MYERSTOWN – A first-place showdown was on full display on Friday night at Elco High School, where the Raiders hosted the Crusaders of Lancaster Catholic.
The Crusaders rode a 13-game winning streak while also holding a 7-0 record against league competition. Catholic kept that undefeated mark in tact by putting together a strong second half before pulling away from Elco, 69-55.
The atmosphere was electric, yet sombering, as the Elco boys came out of the locker room sporting orange ribbon shirts. “The entire week, across the L-L League, it was Cancer Awareness week,” said Elco head coach Brad Conners. “The teams across the league, throughout the entire week, were wearing their shirts, so we wore ours tonight.”
A nice tribute was followed by a nice opening half and both teams understood what was at stake. The Raiders and Crusaders traded baskets during the opening quarter, but Catholic closed it out with a string of eight unanswered points. Seven of those came courtesy of junior guard, Devin Atkinson.
Despite the Crusader surge, Elco hung around as Braden Bohannon overcame a cold first period by nailing a trio of jumpers in the second. Bryce Coletti also made a buzzer-beating layup to pull the Raiders within three before the break.
Coletti finished the night as Elco’s leader in field goals and scoring, racking up seven makes with 16 points.
However, his effort was not enough to overcome Catholic’s dynamic duo of Atkinson and senior forward, David Kamwanga, who registered a game-high 21 points. Kamwanga also went 10 of 11 from the free throw line while Atkinson inked 20 of his own. Most of Atkinson’s scoring came on field goals, where he hit eight overall, including a pair of threes.
“The kids competed,” stated Conners. “It’s tough, we went into this fully expecting to compete and go right down to the wire and you know, to kind of have them keep us at arms length for most of the second half felt like it was a double digit, it’s a little disappointing.”
The performances of Atkinson and Kamwanga gave the Crusaders two 20-point scorers in a game for the first time this season. They also combined to score 23 of Catholic’s 42 second half points. Defensively, the Crusaders clamped down on Bohannon, limiting him to only four points throughout the final 16 minutes, while shutting him out in the fourth.
Catholic also received contributions from junior guard, Ross Conway, who went five of six from the line for 10 points. Meanwhile, senior center, Trey Wells, exploded out of the gate and accounted for the Crusaders’ first four points of the second half. Wells connected on four attempts from the field before finishing with eight points.
“I’ll go back and watch the game again and learn a little more and go from here,” Conners said. “Right now, I know the kids are disappointed, I’m disappointed, I know they think they can do better, I know I think I can do a better job, so we’ll go back and look at it.”
Conners and the Raider boys will make their preparations over the next few days, especially since they have a Section Four road meeting with Octorara next Tuesday night. Both teams met at Elco High School on January 3rd, where the Raiders got off to a fast start before downing the Braves, 49-42.
Lancaster Catholic, on the other hand, was supposed to face Berks Catholic Saturday night at 6:30, but the game was postponed due to weather. Now, the Crusaders will have to wait until Tuesday when they travel to Northern Lebanon. This will be a rematch of the January 3rd encounter, where Catholic embarrassed the Vikings, 71-48.
| Date | Opponents | Outcomes | |
| 12/06 7:30 pm | Elco Lebanon at Lebanon | 57 53 | Nonleague |
| 12/07 7:30 pm | Elco Cedar Crest at Lebanon | 55 59 | Nonleague |
