City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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YORK — Cade Pribula may spend his Friday nights during the fall triggering Central York’s football attack, but once the weather turns chilly and the 6-foot-1 junior tugs on his shorts and laces his sneakers during basketball season he’s more than willing to accept a much-different role.

In fact, Pribula welcomes the challenge of trying to keep an adversary’s top offensive performer — or, one of them — under wraps. At the very least, he wants to make things difficult.

Such was the case Tuesday night at Central York’s remarkably spacious playpen, where Pribula locked in on New Oxford’s 6-5 John Wessel from the start of the 32-minute exercise until the final horn sounded with the host Panthers claiming a 49-44 victory over their York-Adams Division I rivals.

It was the fourth consecutive victory for Kevin Schieler’s club (14-7 overall, 10-4 YAIAA-I) — Saa’hir Cornelius paced Central with 15 points — which locked up Division I’s second seed to this weekend’s YAIAA postseason tournament. They’ll open the eight-team event Friday at Spring Grove.

“Coach Schieler said before the game that we knew it was going to be a test,” recalled Pribula of playing a New Oxford side (16-6, 9-5) that had won seven straight. “I’m proud of the way we played.

“We knew they were a good 3-point shooting team, but we didn’t let them hit many 3s.”

Particularly Wessel.

A multi-pronged threat who can shoot the 3-ball and use his sizable frame to work effectively on the low blocks, Wessel was limited to just four points on a pair of finishes at the rim by Central’s switching man defense — although Pribula had primary cover whenever he was on the deck.

Wessel was just 2-for-8 from the floor, missing both of his 3-point attempts.

“My job was to shut down Wessel,” admitted Pribula, who finished with eight points, six rebounds and a couple of assists when the Panthers had the ball.

“He’s a strong player with a high release, so I just wanted to get out and pressure him.”

Yet even though the Panthers had Wessel contained, Central still trailed 36-31 after three quarters — and 41-38 with 3:22 left when Justin Gruver canned the last of the Colonials’ five second-half treys — Pribula & Co. promptly ran off 10 unanswered points and seized control.

While that late spurt enabled Central to grab a 48-41 lead with some 30 seconds to play following Cornelius’ pilfer and finish, locking down the Colonials was a huge factor.

The Panthers also went 7-for-10 at the line in the final three minutes.

Up 43-41 following a floater from Landyn Ray with just over a minute to go, Pribula stepped into the offensive spotlight moments later by making both ends of a one-and-one trip.

Then, following a 3-point miss at the opposite end, Pribula was fouled again with 43.7 to play.

Pribula only canned the front end that time, but that freebie upped Central’s lead to 46-41. And when Cornelius swiped the ball on the next possession and scored, the win belonged to the Panthers.

“My teammate, [Dickinson recruit] Garrett Markey, caused a steal and the ball happened to fall into my hands,” said Pribula, who plays quarterback for the Panthers in the fall. “I want the ball in my hands at the end of games. I wanted to knock them down and that’s what I did, three out of four times.”

And while Cornelius was the lone Panther to reach double figures, six others netted between four and eight points for Schieler’s balanced bunch. Pribula was one of them.

Yet …

“A lot of guys can score, but the thing that needs to be consistent is our defense,” Pribula admitted. “We’ve won four games in a row because of our defense.”

Pribula’s certainly on to something, as the Panthers’ winning streak has featured victories over York High (61-54), South Western (67-23), Spring Grove (61-48) and New Oxford.

During that stretch, Central has limited teams to just over 42 points per outing.

By limiting Wessel to just four points — both of his 3-ball attempts came before the break, when the Colonials were 0-for-8 from deep — Pribula certainly played his role in Schieler’s rotation effectively.

“They hadn’t made a 3 in the first half, so I think that threw them off a bit,” Pribula said. “Offense always comes and goes, so I was just trying to get offensive rebounds and put them back up.”

And while Pribula’s primary assignment Tuesday night was trying to put a lid on the potentially explosive Wessel, he’s already spent two outings chasing Northeastern’s explosive Antonio Rizzuto. So, needless to say, the kid welcomes the challenge of taking on the other guys’ No. 1.

“I take pride in my defense. They’re similar, because they’re both taller,” Pribula said, comparing Wessel and the 6-3 Rizzuto. “Rizzuto’s more drive-oriented and he’s more explosive, but they’re different players. I just want to try to throw them off their games, not give them easy looks.”

On Tuesday night, Pribula accomplished his defensive objective.

“Cade is a very smart defender,” Schieler said. “He knows when to get up on guys or when he needs to give a guy a step. I think he takes it as a personal challenge when he goes up against guys.

“He was giving up size, but he’s a strong kid and I think that worked out in his favor.”

Should Central open the YAIAA Tournament against York Catholic — Schieler is a York Catholic alumnus — Pribula could be assigned to the Fighting Irish’s D’Andre Davis.

Should Central open the YAIAA Tournament against Littlestown — Schieler was the head coach at the Adams County school before taking over at Central — Pribula wants Logan Collins.

“I hope so,” Pribula said.

“I haven’t watched any film on them yet,” Schieler admitted. “But [the 6-4 Collins] played AAU with Garrett, so I’m sure he’ll give us a good scouting report on him.”

While Central is heading into the postseason riding some positive waves, there’s not a basketball program in York or Adams County that wants to run into the Panthers at this time of the year.

In fact, Central is hoping to reach its fifth consecutive YAIAA title game.

And one of the keys at the start of that impressive run — York College sophomore Jared Wagner — was parked in the front row Tuesday night with some of his buddies. Wagner even passed Pribula in the hallway behind the gymnasium, exchanging pleasantries as they passed one another.

“He’s kind of a role model for me,” Pribula admitted.

“It’s realizing that nothing comes easy,” suggested Schieler, who is 1-3 in YAIAA finals. “No one’s given anything to us the past four years, and we’ve had to battle day-in and day-out to get to that level. Tomorrow when we come into practice, it’s a brand new season. It’s Nov. 17th all over again.

“I’ll be interested to see how our intensity level is on Day 1 of a brand new season.”

While Schieler and his Central players sorted out some internal issues a few weeks back, those appear to be a thing of the past. These guys share the ball on offense and have an understanding of each others’ strengths, but the Panthers have become better at limiting the other guys.

“We run a switching defense built on five guys working together,” Schieler said. “We’ve gotten a nice little lift on the defensive end of the floor during this stretch.”

While Central’s defensive stopper was ready to go on Tuesday night against New Oxford — with Wessel his primary assignment — he’ll be ready to go in a couple of days.

It is, after all, the postseason.

“We always feel good at this time of the year,” Pribula said. “The past two or three years, we made it to the county championship. It’s what we expect.”