Manheim Township Continues Late-Season Playoff Push As Blue Streaks Turn Away McCaskey, Finish Off Season Sweep Of Red Tornado On Thursday Night
Written by: Andy Herr on January 24, 2025
Truthfully, if you would’ve asked each of these two teams to perform an encore, it’d be a bit of a tough ask all things considered. After all, how do you possibly follow up their earlier meeting this winter which saw both clubs score northward of 80-points apiece, including one falling just five points shy of hitting the century mark, while also seeing a pair of players from either side fill it up to the tune of 71 points combined, not the least of which includes the current high-water mark in terms of Lancaster-Lebanon League individual scoring performances in the case of Ja’Loney Porter’s 40-point night at the office.
But in Tornado Alley just six days prior to Christmas, both Manheim Township and McCaskey played a game in which offense was the theme of the evening to put it rather mildly.
In that game back on the night of December 19th, Manheim Township was able to outduel, outlast, outsurvive their hosts from McCaskey in the form of a simply staggering 95-87 final score, all while having to contend with Porter’s aforementioned efforts, which far and away paced the Red Tornado engine in that game. Oh yeah, now might also be as good as a time as any to mention that this explosion all transpired within regulation, 32 minutes of ball in which nearly six points per minute were tallied by either club for a tennis match turned basketball game inside Lancaster city.
Yet aside from seeing as to what the second edition of Blue Streaks/Tornado figured to offer absent of another absolutely ridiculous offensive showcase on Township’s home floor this time around, there were still stakes-aplenty when it came to these two schools which share in the distinction of calling Lancaster, PA their home turf.
By now, it’s obvious that absolutely no one has any tiny hint of intelligence when it comes to trying to decipher and surmise the Section One race of L-L boys’ basketball in the year 2024-25. In fact, coming into Thursday night which saw Township and McCaskey renew those old acquaintances, while both the Streaks and Tornado found themselves outside of the current cutline in terms of making the league playoffs in the odd event we just drop everything and start right now prior to the actual finish line, despite their combined 7-7 league records tabulated amongst themselves to date, Township sat exactly one game outside of first-place while McCaskey conversely was just two games outside of at least sharing in the top spot. Beyond that, while it appears that the Red Tornado may need some sort of divine intervention in which they happen to acquire a spot into the District 3-6A playoff field considering their 26th-place residency inside a crop which takes just 16 teams coming into Thursday, Manheim Township on the other hand was feeling particularly bubblelicious seeing as how the Streaks stood on the #15 line, just one lone notch above final cuts.
Suffice to say, while asking for a duplication of the season’s first meeting between these two may be asking for some version of the impossible for a variety of different reasons, there will still plenty of storylines that surrounded the culmination of Manheim Township and McCaskey’s season series in Neffsville on this night. And while it might not have taken shape into as rip-roaring of a scoring performance like that of its predecessor, the end result was nonetheless identical come the end of Thursday evening.
To start things off, Manheim Township was clearly the team which had come out swinging.
Case in point, the homestanding Streaks racing out to a 7-2 lead following a trifecta knocked down courtesy of 6’0 senior guard, Ty Gray, before then seeing their lead then balloon out to an 11-4 difference following an offensive rebound and stick-back via the efforts of 6’1 sophomore forward, Ellis Vorhis-Witmer, as the hosts had forced their guests into burning an early timeout with 4:10 remaining in the first frame to try and get warm to the fight.
Finally, and certainly not a moment too soon from their perspective, a timely triple dialed up by McCaskey’s other most potent of natural scorers, De’Andre Jones, having to play a major role in this one with Porter being out of the lineup, awarded the first points to a player of the Red Tornado not named Eddie Bencosme, as Jones’ 3-ball made it a 16-7 affair before a strong McCaskey 7-2 salvo over the final two minutes and change dwindled the Township lead down somewhat with the Streaks owning the 18-11 advantage after the initial eight minutes.
