Recap Week Dec. 17-23
Written by: Dell Jackson on December 24, 2018
The week that was…Andy and Dell were out and about as usual 🙂
Click links for recaps, write-ups and interviews.
Columbia/PV
Spot/NL
McCaskey/CV
Hempfield/Gov mifflin
Warwick/Hempfield gallery
Coach Christenen-Warwick Dec 17
Coach Larry Bellew- PM
Crest/Warwick- Streaming, no audio
Penn Manor /Etown
Penn Manor/Etown gallery
Coach rocky – Etown
M Central/Lanc. Cath Gallery (via Mark 22 photos)
LL Thoughts…
Section 1…This section is the most competitive in the LL so far. Crest, McCaskey, and Hempfield are all coming in at 3-1 with TWP and Penn Manor following closely at 2-2. We will find out more when these teams actually play each other starting Jan. 4th. The Falcons of Crest were all alone until Warwick beat them at Warwick 52-42, although the game was much closer than the final score. TWP lost in OT to Etown (72-71). The Streaks are dealing with some injuries at this point of the season. McCaskey lost to Warwick, but beat Etown at the end of the Week. The Penn Manor Comets lost two in a row to Etown and Lebanon, but they rebounded with a solid win vs. Middletown.
Section 2…’How bout them Warriors?’ Warwick pulled off the trifecta last week beating Section 1 teams: Hempfield, McCaskey and Crest. We saw the Warwick in person two times this week. They feature a very unselfish group that hits key three balls and scraps for every rebound. On any given night, the Warriors could have a different leading scorer…and some “ice in the veins” shooting three balls in key spots. In last weeks column, we pointed out that the Section 2 teams that could win some cross overs vs. Section 1 would be way ahead of the pack- check for Warwick.
Etown went 2-1 for the week, beating TWP in OT (72-71), Penn Manor 63-62 and losing to McCaskey 69-67. So, the Bears had three games with a spread of 4 points in each game- crazy. Lebanon is showing improvement. The Cedars lost to Hempfield in OT; lost to Crest by 10 but it was fairly close; and beat Penn Manor on the Cedars home floor 61-46. The Bears starting schedule was daunting.
Section 3…LS is rolling. The Pioneers are 4-0 in LL play. They hammered ELCO 51-31 last Friday @ ELCO. The Pioneers lost a lot off of the LL championship team 2018, but they have reloaded and appear to be ready for another run at the crown. Balance is the key with this team: Check this out—Scoring avg. for the top 5 players (Seth Beers 10ppg, Zach Kingsley 10ppg, Chase Broderick 9 ppg, Adam Stoltzfus 9 ppg, Patrick Holmes 8 ppg). Ya can’t get more balanced than that J
The surprise team so far has been Garden Spot. Spot’s new had man, Nate Musselman, has the Spartans at 3-1 in LL play. Spot is led by lightning quick guard, Keontae Nunn (15ppg). The Spartans picked up 3 wins last week (Octorara, NL, and Donegal.
Section 4…ELCO and Lancaster Catholic are the front runners at 3-1. The ELCO Raiders lost to LS (51-31), while the Catholic Crusaders lost to Cocalico 59-58 earlier in the week. These top 2 teams don’t meet up head to head until Jan 18th.
Catholic is led by Dave Kamwanga (13 ppg) Johnny Besecker (12ppg) and Dwayne Caine (12 ppg). ELCO has a similar point production from its top 2 – Braden Bohannon (12ppg), Asher Kemble (11 ppg), and Bryce Coletti (10 ppg).
Section 5…After losing its first 3 games, Lancaster Mennonite is unbeaten in LL play. The Blazers are making nice progress under first year coach, Seth Buckwalter. Top scoring guard, Elijah Terry (21ppg) leads the Blazers not only in scoring but leadership on the floor. Columbia and LCDay are one game off the pace. A feature by John Walk (LNP) on LCDay’s guard, Andrew Williams (14 ppg) is a must read for LL fans.
LLhoops info…Well, the site is cranking out over 20,000 page views per week. Twitter followers for @llhoops is over 2300 and Andy’s is over 1600… Streaming games with audio have been averaging over 250 views per game…Soundcloud this season has over 1000 hits….thanks to all!
Tweet of the week
From our good friend/coach @tsave31
“Not even a LL guy, but one of my favorite parts of game nights is my late night reading of @AndyBrackets little mini-recaps, all done in one tweet, of each matchup in @LLhoops. LL fans are incredibly lucky to have Dell and Andy.”
Streaming…
Berks beat producer, Bruce Badgley, has three Berks Co. games in the books and more to come.
Alvernia College is providing the camera equipment and producing the games. Alvernia has communications major including the production of sporting events. Please check them out if you are interested in a degree/career in sports communication.
The LL game between Crest/Warwick had great video but our audio was not there (apologies to all). …But, a first run will help us with games down the line.
We did pick a Player of the Game: Ryan Shirk , 6’ sn, of Warwick- at least he got a great looking tshirt.
We are very excited to have Eric Thomas, Doug Kraft, and Warren Goodling behind the mic at various times for the LL games.
There is no way we can put games on without sponsorship- a very special thanks to all companies that are supporting our efforts. We are still in the red, so any help would be appreciated. We are looking into doing some LL playoffs games- stay tuned.
All games archived here.
Our Next LL game is scheduled for Jan 4 – ELCO @ Octorara .
Misc thoughts…We get to interact with many folks during our travels. Last week, I hung out with ex Crest head coach, Rick Dissinger (now 7th grade coach for Crest) He provided us with some stats during our steamed game. Also, I talked with ex-CV boss, Bobby Borden (now 9th grade coach for Warwick). At Penn Manor games, Don Martin (ex jn hi coach and teammate of Wally Walker) is a fixture at home games.
The head coaches in the LL are fantastic for getting back to us with info for rosters, streaming games, and basic thoughts.
Holiday tournaments…we will try to keep up the best we can 🙂 Sometimes scores are tough to get on road games. Most of the LL teams are playing 2 this week 🙂
Andy and I would like to have a question and answer page. Send questions to webmaster@llhoops.com and we will try to post some of the questions and our answers to the best of our ability. No bashing refs/teams or players, but we are sure to get some good discussion items- section playoffs? Top players? Styles? History? Etc..
Also, we were approached by a school to feature some high school students writing. We would love to have some guest writers for the site- College/High school writers are welcome.. Write a game, a column, a feature…ditto for photographers. Send request to webmaster@llhoops.com
Merry Christmas to all!
Please be safe during the holiday season!
~Dell Jackson
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
