Standing comfortably in one of Giant Center’s spacious hallways Monday night — merely a few feet outside Manheim Central’s raucous locker room — a candid Dan Wiederrecht talked openly about what the Barons had just accomplished.
“It’s awesome,” Wiederrecht said. “Great feeling. Never been here, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Players are excited. Coaches are excited.
“We’re just ready to play Thursday.”
And the Barons will play Thursday … at Giant Center … for the school’s very first District 3-AAA basketball championship. Not too shabby, huh?
Never involved in a District 3 quarterfinal-round game until Friday night, Chris Sherwood’s program took an even-bigger step forward with a come-from-behind 43-39 victory over a gallant Bermudian Springs club in a 3-AAA semifinal that wasn’t decided until the final seconds arrived.
Freshman Taylor Funk collected 14 points and Wiederrecht pocketed all 10 of his points in the second half as Sherwood’s resourceful Barons (24-3) rallied for their historic victory. Some terrific pressure defense also played a major role.
Up next for seventh-seeded Central on Thursday night at Giant Center will be a rugged Susquehanna Twp. club that defeated top-seeded Bishop McDevitt 60-57 in overtime in the game that followed the Central-Bermudian scrap.
Tip off is set for 8 p.m.
Neil Murren tossed in 18 points for the No. 6 Eagles (22-3), who never trailed until the 6-7 Funk stuck back a miss with 4:55 to go that pushed Central in front by a 32-30 count. Berm also picked up nine first-half points from Alex Orwig.
Also headed for next month’s state playoffs, Bermudian will meet McDevitt in Thursday’s 3-AAA third-place game at a site and time to be determined.
PIVOTAL SEQUENCE
Trailing 30-24 with the fourth quarter started, Sherwood’s Barons started to get things in gear with 6:38 to play when Matt Walsh stepped to the line for a two-shot look. Although the 6-4 junior splashed the first, his second clanked off the rim and Josh Flanagan chased it down in the right corner.
An instant later, Flanagan whisked a pass under the hoop to a waiting Wiederrecht for an easy finish that had Central within three. Not even one minute later, the game was tied when Tanner Brenize buried a trey from the right wing.
While Funk’s putback put the Barons in front, Murren answered with a jumper from the foul line that pulled the gritty Eagles even. Then, after Sherwood burned another timeout to put his team in a spread set, Wiederrecht flashed into the paint, pulled up about eight feet out and knocked down a jumper that put Central up for good.
Another Wiederrecht finish, with 2:16 to go, made it 36-32.
Although Murren swished two freebies to pull Bermudian within two at the 2:05 mark, Walsh, Wiederrecht, Brenize and Tony Staffieri made trips to the foul line, converting seven of eight attempts to bump Central’s lead to 43-36.
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REVIEWING THE NUMBERS AND ADDITIONAL NOTES
Manheim Central shot 44.4 percent (16-for-36) for the game, but connected on 50 percent (9-for-18) of its second-half attempts. … Sherwood’s Barons were just 3-for-13 from the arc, with Funk nailing two treys and Brenize canning one. …
Central did not shoot a free throw until the fourth quarter, but was 8-for-12 from the line in the final eight minutes. … Sherwood’s Barons outrebounded the smaller Eagles 23-18. … Central committed 12 turnovers, five fewer than Bermudian. …
Funk grabbed a team-high five rebounds for Central. … Wiederrecht converted his last four field-goal attempts, then buried two freebies. … Listed at 5-8, Murren’s six rebounds topped Bermudian. … Austin Hartzell dished out four assists for Berm. …
Bermudian targeted 45.2 percent (14-for-31) of its field-goal attempts, but knocked down 52.4 percent (11-for-21) of its shots in the first three quarters. … The Eagles were 7-for-17 (41.2 percent) from deep, with Orwig bagging three. Murren and Alex Huntington, who was plagued by fouls, each canned a pair. …
Tom Flaherty’s Eagles, a perimeter-based team that didn’t really try to go to the bucket much at all, attempted four free throws and made all four. ... Bermudian led by as many as seven points (27-20) with 4:41 left in the third. ... Central's largest lead also was seven (41-34) once Brenize canned both ends of a one-and-one with 47.2 to play. ...
Wiederrecht emerged from Central's locker room sporting a Manheim Central football T-shirt. ... The Barons did not turn the ball over in the fourth quarter. ... Bermudian picked up assists on 11 of its 14 field goals.
POST-GAME CHATTER
(Wiederrecht on Central’s ability to come from behind late) “That makes us confident because we know we can go into the fourth quarter and go out there and play hard. But it’s better to start off, and we want to try and do that now because there’s gonna be a team that’s gonna come out and play hard and we won’t be able to get back. Feels really good coming out when you know you can come back.”
(Wiederrecht on Central finally getting a late lead and playing from in front) “Coach Sherwood said we’re one run away. We got that run and we just kept building on. We didn’t want to stop. We wanted to keep on attacking and it really worked out well for us.”
(Flaherty on the problems Central presented) "It's challenging when they have a 6-5 and 6-7; that’s a big challenge for your kids. We're giving up 5-6-7 inches, and strength-wise it's a challenge. But for three quarters, we were right there. I thought they had a lot of momentum. They got a stop. They got a bucket. That's the way this game goes."
(Sherwood on what turned things around) “I think it was around six minutes to go and we used a timeout, I think it was 30-24 and I just thought we were passive. I thought that they had pushed us out of our comfort zone to a point where we had stopped attacking. They had taken a couple of charges. They had moved their feet real well. They’re quick. They’re well-coached defensively. We just kind of read them the riot act and said, ‘No one feels bad for you around here.’ Matt Walsh had a nice strong take. I don’t think he finished, but he went to the line. I think our [1-2-2 full-court zone] press kind of wore them down. … They looked uncomfortable for the first time all night. We had never made them look uncomfortable until the fourth quarter.”
(Sherwood on the emotions involved in making a run that leads to the District 3-AAA final) “For me it hasn’t sunk in, but we can hear them in there. It seems like it has sunk in there. Kids know things. Kids have a little more perspective on the action that’s taking place right then. My mentor and a guy I have a lot of respect for, Coach [Mike] Gaffey, said to me, ‘Trust your destiny.’ We’re trusting and we’re doing.”
(Sherwood on Wiederrecht’s effort to get to the bucket late while in the spread) “When I thought we would use a little time … but we say when the middle’s open we’re trying to score. We don’t call it four corners cause everybody else does. We call it four to score. It’s exactly what we call it. The ball went to him, the middle opened, he jump-stopped because we had stopped plowing into guys and he finished.”
(Sherwood on why it was so hard for Central to attack in the post) “You adapt to your survival. Like what do you need to survive. They were 22-2. They were undersized in every single game, I don’t care who they were playing. That’s how they survived. So when you have to do something to survive, you get really good at it. They get low in the post. They can defend low. And we tell our small guys this, too, you can be more physical with the big guys. … They got low on us. They were fundamentally sound defensively and they’re gutsy as can be. … They’re a heck of a team.
(Sherwood on the play of 6-5 Josh Flanagan, who didn’t score, had four rebounds and played at the head of Central’s zone when it counted) “There was a point when things were going bad and I said to my assistants, ‘We are going down with Josh Flanagan on the floor because he has senior urgency right now.’ And I thought we saw senior urgency from Josh Flanagan. … He was at the head of the trap. He almost looked as if he was bothering them from the time they inbounded the ball. He was having fun. … He was great.”
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