However, as fate would later demonstrate, that was about the last instance of McCaskey being able to keep the deficit within a manageable number for the remainder of the evening.
In fact, behind the aid of a pair of triples cashed in by way of Gray and fellow senior sniper, Rocky Mack, with Mack finishing the contest while netting game-high scoring honors by tossing in a 22-point showing, the Blue Streaks saw their lead climb up to double figures, 26-15, before a three-point play of the old-fashioned variety thanks to Vorhis-Witmer later made it a 33-17 Township buffer with 4:20 left to play in the opening half by that point.
From there, even while Jones would morph from the role of scorer and into the facilitator by virtue of a sweet dish amongst the trees within the paint with McCaskey senior big man, Adrian Rodriguez, finishing things off with an easy deuce inside, Township’s relatively stress-free first half became cemented once both teams retired to their respective clubhouses with the Blue Streaks holding serve by virtue of a 37-20 cushion.
But here, even with a brand-new half getting set to commence, Manheim Township only continued to build upon their existing seat.
Case in point, following yet another pair of triples, these sunk by way of Jordan Pettigrew and Ty Gray respectively, the hosts’ lead had suddenly swelled upward to two-dozen, 46-22, before a nice pair of buckets inside, these courtesy of Tornado junior Anthony Jiminez and freshman Amir Thompson respectively, helped to put a bow on a quick 6-0 McCaskey spurt which then made it a 46-28 contest with all of 2:30 left to play in the third.
That said, while it had appeared as if Manheim Township could have been able to coast home while riding some form of cruise control, the Streaks still had to buckle down and take care of business. But particularly come the start of the final period most of all as McCaskey found the door open – even if it may have only been slightly ajar – in the aftermath of a De’Andre Jones trifecta which helped to bring the Tornado back within 16 once the third quarter buzzer sounded with Township out in front, 53-37.
Yet if there may have been one singular play in particular which helped to illustrate as just how potent and workmanlike that the Streaks had been throughout much of Thursday evening, it was most definitely found during the fourth quarter’s infancy.
There, once Manheim Township undersized big man, Jaden Reed-Jones, showed off his pogo stick ability by rising above the crowd to snare down an offensive rebound before then falling to the floor, but still having the wherewithal to kick the pill out to a waiting and ready Jordan Pettigrew, as the Blue Streaks’ senior tandem helped to make it a 57-39 affair following Pettigrew’s back-breaking triple.
And try as they might, McCaskey still did their best to keep things within their grasp despite the current situation they had found themselves in at the time.
For that, following a pair of bunnies tallied inside via Adrian Rodriguez and Amir Thompson respectively, the latter of whom would finish with team-high scoring honors with a 10-point evening for his troubles, the Tornado needed to make one final push down the homeward mile.
But that would never come.
It certainly didn’t help those aspirations of course once Manheim Township 6’1 junior guard, Jack Kenneff, finished off his hoop plus the harm with a free throw added on top which made it a 63-45 ballgame with 2:41 left to play, before the Streaks’ blossoming freshman talent, Yianni Papadimitrou, then pushing the margin back to twenty at 65-45 in the waning stages.
And once the dust had settled and the final score of a Manheim Township 68-52 victory over McCaskey had finally been tallied, this was obviously an important “get” for the Blue Streaks who find themselves flirting with the idea of making it into both the league and district playoffs inside what is essentially the season’s 11th hour. If nothing else, this is certainly an uncanny position in which the Streaks seem to routinely find themselves in down the back half in search of punching their tickets to play onward in what feels like every season. For some, playing inside the crucible of a final few games that come part in parcel with massive implications could understandably break some squads. However, that really isn’t the case for Manheim Township. While you never want to necessarily use a generic blanket of history to describe how a team may be “built for this” as every team is different on a year-to-year basis, the Streaks might well be the exception here. It of course remains to be seen what happens from here on out this season, but on Thursday night at least, the initial returns would suggest that Manheim Township is comfortable and ready for the task at hand.
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