Cumberland Valley Withstands Persistent Manheim Township Volleys As Eagles Secure Saturday Nonleague Victory To Maintain Elite District 3-6A Residency
Written by: Andy Herr on February 4, 2023
With just a handful of days left in the high school basketball regular season, it’s understandable as to why some teams are already having visions of grandeur when it comes to dreaming of the weeks yet to unfold which will surely include an excursion into the postseason for those exclusive members. Cumberland Valley of course being one such example that fits the bill of having already gained entry into the club.
For the Eagles, much of their hay is already in the barn so to speak. Sure, while they are still trying to chase Reading High down when it comes to perhaps capturing District 3-6A’s top seed, Cumberland Valley has safely found a home –keyword there being home—once they begin on their inevitable quest to try reach and reach the summit of the local high school hoops scene with an upper echelon seed into the dance a formality at this point given the 18-2 overall record they brought with them into Saturday’s nonleague affair at Manheim Township.
Speaking of the Blue Streaks, seeing Township totally shut out of having postseason aspirations is a bit of a new development around these parts quite frankly.
By now, you typically know the drill when it comes to the Streaks’ seasons here of late. Most often it goes a little something like this. Get off to a bit of a slow start to begin the campaign all things considered that puts them in a bit of pinch once the calendar flips to January. However, by about the middle of the month, head coach Matt Johns almost always finds the correct concoction to get his Streaks in gear heading down the final stretch of the season with Township fighting tooth and nail for a spot in the Lancaster-Lebanon League and District 3 tournament fields respectively. This season however, despite a head-turning win at home against Warwick which has largely been the highlight of it all, this 2022-23 season has been a bit different in and around Neffsville by and large considering that the Blue Streaks came into the final weekend of the season while sporting a 5-14 overall record to their name while occupying the 22nd slot in the 6A crop.
Needless to say, provided that the Streaks would’ve been able to knock off a heavyweight the likes of Cumberland Valley in this their final home game of the year, along with the fact that Township is still an incredibly young team with the bulk of their minutes and points coming back into the fold next season and beyond, a triumph the likes of that could bode wonders for a Manheim Township springboard into the future. In the end though, while they would make Cumberland Valley scratch and claw for every inch of turf as Saturday wore along, the depth of the Eagles eventually rose to the surface as Cumberland Valley was able to escape a pesky Manheim Township squad before heading back home over the Susquehanna late Saturday afternoon.
If the initial few minutes on Saturday were to serve as any sort of indicator however, rest assured that Cumberland Valley quickly found out that their talons would be full for the entirety of the day.
Case in point, surely no one clad in red had any desires whatsoever in starting out in a 9-2 hole throughout the first three minutes of the contest. That said, that was exactly the position that the visitors found themselves in following a trifecta of treys splashed in by Township’s Sebastain Henson as the impressive Township junior guard propelled the hosts out the seven-point advantage right out of the chute.
Even still, as most elite teams figure to do as the game wears along, Cumberland Valley eventually weathered the initial storm volleyed against them.
For that, sparked by a pair of 3-balls cashed in courtesy of Nolan Buzalka and J.D. Hunter respectively, Township’s early lead had been sliced all the way down to the slimmest of margins, 11-10, with 3:10 still left to play in the opening frame by that point.
But that would be all the closer the Eagles would get for the remainder of the quarter.
In the aftermath of the Cumberland Valley surge, Township then turned Henson to help get them out of dodge via a sweet step-back jumper sunk which upped the Streaks’ lead to five at 15-10 roughly two minutes later. From there, the Streaks’ lead would swell up even further as an old-fashioned three-point in transition courtesy of another 11th grader in Township’s rotation, Caden Young, made it an 18-10 contest before the dust finally settled on an opening eight minutes of play that largely was dictated on Township’s terms given the 18-12 lead the Streaks carried with them into the second.
Remember that fact about solid teams always seeming to step up and respond though? Yep, as if to be right on cue, Cumberland Valley just kept coming and coming in the face of adversity.
No, while it may not have been in the most flashy of manners considering that it took over two minutes in order to accomplish said feat, the Eagles would eventually trim Township’s lead all the way back down to a penny at 19-18 following a Kip Gottlieb bunny inside before CV finally found themselves in control not long thereafter following a J.D. Hunter take to the tin which put the guests up by a pair at 23-21 before a steal and finish thanks to the handiwork of Creston Austin made it 25-21 as Township was forced into calling a timeout following the sophomore wing’s theft and subsequent bucket with 2:59 left before intermission.
All told, Cumberland Valley would only add to their existing advantage as the second quarter trudged onward as evidenced by a put-back in the paint via another of CV’s impressive young sophomores, Nolan Buzalka, to make it a 30-23 Eagles’ lead before a timely Township finish down the stretch cut CV’s lead down to a half dozen at 34-28 with both teams retiring to their respective locker rooms.
Once the third frame got underway, it appeared as if Cumberland Valley had finally found the remedy to put Township away once and for all.
Hard to argue that when you consider the magnificent two-man game shared between Tzuriel Ogunnaike and Nolan Gilbert inside as the pair’s connection resulted in a Gilbert bucket which increased the Eagles’ lead out to 39-28 with 4:50 left to go in the third, a moment which signified Cumberland Valley’s largest lead of the entire day up until that point.
Here again though, Township wasn’t the least bit interested in playing nice and keeping it close for just one half.
As he had been all throughout the afternoon, Sebastian Henson continued to flourish in his role of being the head of the Manheim Township snake. And here, with his squad needing some sort of momentum boost to try and rally the troops, Henson’s pullup J whittled the Cumberland Valley cushion back down to seven, 41-34, a bucket which would add two more in Henson’s successful conquest in capturing game-high scoring honors by netting a 22-point afternoon once the dust had settled.
That said, speaking of momentum boosts, a bucket mere moments before the third quarter horn blared out that came courtesy of the lone senior found seeing minutes in the Township rotation, Quinn Snyder, cut the difference down to 45-36 with the final eight minutes getting set to commence and Cumberland Valley continuing to hold serve.
Suffice to say, if we had been surmising that the aforementioned Snyder bucket would have perhaps propelled Township into a strong final frame, let’s just say that those assumptions would indeed prove to be correct. In fact, no sooner than on Township’s initial offensive possession of the final quarter did Henson proceed to take matters into his own hands.
Ignited by a 3-ball on the first Manheim Township trip down the floor to begin the fourth quarter, another triple found in Henson’s arsenal wouldn’t be far behind his second trey from bonus distance splashed down in the final stanza effectively cut Cumberland Valley’s lead down to a very modest two at 47-45 with 5:30 left to play.
And while the Eagles would try their best to ward off the scrappy Streaks, something best proven by a crucial three-point play cashed in via 6’4 senior big man Nolan Gilbert which made it 50-45 contest with under five minutes still to go, a key take to the cup down on the other end thanks to Township 6’1 junior guard Bennett Parmer would then cut the deficit back down to three at 50-47.
As fate would have it however, Manheim Township would get no closer.
Beset by untimely turnovers along with empty trips on the offensive end inside the final few minutes in general, again, as most good teams tend to do, Cumberland Valley wasn’t about to let the door remain open on their hosts if they had anything to do with it. Instead, they would slam it shut.
And so, with their defense aiding and abetting them across the finish line down the final furlong, along with a pair of clutch late-game freebies nailed at the charity stripe by way of J.D. Hunter that cannot be overlooked either, Cumberland Valley was able to finally exhale once and for all following their grind-it-out 54-47 final verdict over an especially game Manheim Township crew that made the Eagles earn absolutely everything in this particular matinee.
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