City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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MECHANICSBURG — Folks, the Mid-Penn Keystone Division title chase is still on.

And while it looked somewhat gloomy late Friday afternoon for Palmyra’s basketball-playing Cougars as they motored toward Mechanicsburg to tip off their second tour of the eight-team circuit, several hours later everything was quite a bit brighter.

Pete Conrad’s remarkably long ballclub certainly did its part by dealing host Mechanicsburg a 55-41 setback — and shaving what had been a two-game deficit neatly in half — but the Cougars need to get some help from somebody else to really make things interesting as what’s left of January continues to unfold.

Conrad’s Cougars effectively used their collective length at both ends of the floor — Palmyra’s starting five checks in at 6-5, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 and 6-4 — methodically extending their lead with a patient dribble-drive attack piloted by 6-5 lead guard Isaac Blatt.

While Blatt scored a team-high 18 points, Braden Vernet chimed in with 13 and Bryant Willis tacked on 11 more as the Cougars (13-2, 6-2) rebounded from a mid-week loss to Lower Dauphin and kept their hopes for a Keystone championship in play.

Blatt also grabbed eight rebounds and dished out five assists.

The 6-3 Vernet, meanwhile, was assigned primary cover on Mechanicsburg’s 6-5 Cade Alioth — Alioth came in averaging 19.1 ppg — and limited the Wildcats’ explosive big man to a mere 11 points and just four after the break. Alioth did snare nine rebounds.

“My job was strictly to keep him off the boards and let everyone else get the rebounds,” Vernet said. “So I pretty much just face-guarded him and didn’t let him rebound. It was a nice team effort to keep him off the boards.”

“There was no rocket science plan, we wanted to sit down and guard,” Conrad said. “I thought Vernet did a great job on Alioth. Alioth has been a really dominant post presence, obviously, so we worked out a game plan where everything he was going to have to do was going to be worked for — and I thought Vernet did that.

“Vernet’s just a tough kid and so a lot of credit should go to him for how hard he worked tonight to not let Cade get the ball in his favorite spots.”

Foul-plagued Shane Homick topped Bob Strickler’s scrappy bunch (10-3, 7-1) with 13.

Tight throughout the opening eight minutes, Willis’ trey with just seconds showing pushed the Cougars in front and triggered a 10-0 outburst that had Palmyra perched on a 21-13 advantage midway through the second quarter.

While Homick and Alioth returned to spark a 7-0 salvo — both sat for several minutes with two fouls apiece — Palmyra was able to fend off the Wildcats and carry a 25-20 lead into the halftime break that had Strickler believing things would be OK.

“I was ecstatic at halftime,” Strickler said. “I knew they played pretty well and I knew we didn’t shoot it [7-for-24 from the field] very well and we’re only down five.”

Particularly since Mechanicsburg knocked down just one shot in the third quarter — Homick, a Kirk Cameron lookalike, buried a trey early — and the Cougars were able to stretch their lead to 10 (33-23) behind a handful of points from Vernet.

“We had some good looks and they didn’t go in,” continued Strickler, whose Wildcats captured the December dustup between the two 57-47. “They outplayed us tonight.

“If it was a seven-game series, it would be tied at one.”

Along with Palmyra’s defensive work inside, Mechanicsburg connected on just 13 of its 48 field-goal attempts and that helped to short-circuit the Wildcats offensively as well.

“We just didn’t hit any shots,” Strickler lamented.

Conversely, Palmyra was 16-for-31 from the floor and 21 of 32 at the line.

“One advantage we have and, at times, it’s a disadvantage is we’re so long,” Conrad admitted. “Von Stetten’s 6-3 on [Kyle] Scheib, Blatt’s 6-5 on whatever, a bunch of guys on Homick and Cleckner’s 6-3 and on the perimeter also. When we can get those guys to sit down and guard and not give up blow-bys, we can be a difficult matchup.

“Our guys did a great job of using that to their advantage tonight.”

Although the Wildcats were able to draw within eight several times — Alioth’s finish at the rim off a nice Homick entry at 4:11 made it 38-30 — they could not get any closer as Blatt began yo-yoing the ball out front and lengthening possessions.

Blatt also showed the ability to take anyone off the bounce.

“I think Blatt’s the best player in our league, just natural skill,” Strickler said. “But Pete doesn’t even ask him to do what we ask Cade to do on a nightly basis.

“A little bit,” Conrad said. “We just talked about we wanted reversals. Part of that, from the start of the game, is they are a well-drilled defensive team.

“If it’s one pass and you’re driving into help-side [defense], it’s a disaster,” Conrad continued. “You’ve got to get reversal, reversal, reversal. So we tried to emphasize that in the second half even moreso now that we’ve got a lead.

“I thought the guys did a pretty good job picking their spots to be in position and then picking our spots to pull back and work for those reversals.”

A Willis layup off a backdoor cut from the left wing and a Blatt dish had the Cougars up 42-30. A Bennett Von Stetten finish off a Vernet ball over the top upped Palmyra’s lead to a commanding 14 points and had Strickler wondering how to extend the game.

“Our offensive game plan once we got a little bit of a lead was to slow it down and get pretty much layups only,” Vernet said. “That worked out and we got Bryant on a couple open 3s inside-out. It worked out perfect.”

Kyle Scheib’s trey provided a glimmer for the hosts with 2:22 to go, pulling Strickler’s Wildcats within 45-33 — Scheib finished with nine — but Alec Cleckner began a parade to the foul line by sinking both ends of a one-and-one opportunity.

Palmyra would shoot 10 more — Sam Sheils, Vernet, Blatt and Cleckner took turns knocking down eight of those freebies — to close things out.

“Finally made some free throws,” Vernet cracked.

Conrad’s Cougars had accomplished the big-picture objective in play when they hopped off the bus by collaring the league leaders. Now, they trail by just one game.

“We’ve got a race,” Conrad said. “We’re pleased to have done that. I think the league’s getting better. … In our league, as much as any division in District 3, you’ve got teams that can still get better. That’s a good thing. That’s a good challenge for us. That’s a good challenge for Mechanicsburg. Both of our teams are going to have to get better.”

“One game at a time,” Vernet said. “It was a huge win. We hadn’t beat them — it was the first time in two years — so it was a great win.”

Mechanicsburg, meanwhile, still controls its own Keystone destiny.

“They had to have it,” Strickler said. “We’ve got to take care of business now.”