CLIPPED WINGS
SOUTH CENTRE TWP. — Sometimes in life, what goes around comes around.
A tough start to Tuesday night's game came back to haunt Central Columbia late in the fourth as it had every opportunity to snatch defeat from the hands of Danville. Instead, the Ironmen, which did all they could to keep things interesting down the stretch, walked away with a 41-37 win.
The dramatics were set up by a 6-0 rally by the Blue Jays to close out the third quarter and close the Ironmen's 10-point lead to within four. An Andrew Beagle 3-pointer, Jackson Gump field goal and Finley Huber free throw contributed to closing the gap.
Then, the worst possible timing for a break happened for the Jays, killing their established momentum.
"We feed off of our defense and we really brought a lot of energy to the pressure and forced them into a couple of errors and capitalized," Central coach Chris Snyder said."... Every kid plays so hard and sometimes in the midst of that we've been challenged to score. That was the case tonight, but the defense got us back into the game in the second half."
Kemp Bowman put the biggest emphasis on creating points with defense for Central. Coming off making a pair of free throws, the junior then forced a turnover on the ensuing inbound pass and hit a layup for four points in under three seconds. His efforts also cut the Ironmen's lead in half in the process.
"It was a very nice game for him," Snyder said of Bowman. "Anybody on our team can see that he is full-on from the time the ball gets thrown in the air until the buzzer sounds."
Bowman led the Blue Jays — who had nine players score a field goal in the contest — with 11 points.
Despite his efforts, that was the closest they'd get. And that's even with Danville unable to ice the game, going a measly 1-for-6 at the line. Carter Heath and Luke Huron each missed their two opportunities, giving the Jays more life via a rebound and jump ball, and Hayden Winn — after Jays' Mason Kingery turned the ball over on an errant pass — made his second attempt.
"We didn't play our best basketball tonight, but it's a credit to [Central]," Danville coach Gary Grozier said. "It's one of the toughest atmospheres to play in and it's always a tough game. Tonight was no different."
Following Winn's free throw, Danville — after being told explicitly not to — fouled Jackson Gump. He made his first attempt but was called for having his foot over the line on his second. Danville inbounded the ball and released a heave of relief as Huron threw the ball in the air as the clock hit 0:00.
Danville can be forgiven for the late scare as early blemishes by the Jays helped the Ironmen build a lead they'd never relinquish. The Jays only had the lead for a moment thanks to Kingery's 3-pointer to start the game's scoring, but the Ironmen then struck for eight unanswered thanks to a series of turnovers by the Jays, who were seemingly playing on the wrong page for portions of the game.
Daniel Walker was the biggest benefactor of the early mishaps, matching Central's performance with seven first-quarter points. He finished with 13. That allowed lanes to open for his teammates, like Huron, who finished with 15.
"I was making a run to the basket and had a good feel for where the defender was [early]," Walker said. "My teammates were crashing the board and that created 1-on-1 for me and I feel I'm good there."
Central has to win two of its last four games to qualify for the playoffs, per district rules. A turnaround bodes well for the Blue Jays, who play three teams — Midd-West (which the Jays beat 58-35 earlier this month), Mount Carmel and Hughesville — with losing records. Only Warrior Run has a winning record on the Jays' remaining schedule.
"The teams that we play, their records are deceiving," Snyder said. "... There is no easy game remaining and I think the emphasis on us has to be the guys in the locker room. We can control that far more than we can control the other team."
Danville, meanwhile, has clinched a spot in the District 4 Class 4A playoffs, currently holding the No. 3 seed. A strong finish would bode well for the Ironmen, who play three games against opponents with winning records: Mifflinburg, Loyalsock and Selinsgrove. Danville defeated Mifflinburg, 54-42, earlier this month.
Grozier, who said Danville was playing with low numbers due to illness, gave credit to the players for pulling out a win. He also knows that Tuesday night's performance can't be repeated down the stretch.
"Things don't get any easier with schedule, and we can't win if we play like we did tonight," Grozier said. "I'm hoping that we can learn from the mistakes tonight and clean them up, and hopefully be playing in the PHAC playoffs."
Link to story: https://www.pressenterpriseonl...
