Cedar Crest Conquers Lancaster-Lebanon League

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Cedar Crest Conquers Lancaster-Lebanon League

Feb 15, 2020
Jeff Falk
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Boys' basketball, Cedar Crest, FEATURE STORIES
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BY JEFF FALK

NEFFSVILLE – For the Cedar Crest boys’ basketball team, it’s all led up to this.

At the beginning of the season, the Falcons wished, hoped, thought they could win the Lancaster-Lebanon League championship. Everything along the way has been validation and affirmation.

On Friday night at Manheim Township High School, Cedar Crest turned that dream into reality by downing Warwick 45-41, in the L-L League title match. After they led the entire way, the Falcons fended off a strong Warrior push in the closing moments.

For the Falcons, it was their fourth Lancaster-Lebanon League championship overall and first in five years. Now 22-3 on the year, Cedar Crest will be the fourth seed and host the winner between Central Dauphin and Manheim Township, on Friday, February 21st, in the quarterfinal round of the District Three Class AAAAAA postseason tournament.

Back on December 20th at ‘The Cage’, Cedar Crest had bested Warwick 55-50 on its way to the L-L Section One crown.

Warwick, the champions of Section Two, slipped to 19-5 on the year.

“We made that run at the beginning of the season, with 11 wins,” said Cedar Crest head coach Tom Smith. “We got off to a good start like that and we thought we might have a chance to win the league championship. I don’t like to think too far ahead. I don’t think we thought about winning a league championship until we qualified for the playoffs.

“I think mentally, we’ve improved,” continued Smith. “That’s the biggest thing. We’ve won nine or ten games by six points or less. That’s the sign of a tough team. They’re (his players) winning games mentally, more than just on athleticism or the game plan.”

“We all just believe in each other,” said Cedar Crest senior Cole Miller. “It’s a team thing. We just stuck together.

“I’m just so happy,” added Miller. “It’s great for the team to get a big win like this. There’s nothing better.”

It certainly wasn’t easy. But then again, it never is for the Falcons.

Cedar Crest led 39-29 on an inside hoop from Jasosn Eberhart and 40-32 on a free throw by Grant Allwein, early in the fourth quarter. But the Warriors employed a little three-quarter court, trapping pressure and it was effective enough to limit Cedar Crest to two points over a key 3:47 stretch.

Warwick’s resulting 6-2 spurt pulled it to within 42-38 of the lead, before Amani Jones stemmed the tide for the Falcons with a couple of free throws. The Warriors did get a contested look at a potential tying three-pointer with seven seconds left, before Falcon Ilerri Ayo-Faleye iced the outcome with a foul shot.

“We knew they weren’t going to go away,” said Smith. “They certainly didn’t. At the end of the day, we did enough down the stretch, we made enough free throws to pull it out. When you stretch it to a two-possession game, then you can really defend the three-point line. It was a gutsy win.

“These guys want to be good,” Smith continued. “They want to win. They’re into it. It’s the difference between seniors and sophomores. They listen and then they go play.”

“We knew before the game that they (the Warriors) were never going to go away,” said Miller. “I think it was good that we stayed ahead. We just had to come together, slow down and take it all in. We had to get our minds right.”

On a number of occasions in the third quarter, Cedar Crest threatened to pull away from the Warriors.

Four unanswered points from Allwein made it a 33-23 Cedar Crest lead late in the period. And when Ayo-Faleye drilled three foul shots at the end of the third quarter, the Falcons had themselves a 36-27 margin.

“It’s just lots of practice,” said Smith of his side’s man-to-man defense. “It’s one thing we do every single day from the start of practice. We engrain it in these guys.

“We play man-to-man in the first and second grades,” Smith added. “We don’t allow our travel teams or middle school teams to play zone. We want to get into gaps. We want to step in and take charges. We hold kids accountable. If you don’t play defense, you don’t play.”

Ayo-Faleye tallied 13 points to lead the Falcon attack. Cedar Crest outscored Warwick 22-12 on two-point field goals.

Cedar Crest made just 13 of its 30 free throw attempts. But Warwick was a miserable five-for-17 at charity stripe.

“When their number’s called, they’re not selfish,” said Smith of his bench. “They do all the right things, and when they come in, they make plays. That’s what being a team is all about.

“You’re not going to beat teams in the district playoffs if you don’t make your free throws,” added Smith. “I have no idea when that started.”

“Everybody picked me up,” said Miller of some early foul difficulties. “Max Scipioni did a good job when he came in for me. It was nice to see other guys step up and make plays.”

Cedar Crest played well defensively, especially early. The Falcons held Warwick to a single point over the contest’s first 5:51, while building a six-point cushion on a three-pointer from Amani Jones, two foul shots by Ayo-Faleye and an Allwein lay-in.

“It was a lot of the same,” said Smith of the earlier match-up with the Warriors. “They didn’t change their stuff. They do what they do. What we needed to do was expose their size.

“Statistically, I don’t think it is (their best season defensively),” continued Smith. “We do a lot of good things, but the two guys (Eberhart and Ayo-Faleye) who protect the rim are pretty good. We like to get out and be aggresssive. You’ve got to have an extra sense of urgency, because they (the Warriors) have five guys who can shoot it.”

On buckets from Ayo-Faleye, Scipioni and Eberhart, Cedar Crest registered the initial six points of the second stanza to extend its lead to 13-4. A late three-pointer from Carson Perlaki gave the Falcons a 24-15 advantage at the intermission.

