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 BY JEFF FALK

 SOUTH LEBANON – Do you know how the Cedar Crest-Lebanon football rivalry is right now? Well, this isn’t like that.

 The current Cedar Crest-Lebanon boys’ basketball rivalry is competitive, healthy and thriving. But the degree to which the Falcons have the Cedars’ number right now is difficult to explain.

 And there are no moral victories in rivalries. Only wins, pride and bottom lines.

 On Saturday night, during the championship of Cedar Crest’s annual Christmas Tournament, the Falcons’ mastery over the Cedars intensified, with their clutch 58-52, overtime triumph. After the contest was deadlocked at 52 at the end of regulation, Cedar Crest outscored Lebanon High 6-0 in the four-minute extra session.

 Ileri Ayo-Faleye’s pull-up midway through the overtime session proved to be the winning basket for Cedar Crest, which also got insurance free throws from Logan Horn and Ayo-Faleye in the OT’s final 28 seconds.

 The result was Cedar Crest’s third victory over Lebanon this season, and its seventh seventh straight overall, many of which have been similar in their down-to-the-wire natures. The Falcons had defeated the Cedars 53-43 in the championship game of the Lebanon Tip-Off Tournament back on Dec. 8th and 56-46 in a Lancaster-Lebanon Section One-Two crossover contest on Dec. 17.

 The win made Cedar Crest 9-1 on the year, while Lebanon High slipped to 4-5 overall.

 As he was at the Lebanon Tip-Off event, Cedar Crest senior guard Logan Horn was named the tournament’s MVP. Also featured on the all-tournament team were fellow Falcon senior Brody Dunlop, and Lebanon’s Scottie Porter and Jean Carlos Gonzalez Belen.

 “We’ve had a good run,” said Cedar Crest head coach Tom Smith of the current state of ‘The Rivalry’. “We have tough kids and they’re built for that situation. Their expectations are high. We work hard in practice and I think it prepares us for games.

 “We’re getting everyone’s best shot,” continued Smith. “If you told me going into the new year that we’d be 9-1, I’d take it. We’re a couple of possessions away from being 10-0. I like where we’re at. But we’ve got a ways to go.”

  “There is no consolation,” said Lebanon head coach Tim Speraw. “It’s a game we should’ve won and we have to live with it. It’s on the coaching staff. It’s on the players. It’s on everybody.

 “I try to forget them,” Speraw continued. “I don’t want to remember all the games where we had them, and lost. It wouldn’t be good for my hair staying brown. We play the game to win.”

 The Cedars enjoyed a handful of four- and five-point leads in the fourth quarter, including 52-48 on a driving lay-in from Jahlil Young with two minutes to go. But Cedar Crest notched four points in two seconds, on the strength of free throws from Dunlop and Grant Allwein, and a Cedar turnover on an in-bounds play.

 After Lebanon turned the ball over with 40 seconds remaining in regulation, Horn’s pull-up jumper with three seconds to go was short.

 “It was a good shot,” said Smith of Horn’s shot at the end of the fourth quarter. “It’s what we wanted. It just didn’t go.

 “Our thing was getting some ‘stops’,” added Smith. “We also needed to get some good possessions offensively. When we did that, we got to the foul line.”

  “This one stings, because we had them,” said Speraw. “It’s not our effort. It’s our mental focus. We lose focus at key times. It’s disappointing. It’s something we’ve talked about all year. There were certain plays that cost us the game.

 “The kids are putting forth the effort,” Speraw added. “The energy is good. We fought. We battled. We had a lead and a chance to win the game.”

 The Cedars turned their fortunes around in the third quarter.

 First, Lebanon notched the first five points of the second half – on a drive by Gonzalez-Belen, an Isaiah Rodriguez bucket and a Porter free throw – to slice CC’s eight-point lead to 31-28. Then the Cedars pieced together a 12-2 burst, courtesy of six points from Gonzalez-Belen, three free throws from Young and a Marquis Ferreira three-ball, to establish a 42-38 advantage.

 “They’re getting better everyday,” said Smith of the Cedars. “The 50 kid (Gonzalez-Belen) is tough. They’re getting experience, and with that experience, they’re going to get over the hump. They’re going to be a tough out.”

 “We’ve played well against them,” said Speraw. “It’s not a Cedar Crest thing. It’s a winning thing. I think we’re improving, but it’s not about moral victories. You win or you lose. We need to do more winning.”

 With 24 points on six deuces, a pair of treys and six-for-six foul shooting, Horn scored right around his season average. He was supported by Ayo-Falaeye’s 11 points.

  Gonzalez-Belen recorded 21 Lebanon points, while Porter contributed 11.

 Cedar Crest outscored Lebanon 36-26 on two-point field goals, and the Cedars converted 11 of their 20 foul shots.

 “It starts with our two seniors,” said Smith of Horn and Dunlop. “I expect so much from Brody. He takes pride in it. He embraces the moment.”

