City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)

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WEST YORK — As they bounced into preseason practice — despite some significant losses from a ballclub that reached state play — Jared Achterberg and his buddies just wanted to keep Eastern York basketball performing at a high level.

Didn’t matter that a bunch of sophomores were going to be counted on to fill substantial roles, even though they’d be learning on the job.

Let’s just say there's something going on or there must be some magic of sorts sprinkled on Eastern York’s flashy warmup pants — visualize Tom Crean’s Indiana Hoosiers, only these drawers feature blue, gold and white vertical stripes — because things are going well. 

Make that really well.

Tipping off the initial War of the Roses showcase Saturday at West York High School’s flashy year-old playpen, Eastern shrugged off some early shooting woes and wound up downing a struggling Warwick side by a 74-57 margin.

While the 6-3 Achterberg carried the offensive load early for Jon Reichard’s Knights (9-1) — Achterberg pocketed all 12 of Eastern’s points in the first quarter — he wound up with 25 points, nine rebounds and four assists as Eastern eventually stretched things out.

Evan Springer added 17 points — including 14 in the third quarter when his four 3-pointers forced the Warriors (5-7) to shuck their 2-3 zone — as the Knights steamed to their eighth consecutive victory. No. 7 came a night earlier against West York.

Only an unbeaten Northeastern side ranked fifth in City of Basketball Love’s latest Class 5A rankings has been able to best Reichard’s bunch.

“It’s a great start to the season and we want, of course, to continue it,” Achterberg admitted. “We can build off it. I know we’ve got a couple hard games coming up.”

Still …

Alex Lalovic, a quick-triggered shooter with all sorts of range, dropped in 26 points to pace a Warwick group (5-7) that tumbled for the sixth straight time.

“Kid’s a good shooter, I’ll give him that,” Reichard said. “They just kept coming.”

Although Achterberg’s early efforts had Eastern within a deuce at the end of the opening quarter, Reichard’s Knights received a timely pick-me-up in the second from sophomores Bryce Henise, Ryan Harmer and Damonte Martin off the bench.

The 6-5 Harmer wound up with nine points, matching classmate Seth Bernstein.

Not only did that trio combine for nine needed points — Achterberg and several of the other starters were out catching their breath as Harmer and Martin each netted four —  but Eastern also opened a narrow lead the Knights carried into the break.

“When things aren’t falling for the starting five, we have the talent to come off the bench and really give us a boost,” Achterberg said. “We know we’re not losing anything by putting one of the younger guys in.”

Call it the first of several effective shift changes for the Knights.

“At halftime, the stat we had was 0-for-10 from [the 3-point arc] and we were still leading the game, so we were happy about that,” said Reichard, who was heading for Selinsgrove’s Susquehanna University to see his son, Dalton, play for the 14th-ranked River Hawks.

“We got some subs that gave us a lift. We started playing a little bit better defense at times, but it wasn’t as good as we wanted. We knew coming in for a 12 p.m. game after we played last night, it wasn’t going to be [as effective as it could be].

A solid 19-12 edge on the glass also helped, especially since Warwick launched all sorts of deep looks against its taller adversaries. And when many of those shots caromed off the iron long, Eastern’s backcourt types were able to track down the ball.

Springer really came on in the third quarter for the Knights, banging home four of his five triples and forcing Warwick to go out and guard Reichard’s club man-up.

“Makes everything easier,” Achterberg said. “It becomes a lot more fun when he starts hitting shots and we can get stuff down low and move the ball around a lot more.”

“If we would have made some of those 3s [earlier] and forced them out of that zone, they would have had a hard time handling us for the rest of the game,” Reichard added. “Those first couple possessions when they were man-to-man, we just got whatever we wanted around the basket. We’re working on that.”

Yet every time Eastern seemed to stretch the lead — the Knights led 43-34 after three quarters — Warwick offered a response that kept the game within reach.

And it was still tight with 2:45 to go when Lalovic canned the last of his six treys, pulling the Warriors within 58-52. Moments later, Eastern’s bulge was 11 once Springer dialed up another deep effort and Dom Particelli finished at the rim.

Three late scores from Bernstein, two freebies from freshman Trever Seitz and yet another deuce by Achterberg closed out yet another success.

Did we mention the Knights display a nifty uniform ensemble? Don’t forget about the blue-and-gold socks with their circular stripes and some slick blue kicks.

“[Everything’s] dedicated to Mr. [Ken] Stoner, who keeps the scorebook for us,” Reichard said of the Knights’ warmups. “He was a 30-year coach at Eastern and they wore those in the early ‘70s. That’s why we wear them.”

All part of a fashionable hoops package that Achterberg, Springer and Particelli — the starters back from Eastern’s run to the District 3-AAA final and a state opener against Imhotep — wanted to keep at or near YAIAA-2’s top.

A return to the postseason was another season-long objective.

“We definitely did not lower our expectations,” Achterberg admitted. “We know we were losing Broguen [Shippensburg University freshman lead guard Nicholas] after last season, but we knew we had three seniors and starters coming back.

“We wanted to hold ourselves to the same expectations and I think we’re trying to accomplish it and we’re doing pretty well.”

Thus far, everything appears to be falling into place for the well-dressed Knights — especially since the younger crowd is picking things up quickly.

“We’re a very young team,” Reichard reminded. “Everyone thinks we’re senior-laden, but after those four seniors we’re all sophomores.

“So these kids are getting pretty good experience playing games like this.”

“Obviously, I think it’s great for them to come into the game with us and get experience,” Achterberg added. “They are able to learn some things from playing and from the seniors, where they can help us down the road.”

Hey, they’re already pitching in.

Quite a bit, too, for a bunch that’s reeled off eight consecutive victories.

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Dallastown halts brief two-game skid

Donovan Catchings buried two free throws with 16.2 seconds remaining, snapping a late tie and propelling Dallastown to a 44-42 victory over Penn Manor in Game 2.

Penn Manor (4-8) still had a chance to pull even — or win it — but Dallastown gave its final foul with 7.7 seconds to go. The Wildcats (8-3) continued to hound the ball as the clock wound down, causing Cameron Lovett to hoist up a quick shot at the horn.

Lovett finished with a team-high 14 points for Larry Bellew’s Comets.

Brandon McGlynn bagged a game-high 19 points and Ben Ward chipped in eight as Mike Grassel’s Dallastown bunch stopped a two-game slide that included losses earlier in the week to YAIAA-I playmates South Western and Spring Grove.

“[We’re] 8-3 at the midway point,” Grassel said. “Every game’s a big game, so we’ve got Red Lion coming into our house on Wednesday so we actually get two practices, which is really nice during the season and then we’ve got Central [York].

“We’ve got to get back on the winning streak in the division and put ourselves in the position to reach some of our goals,” Grassel continued. “If you would have told me we’d be 8-3 with the first 11 teams we played, I’d take it.”

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Flashing balance, Hempfield runs win streak to three games

Putting nine players into the scorebook — Ryan Moffatt scored 11 and Anthony Alston chipped in 10 — Hempfield churned out a 54-35 victory over Red Lion in Game 3.

Danny Walck’s Black Knights (7-4), still without injured 6-5 senior Bryan Karl, have collared their last three outings. Up next for Hempfield is a Lancaster-Lebanon League showdown Tuesday night at Section 1 frontrunner Lebanon.

Senior 6-6 big man Brock Gould banked 11 points for Red Lion (1-9).