“I don’t want to lose in anything,” said Smith. “I don’t like losing to my wife playing cards at home. But that (a 61-42 setback to Manheim Township in the regular-season finale) was a good loss for us. It knocked us down a little bit. The line between great, good and bad is thin.”

To purchase images in this article email jkfalk2005@yahoo.com.

2019-20 Cedar Crest Boys’ Basketball Results



Date	Opponents	Outcomes
12/06 6:00 pm	Red Land Cedar Crest at Lebanon	29 70	Nonleague
12/07 7:30 pm	Elco Cedar Crest at Lebanon	55 59	Nonleague
12/09 7:30 pm	Wyomissing at Cedar Crest	47 59	Nonleague
12/13 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Elizabethtown	45 41	League
12/16 7:30 pm	Lebanon at Cedar Crest	55 57	League
12/18 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Ephrata	57 26	League
12/20 7:30 pm	Warwick at Cedar Crest	50 55	League
12/21 7:00 pm	Cedar Crest at Palmyra	60 40	Nonleague
12/27 7:30 pm	Oxford at Cedar Crest	38 51	Nonleague
12/28 7:30 pm	Lebanon at Cedar Crest	49 59	Nonleague
1/02 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Conestoga Valley	52 46	League
1/04 4:30 pm	Cedar Crest Lower Dauphin at Lebanon Valley College	46 58	Nonleague
1/08 7:30 pm	Hempfield at Cedar Crest	47 61	League
1/10 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Penn Manor	70 40	League
1/11 3:00 pm	Cedar Crest Bishop McDevitt at Manheim Central	58 55	Nonleague
1/14 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at McCaskey	48 62	League
1/17 7:30 pm	Manheim Township at Cedar Crest	49 58	League
1/22 7:30 pm	Carlisle at Cedar Crest	43 56	Nonleague
1/24 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Hempfield	56 51	League
1/28 7:30 pm	Penn Manor at Cedar Crest	52 65	League
1/31 7:30 pm	McCaskey at Cedar Crest	52 53	League
2/04 7:30 pm	Cedar Crest at Manheim Township	42 61	League
2/10 7:00 pm	Cocalico at Cedar Crest	36 59	Playoff
2/12 5:30 pm	Lampeter-Strasburg Cedar Crest at Hempfield	43 48	Playoff
2/14 7:00 pm	Warwick at Cedar Crest	41 45	Playoff
2/21 7:00 pm	TBA at Cedar Crest		Playoff

PIAA District Three

Final Class AAAAAA Power Rankings

AAAAAA	School	W	L	T	Rating	TWP	OWP	TWPW	OWPW	TWPL	OWPL
1***	Wilson	21-	1-	0	0.845478	0.970930	0.692147	25.1	332.3	0.8	147.8
2***	Central York	18-	3-	0	0.777853	0.897704	0.631368	21.5	291.9	2.5	170.4
3***	Reading	15-	5-	0	0.763886	0.825581	0.688480	17.8	300.9	3.8	136.2
4***	Cedar Crest	19-	3-	0	0.757581	0.906375	0.575722	22.8	269.2	2.4	198.4
5***	Central Dauphin	17-	5-	0	0.748749	0.846311	0.629506	20.7	301.3	3.8	177.3
6***	Cumberland Valley	18-	4-	0	0.748520	0.880478	0.587238	22.1	277.0	3.0	194.7
7***	Warwick	17-	4-	0	0.736006	0.861635	0.582460	20.6	264.0	3.3	189.3
8***	J P McCaskey	15-	7-	0	0.720284	0.773859	0.654805	18.7	310.1	5.5	163.5
9***	Chambersburg Area	16-	6-	0	0.703824	0.807377	0.577259	19.7	270.9	4.7	198.4
10***	Governor Mifflin	13-	9-	0	0.692080	0.692478	0.691594	15.7	339.4	7.0	151.4
11***	Harrisburg	13-	8-	0	0.683714	0.725400	0.632765	15.9	283.7	6.0	164.7
12***	Manheim Township	13-	8-	0	0.681031	0.720824	0.632394	15.8	291.9	6.1	169.7
13	Central Dauphin East	14-	8-	0	0.678221	0.717842	0.629794	17.3	298.1	6.8	175.2
14	Exeter Township	13-	9-	0	0.658504	0.681193	0.630774	14.9	301.1	7.0	176.3
15	Dallastown	13-	9-	0	0.652726	0.680617	0.618637	15.5	294.1	7.3	181.3
16	Lebanon	12-	10-	0	0.609194	0.642857	0.568050	14.4	270.3	8.0	205.5
17	Waynesboro Area	12-	10-	0	0.585746	0.611872	0.553815	13.4	259.9	8.5	209.4
18	Red Lion	10-	12-	0	0.566068	0.533019	0.606460	11.3	287.3	9.9	186.4
19	Carlisle	8-	14-	0	0.562892	0.485294	0.657734	9.9	317.9	10.5	165.4
20	Penn Manor	8-	14-	0	0.530882	0.463054	0.613782	9.4	296.2	10.9	186.4
21	HEMPFIELD	6-	16-	0	0.505033	0.365979	0.674987	7.1	334.0	12.3	160.8
22	Conestoga Valley	7-	15-	0	0.482745	0.401515	0.582027	8.0	276.6	11.9	198.6
23	York County School Of Technology	4-	15-	0	0.306571	0.197403	0.440000	3.8	178.8	15.5	227.5