LEBANON — Manheim Township turned the tables on Cedar Crest on Thursday night.
The Falcons came into the L-L League Section 1 showdown with 84 3-pointers.
Coach Jim Donmoyer’s Falcons like to shoot, and can shoot from deep. They’re not afraid to pull the trigger, and the 3-ball has been a big part of Cedar Crest’s success this season.
So the Blue Streaks rolled up their sleeves and went to work defensively against the Falcons on Thursday.
With gritty guards Nicole Files and Jamie Relin switching and getting hands in faces, they made life miserable for Cedar Crest’s shooters.
For just the second time this season, the Falcons failed to hit a 3 in a game.
Meanwhile, Files splashed three 3’s, Kaitlyn Van Tash hit one and, more importantly, Manheim Township won the game 36-32 for its 59th L-L League victory in a row — and a 2-game lead in Section 1 with five games to go.
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Manheim Township coach Sean Burkhart on the game plan — “Coming into the game we wanted to limit their 3s. Did they even hit one? That was the key to the game. And you could tell that they were disrupted offensively. I give all the credit to our kids; they’re the ones who did it. We tried to put them in spots and told them to take things away. We wanted to be right on the 3 (line) to force them back an extra step out to run their offense. I thought for the most part we were able to do that.”
Burkhart on Streaks’ 59-game league winning streak — “To be honest, we don’t even talk about it with them. I just told them in the locker room, hey, we have 12 hours to celebrate this one because in 12 hours we’ll be on a bus for a game at Solanco. We’ve learned lessons over the last few years; we can’t look past anybody because on any given night you’re getting someone’s best shot. The further along we get with the goose egg in the loss column, the bigger the bull’s-eyes get. So this one was huge.”
Burkhart on having a senior-laden team, usually with five seniors on the court at all times — “They’ve been through it. They’ve been in a triple-overtime district playoff game (last year vs. Central Dauphin), they’ve played state-playoff games. They’ve been through it. To their credit, they keep fighting through.”
Burkhart on Files’ second-half 3-pointers — “She’s a gamer. She loves those shots, and you can tell when she gives you that little fist-pump when she’s running back down the floor. She comes to play every night. She does stuff that doesn’t always end up in a box score.”
Cedar Crest coach Jim Donmoyer on the outcome — “I thought they made some bigger plays down the stretch. They played good defense and I thought we played good defense. We took their inside away and they took our outside away. Bottom line is that we didn’t make a 3 all night. So I credit their defense; they knew what we were going to do. We were going to live or die with that. They have (bigs) Kaitlyn Van Tash and Alex Leslie underneath, and we weren’t going to let them beat us. So more power to their guards. They made shots. Kudos.”
Donmoyer on what’s ahead — “We’re tied with Hempfield, and Hempfield still has to play us and Manheim Township. I don’t see Township losing one game in the section. Two would be crazy. So our goal right now is to get second place and make the L-L’s and see what we can do in the playoffs. Hopefully we get (the Streaks) a third time.”