| 12/10 7:30 pm | Annville-Cleona at Elco | 49 70 | Nonleague |
| 12/13 7:30 pm | Cocalico at Elco | 41 60 | League |
| 12/16 7:30 pm | Elco at Manheim Central | 73 71 | League |
| 12/18 7:30 pm | Solanco at Elco | 47 62 | League |
| 12/20 7:30 pm | Elco at Lampeter-Strasburg | 50 54 | League |
| 12/28 7:30 pm | Elco Spring Grove at Eastern York | 76 52 | Nonleague |
| 12/30 7:30 pm | Elco Eastern York at Eastern York | 75 51 | Nonleague |
| 1/03 7:30 pm | Octorara at Elco | 42 49 | League |
| 1/04 1:30 pm | Oley Valley at Elco | 48 62 | Nonleague |
| 1/08 7:30 pm | Camp Hill at Elco | 60 72 | Nonleague |
| 1/09 7:30 pm | Elco at Donegal | 87 55 | League |
| 1/10 7:30 pm | Northern Lebanon at Elco | 34 81 | League |
| 1/15 7:30 pm | Wyomissing at Elco | 44 49 | Nonleague |
| 1/17 7:30 pm | Lancaster Catholic at Elco | 69 55 | League |
| 1/21 7:30 pm | Elco at Octorara | League | |
| 1/24 7:30 pm | Donegal at Elco | League | |
| 1/28 7:30 pm | Elco at Northern Lebanon | League | |
| 1/29 7:30 pm | Conrad Weiser at Elco | Nonleague | |
| 1/31 7:30 pm | Garden Spot at Elco | League | |
| 2/04 7:30 pm | Elco at Lancaster Catholic | League |
| AAAA | School | W | L | T | Rating | TWP | OWP | TWPW | OWPW | TWPL | OWPL |
| 1 | Lancaster Catholic | 13- | 1- | 0 | 0.771402 | 0.949324 | 0.553942 | 14.1 | 164.1 | 0.8 | 132.1 |
| 2 | Bishop McDevitt | 11- | 1- | 0 | 0.762403 | 0.942308 | 0.542519 | 12.3 | 144.5 | 0.8 | 121.9 |
| 3 | Eastern Lebanon County | 13- | 2- | 0 | 0.734596 | 0.897764 | 0.535169 | 14.1 | 168.2 | 1.6 | 146.1 |
| 4 | Susquehanna Township | 9- | 5- | 0 | 0.646940 | 0.683333 | 0.602458 | 10.3 | 178.9 | 4.8 | 118.1 |
| 5 | Littlestown | 12- | 3- | 0 | 0.627328 | 0.801394 | 0.414581 | 11.5 | 123.4 | 2.9 | 174.3 |
| 6 | Berks Catholic School | 8- | 4- | 0 | 0.610147 | 0.669421 | 0.537700 | 8.1 | 157.6 | 4.0 | 135.5 |
| 7 | Wyomissing | 10- | 5- | 0 | 0.600043 | 0.717608 | 0.456353 | 10.8 | 141.2 | 4.3 | 168.2 |
| 8 | Susquehannock | 7- | 7- | 0 | 0.589668 | 0.551095 | 0.636813 | 7.6 | 180.3 | 6.2 | 102.8 |
| 9 | Eastern York | 7- | 7- | 0 | 0.558241 | 0.548507 | 0.570137 | 7.4 | 176.6 | 6.1 | 133.2 |
| 10 | Octorara Area | 7- | 7- | 0 | 0.540170 | 0.555944 | 0.520890 | 8.0 | 161.5 | 6.4 | 148.5 |
| 11 | James Buchanan | 6- | 7- | 0 | 0.531222 | 0.526316 | 0.537218 | 6.5 | 151.2 | 5.9 | 130.3 |
| 12 | Kennard Dale | 6- | 8- | 0 | 0.504042 | 0.463768 | 0.553265 | 6.4 | 161.0 | 7.4 | 130.0 |
| 13 | Boiling Springs | 5- | 8- | 0 | 0.496218 | 0.427386 | 0.580345 | 5.2 | 174.8 | 6.9 | 126.4 |
| 14 | Schuylkill Valley | 6- | 7- | 0 | 0.494964 | 0.471042 | 0.524200 | 6.1 | 153.3 | 6.9 | 139.1 |
| 15 | East Pennsboro Area | 6- | 9- | 0 | 0.494925 | 0.413559 | 0.594372 | 6.1 | 173.2 | 8.7 | 118.2 |
| 16 | Middletown Area | 4- | 10- | 0 | 0.450726 | 0.314286 | 0.617486 | 4.4 | 186.5 | 9.6 | 115.5 |
| 17 | Northern Lebanon | 4- | 9- | 0 | 0.435622 | 0.334601 | 0.559092 | 4.4 | 174.8 | 8.8 | 137.9 |
| 18 | West Perry | 4- | 10- | 0 | 0.391042 | 0.284672 | 0.521050 | 3.9 | 147.9 | 9.8 | 136.0 |
| 19 | Hamburg Area | 4- | 11- | 0 | 0.384296 | 0.277228 | 0.515156 | 4.2 | 158.1 | 11.0 | 148.8 |
| 20 | Fleetwood | 4- | 10- | 0 | 0.361442 | 0.311594 | 0.422367 | 4.3 | 123.5 | 9.5 | 168.9 |
| 21 | Bermudian Springs | 3- | 11- | 0 | 0.329932 | 0.233813 | 0.447410 | 3.3 | 128.3 | 10.7 | 158.4 |
| W | L | PCT | W | L | PCT | PF | PA | |
| Lancaster Catholic | 8 | 0 | 1.000 | 14 | 1 | 0.933 | 909 | 694 |
| Elco | 6 | 2 | 0.750 | 13 | 3 | 0.813 | 1034 | 829 |
| Octorara | 4 | 5 | 0.444 | 7 | 7 | 0.500 | 800 | 756 |
| Northern Lebanon | 3 | 4 | 0.429 | 4 | 8 | 0.333 | 537 | 674 |
| Donegal | 0 | 9 | 0.000 | 2 | 14 | 0.125 | 693 | 954 |
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