 Luke Collins drained a three-pointer, Porter nailed a jumper and Gonzalez-Belen also knocked down a trey, as Lebanon ran off eight straight points early in the second stanza to pull within 21-20 of the lead. But Cedar Crest responded with a first-half-ending 10-3 spurt – four points by Horn and baskets from Dunlop, Jason Eberhart and Jaquan Andino – to take a 31-23 lead to the locker room.

 “We’re too good at other places,” said Smith, when asked why opponents don’t focus more on Horn. “There’s too many good players on our team to take other players away. He’s (Horn) unselfish, and someone else gets to do it. Different guys stepping up at different times. That’s what Cedar Crest basketball is all about.”

 “Logan is a big part of it,” said Speraw. “He can score in so many different ways. He’s a glue guy, and he can defend. He’s a smart player. He finds ways to get his and keep everyone involved.”

  Cedar Crest tallied 15 of the game’s first 20 points and assumed a 15-5 lead on an Andino drive, 5:26 in.

  “We’ve got to get better at playing with a lead,” said Smith. “It’s something we’ve got to work on.”

 “The next time we play will be a new year,” said Speraw. “We’re going to have a new focus. We can’t keep saying we’re young.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2018-19 Lebanon Boys’ Basketball Schedule

 
 
Date Opponents Outcomes  
12/07
8:00 pm
Red Land
at Lebanon
42
70
 
12/08
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Lebanon
53
43
 
12/11
7:30 pm
Governor Mifflin
at Lebanon
40
66
 
12/14
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at McCaskey
54
65
 
12/17
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Lebanon
56
46
 
12/19
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at Hempfield
49
51
 
12/21
7:30 pm
Penn Manor
at Lebanon
46
61
 
12/28
6:00 pm
Halifax
Lebanon
at Cedar Crest
42
61
 
12/29
7:30 pm
Lebanon
Cedar Crest
at Falcon Tournament (at Cedar Crest)
   
1/03
7:30 pm
Ephrata
at Lebanon
   
1/05
5:30 pm
Palmyra
Lebanon
at Lebanon Valley College
   
1/11
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at Elizabethtown
   
1/12
6:00 pm
Wilson
Lebanon
at Garden Spot
   
1/15
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at Warwick
   
1/17
7:30 pm
Conestoga Valley
at Lebanon
   
1/21
7:30 pm
Garden Spot
at Lebanon
   
1/22
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at Ephrata
   
1/29
7:30 pm
Elizabethtown
at Lebanon
   
2/01
7:30 pm
Warwick
at Lebanon
   
2/05
7:30 pm
Lebanon
at Conestoga Valley
   
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 2018-19 Cedar Crest Boys’ Basketball Schedule

 
 
Date Opponents Outcomes  
12/07
6:00 pm
Cedar Crest
Elco
at Lebanon
67
36
 
12/08
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Lebanon
53
43
 
12/10
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Wyomissing
73
47
 
12/14
7:30 pm
Elizabethtown
at Cedar Crest
47
74
 
12/17
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Lebanon
56
46
 
12/19
7:30 pm
Ephrata
at Cedar Crest
41
58
 
12/21
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Warwick
42
52
 
12/22
6:30 pm
Palmyra
at Cedar Crest
46
63
 
12/28
7:30 pm
Mount Carmel
at Cedar Crest
56
79
 
12/29
7:30 pm
Lebanon
Cedar Crest
at Falcon Tournament (at Cedar Crest)
   
1/03
7:30 pm
Conestoga Valley
at Cedar Crest
   
1/05
7:00 pm
Cedar Crest
Lower Dauphin
at Lebanon Valley College
   
1/08
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Hempfield
   
1/11
7:30 pm
Penn Manor
at Cedar Crest
   
1/12
3:00 pm
Red Land
Cedar Crest
at Manheim Central
   
1/15
7:30 pm
McCaskey
at Cedar Crest
   
1/17
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Manheim Township
   
1/23
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Carlisle
   
1/25
7:30 pm
Hempfield
at Cedar Crest
   
1/29
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at Penn Manor
   
2/01
7:30 pm
Cedar Crest
at McCaskey
   
2/05
7:30 pm
Manheim Township
at Cedar Crest
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Lancaster-Lebanon League
 Section One Standings
 
 
  League Overall
  W L PCT W L PCT PS PA
Cedar Crest 3 1 75.00 8 1 88.89 565 414
Hempfield 3 1 75.00 7 1 87.50 460 320
McCaskey 3 1 75.00 4 2 66.67 388 375
Penn Manor 2 2 50.00 6 2 75.00 452 388
Manheim Township 2 2 50.00 6 3 66.67 593 505
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Section Two Standings
 
 
 
  League Overall
  W L PCT W L PCT PS PA
Warwick 4 0 100.00 5 4 55.56 484 485
Elizabethtown 2 2 50.00 4 5 44.44 544 553
Lebanon 1 3 25.00 4 4 50.00 450 395
Conestoga Valley 0 4 0.00 2 6 25.00 379 456
Ephrata 0 4 0.00 1 9 10.00 432 553
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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