BY JEFF FALK

 LANCASTER – Three excruciating losses which could’ve collectively crippled a season. But nothing three straight wins couldn’t remedy.

 Yeah, basketball is basketball. And tough kids, metaphorically speaking, excel at bouncing back and rebounding.

 On Wednesday evening at Lancaster Catholic High School, during the quarterfinals of the Lancaster-Lebanon League postseason, the Cedar Crest boys’ basketball team got ‘right back on the horse’ and scored a reassuring 56-44 victory over the hometown Crusaders. The contest was nip-and-tuck and back-and-forth, until the Falcons pieced together a decisive run early in the final period.

 It had been eight days since Cedar Crest endured a three-game meltdown that dashed its hopes for an L-L Section One crown. But the triumph propelled the Falcons to 18-5 on the season and into Thursday night’s league semifinal meeting with Section Two champion Warwick, at 8 p.m. at Conestoga Valley.

 Lancaster Catholic, the champs of Section Four, fell to 14-9 overall.

 “I don’t know that we played as loose the last three games,” said Cedar Crest head coach Tom Smith. “In the first quarter, we were a little tight. I told our guys, ‘Get out there, enjoy yourselves and have fun’. I thought we got back to that. We got monkeys off our back a little bit tonight.

 “The league championship is our second goal,” Smith continued. “It would be huge to win it. But there’s a lot to be said for winning the section. That was our first goal. We think it’s equally as hard. We’re still playing for it.”

 The Falcons’ winning volley began with a jumper from Grant Allwein, nine seconds into the fourth quarter. It ended with two Allwein free throws that gave them a 45-33 advantage, with six minutes to go.

 Also included in the 10-0 run were inside baskets from Logan Horn, Jason Eberhart and Jaquan Andino. Thanks to some solid offensive execution and six-for-nine free throwing, the Falcons were able to match the Crusaders point-for-point the rest of the way.

 “We were able to get buckets,” said Smith. “When we are able to set our defense, we’re pretty darn good. That had a lot to do with it. And we were able to make our foul shots.

 “I thought we did a good job defensively,” continued Smith. “That’s a tough team to defend. They’re very good in their halfcourt offense. We talked about pressuring the ball. But they (the Crusaders) made some tough shots. They did some good things.”

 The third-quarter action mirrored that of the game’s first two.

  Facing a 31-26 deficit, Cedar Crest rattled off nine of the period’s next ten points to gain a 35-32 advantage. Horn accounted for four of those Falcon points, while teammates Ileri Ayo-Faleye contributed three points and Andino chimed in with two.

 “At halftime, we talked about body language,” said Smith. “Basketball is a game of runs, and I think you saw that in the first half. We reiterated some of our coaching points. It was more mental stuff than Xs and Os.

 “We’ve got to play at our tempo,” added Smith. “We’ve got to make their guys play at our pace. To do that, we had to make ‘stops’.”

  With 20 points, Horn led all scorers. But Cedar Crest received a huge shot in the arm from Allwein’s 11 points off the bench.

 The Falcons outscored the Crusaders 34-24 on deuces. Cedar Crest connected on ten of its 15 free throw attempts.

 “He’s done it all year for us,” said Smith of Horn. “He does what he does. He had big rebounds when we needed them most. He’s tough, but we had great contributions from everyone. It was a true team win, but Logan played like a man today.”

 After Lancaster Catholic tallied the initial four points of the contest, the Falcons came back with eight unanswered. Then early in the second quarter, Andino nailed a three-pointer and Ayo-Faleye scored inside to stake Cedar Crest to a 13-11 edge.

 “It’s been fine,” said Smith of the last week of practice. “My kids work hard. They want to get better. We continued to work on the things we do. Our kids are focused.”

 The Crusaders posted seven unanswered points in the middle of the second stanza to establish an 18-13 margin. But just before the break, Horn tallied six straight Cedar Crest points to tie the score at 22.

 “Warwick’s a very good basketball team,” said Smith. “We saw them earlier in the season. This is old-school basketball, a game almost every night. We’ll roll the ball out there and see what happens, and adjust on the fly.”

 

 

 To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com, or to view more go to https://lebanonsportsbuzz.com/photo-gallery/.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2018-19 Cedar Crest Boys’ Basketball Results

	League			Overall
	W	L	PCT	W	L	PCT	PF	PA
Manheim Township	9	4	69.23	14	7	66.67	1304	1155
Cedar Crest	8	5	61.54	17	5	77.27	1323	1058
McCaskey	8	5	61.54	11	11	50.00	1330	1383
Hempfield	7	6	53.85	13	9	59.09	1160	1056
Penn Manor	5	8	38.46	11	11	50.00	1115	1109