and night-out and that’s because these guys all understand that it takes five guys to play defense.”

Horn, who also dropped three dimes, was sensational.

“Evan does Evan things,” Smith said. “I think if you talked to him, he’d trade that milestone for a win tonight. But he plays his best basketball on the biggest stages and tonight was a big stage. Didn’t surprise me that he came out and got that.”

Perhaps there’ll be another meeting between these adversaries sometime in 2016, maybe another postseason clash that comes down to a final shot.

Would be fitting, huh?

“It would be fun,” Smith said. “These games are always fun.”