Cold night

It was cold and snowy outside last night.

Inside the mammoth Giant Center, it was just cold. No, not because of the ice under the floor, but cold in terms of shooting the basketball for the Columbia Crimson Tide. Or could it have been the tightness of the rims at the Giant Center?

A cold shooting derailed the top-seeded Tide in the District Three Class AA semi-finals at the Giant Center. Columbia lost to Trinity, 60-50.

Had the Crimson Tide shot the ball well, we’d be talking about a return trip to the Giant Center for a shot at a District 3 championship tomorrow night.

Instead the Tide now plays Milton Hershey in a consolation game for third place, tomorrow at Dallastown. Tip is at 7:30 p.m.

Last night, the Tide couldn’t buy a basket, whether it was from beyond the arc, or in the paint. Perhaps, it was the affects of playing at the Giant Center, where the backgrounds are far away and it throws shooters off; perhaps, it was the first time playing on the big floor; perhaps, it was Trinity’s inside game (The ‘Rocks were much larger in the paint), or, it was just one of those nights that good shooting teams have.

Mike Seibert brought his ‘A’ game last night. He had his hand in all 15 first quarter points for the Tide. Columbia led the game 15-13 after eight minutes. Seibert had 10 and two dishes that led to buckets for Ben Guiles and Yahya McIntyre.

At the other end of the floor, sophomore Eric Kindler was playing like a senior. He had eight in the first quarter and finished with 27.

A Seibert three-pointer and a Colby Tuell steal and basket gave the Tide a 20-17 lead with 4:46 left in the first half.

But that’s when it got a little cold at the offensive end for the Tide. They finished the first half with just three points, all foul shots. The four-minute plus cold spell saw the Tide fall behind 29-23 at the break.

The cold spell continued into the third quarter. Adam Pittman’s three with 4:52 left in the quarter was the Tide’s first field goal in about eight minutes. Despite getting unleashed a little offensively, the Tide still trailed 42-34 after three.

But here came the boys wearing the crimson and gold to open the fourth quarter.

Seibert drained back-to—back treys and all the sudden, the Tide trailed 43-40 with 6:26 left.

As valiantly as the Tide tried, they were unable to come up with that big shot. Trinity on the other hand was not exactly putting the Tide away. Another three from Pittman with 53.4 seconds left pulled the Tide within six, 56-50, but the Rocks hit four foul shots in the final 20 seconds to pull out the win.

The Rocks will now Delone Catholic, who beat Milton Hershey, 58-46 in the other semi-final.