E-town rolls past Catholic and into league finals

Last night in Hempfield, E-town showed its wide arsenal of skills as the Bears combined stellar 3-point shooting in the first half with deadly accuracy in the second half in a 76-61 win over Lancaster Catholic in the Lancaster-Lebanon League semifinals. The win puts E-town (22-2) in the league finals for the first time since 1977 where the Bears will face section rival Conestoga Valley, which upset Hempfield 51-45 in the other semifinal last night.

"It feels awful good. These guys have worked so hard since seventh and eighth grade to get to this point," said E-town head coach Kevin Dolan.

"I can't even put this into words right now," said senior Chad Styer, who had 15 points, including four 3-pointers. "We've been working so hard in practice every day and preparing and it's definitely paying off. Our first goal was a section title this year, but to be able to come out and compete for a league championship is just that much better."

In the quarterfinals against Lampeter-Strasburg, the Pioneers did a good job of slowing E-town's offense down and, as a result, hung around for most of the game. Catholic, on the other hand, decided to try and run with the Bears and dictate the pace of the game. And that strategy may have worked if the Bears decided to miss shots. They didn't. E-town hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter and seven of their first nine treys in the first half, but Catholic hung around and trailed by only five at halftime.

Despite his team's success from behind the arc in the first half, Dolan decided to change strategy in the second half and start running more and working the ball inside. The Bears, as they have all season, responded to their coach's strategy by playing a near flawless second half offensively. E-town used fantastic ball movement and decision making and show 17-for-21 from the field in the second half and just outgunning Catholic.

"We hit seven threes in the first half and we just didn't think we could continue to shoot at that pace," Dolan said. "In the second half, we had a lot better shot selections and we worked the ball a lot better."

E-town leading scorer Kyle McNeil was held scoreless in the first half as the Bears put on their shooting display, but E-town's big man was a force in the second half, scoring all 14 of his points. For the first four minutes of the third quarter, Catholic kept the deficit at five or six for the most part, but eventually E-town's transition game took over. The Bears ended the quarter on an 8-2 run and led 55-44 heading into the fourth quarter.

It was more of the same in the fourth, as E-town scored 21 in the quarter, mixed in an 8-0 run and pulled away. Six E-town players had at least two assists, highlighted by point guard Andrew Placeres' 10 dimes (just two turnovers). When E-town was out on transition, Placeres and company always found the open man in the second half, and it resulted in another double digit win.

"That's us. We share the basketball and we're very unselfish," Dolan said. "Toward the end, we had people cutting to the basket and everyone was throwing the ball to everyone. And that's our hallmark. We get running like that and when we're efficient like that, we're tough to stop."

"Being able to get out in transition, we create a lot of shots for ourselves," said Styer.

Catholic had a tough time stopping everyone in blue and white last night. E-town had five players in double figures and one more with eight points. Jeremi Jones led the way with 16 points, Styer added 15, McNeil 14, Bradley Garber 11, Placeres 10 and Quinn Cozzens 8. E-town attacked the Catholic defense from all angles, and the Crusaders simply couldn't keep up.

Dolan said he felt like his team did a better job on rebounding last night than they did against L-S on Monday, but added that there is still some work to do.

"I'm still not totally happy with our defensive performance, but we did a nice job for the most part," he said. "I think we crashed the boards better than we were before, but we're not boxing out well."

The loss snapped Catholic's 13-game winning streak and marked the second time this season E-town has beaten the Crusaders handily. E-town won by 20 earlier in the year, but weren't looking past Catholic because of that.

"Last game, we had the matchups and everything, but this game was more about us," Styer said. "We knew what we had to do in leagues. We knew we had to come out and play defense and run transition and I thought we did that well."

The Bears weren't fazed by Catholic's recent winning streak, especially since they have a pretty good one going themselves.

"Everyone talks about how hot they are, and they are, and they're a great team, and that they've won 13 in a row, but we've won nine in a row and 13 of 14," he said.

For much of the regular season, the prevailing thought around the league was the Hempfield, Penn Manor and E-town were the best three teams in the league and that two of them would meet in the league finals. But Penn Manor lost in the quarterfinals and Hempfield was beaten last night, leaving E-town as the last of the big three standing. Styer said that the Bears haven't burdened themselves with the expectations of being one of the best team. Instead, they've focused on what they need to do each game, and it's resulted in a trip to the league finals.

"We knew what we had to do," he said. "We felt all year that we weren't getting respect and coming into leagues we knew that we had to play every team to the best of our ability to be able to show people who we are and that we deserve respect."

The final roadblock standing in E-town's way of a league title is a familiar one – Conestoga Valley. The Section Two runner-up Buckskins earned their spot in the title game by handing Hempfield its first league loss of the season. The Bucks and Bears will tip off at 7 p.m. in Manheim Township tomorrow night.

Check back tomorrow morning for a preview of that matchup.