City of Basketball Love

Ben McWilliams (@BenMcWilliams22)
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Finding success in the playoffs is just as much about keeping your composure as it is x’s and o’s.

Carlisle certainly had its patience tested on Thursday night as Lincoln, its second round opponent, tallied seven technical fouls and two fourth quarter ejections.

“It was a weird game,” head coach Andre Anderson said. “I told my guys to keep their composure. You can’t get stupid [technical fouls], you can’t get thrown out of the game. You’ve got to be smart and not get caught up in anything else.  We did that for the most part, we didn’t stoop down to any of that negativity that was going on.”

Cooler heads ultimately prevailed as Carlisle topped Lincoln 85-69 to advance to the PIAA 6A quarterfinals. 

Carlisle opened the second half on a 12-0 run thanks to a flurry of fast break buckets. Senior guard Deshawn Millington, who finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds, had the green light to attack the basket.

“They weren’t getting back on D so we just had to push the ball,” Millington said. “After a miss or a make we just had to get the ball to the rim. Coach tells me ‘if you’ve got the lane then take it.’ I don’t get tired so I’m pushing the whole time.”

It was then that the game slowed to a crawl as the fouls started coming rapidly from both sides.

Lincoln finished the game 11-of-24 from the line while Carlisle shot 29-of-51, for a combined 75 total free throws. Carlisle had 40 attempts in the second half. 

“In that second half we played awful,” Anderson said. “We can let other teams take us out of what we want to do. We failed to do that for a stretch in the late third quarter, early fourth quarter. We struggled horrendously from the line and we turned the ball over. That was away from what we’ve done all year.”

Senior Ethan Houston helped the Thundering Heard pull away in the fourth quarter, tallying 7 of his 19 points in the final frame. 

Houston was one of the lone bright spots from the free throw line for Carlisle, going 8-of-10, including a string of five straight technical free throws in the fourth quarter.

Senior forward, and recently named starter, Nate Barnes scored 14 points and pulled down 18 rebounds to also help pace Carlisle to the victory.

What Barnes lacks in height, he more than makes up for in aggression—a trait he honed as a dual-sport athlete at Carlisle. 

“I play the physical game and I like to play bully ball,” Barnes said.  “Football is my number one sport so I guess that helps out a lot. I treat it like I’m on the field.”

“At 6’3” he plays like 6’6”,” Anderson added. “To have a guy like that, that’s just a monster on the glass and creates extra possessions for us is huge.”

Senior guard Marlon Sharpton had 21 points and five assists for Lincoln while junior guard Shikeir Morrison added 10 points and five rebounds. 

Carlisle will take on Emmaus on Saturday in the 6A quarterfinals, PIAA’s version of the “elite eight.” 

The quarterfinals poses a chance for redemption as Carlisle bowed out of last year’s tournament in the quarterfinals, falling to Allderdice 59-42. 

“It’s exciting,” Barnes said. “We’re ambitious and we want to go further this year.”

Emmaus took down Harrisburg in the second round thanks to twin brothers Matt and David Kachelries, who both reached the 1,000-point plateau this season. 

“They’ve got some good guards, I’m sure they’ve got a good coach and we’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” Anderson said.  “We’ve got a bunch of seniors and these guys are ready and they’re excited.”