A Year After Thinking They Had Ended Their Season, Annville-Cleona Flips The Script On Pequea Valley As Dutchmen Ride Slabach’s Career-Best 37-Point Performance To Stay Unbeaten In Section Four Race
Written by: Andy Herr on December 20, 2024
Elisha Slabach. LLHoops POG In Annville-Cleona Win Over Pequea Valley Following 37-Point Performance
Without taking the time to sit down and compile the math behind it all, let’s just cut to the chase and say that there are a litany of games played every year inside the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball scene. When you consider that the conference contains 25 programs who can play up to 22 games per year, it’s easy to see how that number can quickly shoot right thru the roof.
But not all these games are the same of course.
There are the blowouts. The buzzer-beaters. The meetings between two essentially random teams –usually on a sleepy Saturday afternoon – that feel more like a chore than an opportunity. There are the games with no grandiose implications short of seeing who the eventual victor will be in that specific contest. Then, there are others that are so memorable that you can’t possibly ever forget them. Hey, if there’s a plot twist added in after the fact, even better.
Last year, inside the final week of the regular season, L-L Section Four foes Annville-Cleona and Pequea Valley were essentially duking it out amongst themselves alone to claim the very last playoff spot in the District 3-3A field. Simply put, with the two teams hovering around the cut line –one squarely on it and other one right below it – prior to their final meeting of the year, the odds-on favorite to clinch that coveted spot would surely go to the triumphant team following that final section outing, yes? Well, you’d think so, but no.
When Pequea Valley went into A-C’s glitzy refurbished gym on the night of February 7th last year and came out with a 50-42 overtime victory at the hands of the Dutchmen, it was time for the Braves’ contingent to forget about the upcoming spring sports season. They had a district playoff journey they were about to embark on. On the other side of the coin, after seeing perhaps their last lifeline get used up during that defeat which ultimately saw A-C finish without a single section victory during the entire season a year ago, this was all nothing more than a foregone conclusion. There was no chance Annville-Cleona could somehow work themselves out of this jam.
But then the calculators came out.
Later that night, once the submission of the final score went into effect–one that went in Pequea Valley’s favor mind you – something funny happened. Well, funny depending on who you ask that is.
Love it or hate it, it’s the system we got. And somehow, admittedly to their own surprise, Annville-Cleona woke up the next morning and still found themselves in front of Pequea Valley in the District 3 power rankings formula. Yes, albeit even after losing a head-to-head matchup against none other than Pequea Valley.
“We thought it was done. To see it, then to text the group today in saying that we had a shot tonight when I sent them a snapshot of the rankings, it was a case of let’s just come to play tonight. We’ll figure out the rest in a couple of days. But yes, a second life…It’s just one of those fluke years where we’re neck-and-neck points wise and our strength of schedule just put us over, I guess. That’s the only way I can make sense of it,” Annville-Cleona head coach Jason Coletti said last year after his team’s final game of the regular season when asked to assess his team’s situation, a mere 24 hours after the Pequea Valley setback no less, in a contest that culminated in a mercy-rule win over Susquenita to the tune of a 61-32 Dutchmen romp. An extra, final game the Dutchmen still had in their arsenal which made the ground that the Braves needed to travel in order to make up the remaining difference nothing more than impossible with Pequea Valley being out of games themselves with the season then being at its 11th-hour.
With an oddity coming after the fact that was largely out of everyone’s control as it turned out–this coming in a very literal sense – it’s hard to ever forget such games.
Fortunately, we wouldn’t be forced to wait nearly as long as this season when it came to Pequea Valley’s return trip back up to “The Barn” on the Annville-Cleona campus.
For Braves’ second-year head man, Ehren Graybill, while it may be somewhat of tempered and quiet rebuild taking place right now at his alma mater, that shouldn’t make its progress any less real and tangible. Granted, while some may view PV’s 3-3 overall record prior to their game against Annville-Cleona without much more than a passing glance, the Dutchmen on the other hand were clearly cognizant of what the Braves were capable of. After all, Pequea Valley was able to break out the brooms after this series a year ago by virtue of a clean sweep over A-C. Beyond that, PV came into the night playing their best ball of a still young season, something best exemplified than by seeing the Braves win three of their last four outings, not the least of which included a victory over perennial power, Columbia.
Conversely, when speaking on the Dutchmen, there were understandably high aspirations coming into the 2024-25 campaign for one of the few programs in the L-L League with a state championship banner hanging high up in their home gym. For starters, the whole cast of characters from last year came back in the fold save for one, Ben Morcom, the lone senior found on the entire A-C roster a season ago. Aside from that, returning arguably the best pure scorer in the entire conference, Elisha Slabach, along with a formidable frontline spearheaded by fellow senior, Jon Shay, there was reason to believe as to why the Dutchmen might be able to burst onto the scene in a much grand and robust fashion this winter, perhaps gobbling up one of those precious tickets into the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament coming out of Section Four if they had their druthers.
And up until this point at least, you’d have to say that the early returns on investment when banking on A-C making good on those somewhat lofty preseason aspirations appears to be well positioned and right on schedule.
Coming into this matchup with Pequea Valley, A-C has largely been taking care of their business in the type of manner one would expect. Sure, there were the two setbacks at the hands of York Country Day and ELCO respectively, but if we’re eyeing a possibly league tourney spot, the way in which the Dutchmen have every right to be, it’s been a perfect 2-0 showing thus far against divisional competition after dispatching Northern Lebanon and Lancaster Country Day prior to heading into PV’s much-anticipated trip northward and into the Dutchmen’s home confines.
Yet while you never want to make too much of one game inside an entire months-long trudge through a season, you’d have to imagine that Annville-Cleona had this particular game circled on their calendars ever since the league slate was rolled out months ago. And how could they not? They had a score to settle that they’ve been waiting ten months for.
Score. Never would a word, whether it be used in the form of a noun or a verb, be more befitting of describing what was about to transpire.
For the visitors, things could not have started off much better than if they themselves happened to be the script writers.
In fact, following a 3-ball sunk by way of PV 6’2 junior wing, Owen Fisher, the Braves had the wind of a 7-0 lead at their backs with nearly half of the opening frame already having been expired. Fortunately, at least as far as Annville-Cleona was concerned, their first tallied field goal of the contest, this coming off a Jon Shay bucket inside, would later trim the PV lead down somewhat to a manageable 9-4 difference with 3:10 left to go by that point.
Remarkably, with nearly the entirety of the first stanza already having gone away, Annville-Cleona’s most potent of scorers, Elisha Slabach, was still absent for entering his name into the scorer’s book. Well, that was until his traditional three-point play at the 1:13 mark of the quarter which sliced the Braves’ cushion down to a pair, 11-9, before the Dutchmen were able to mount a successful 12-6 jaunt over the back half of the opening quarter in totality, ultimately making Pequea Valley’s lead stand at the most precarious of positions possible given the Braves’ slim 13-12 advantage after the first eight minutes.
But like with any good scorer, the only real feeling of belief and validation they need is to see the ball go through the net. For Slabach, even after being shutout for the first seven minutes of play, once that first hoop was good, the floodgates had officially opened for him. Even if he may have had to wait a little bit.
Case in point, Slabach helped to kick off the early portion of the second act with a dead-eye triple to then make it a 17-13 Dutchmen lead by that time, before then dishing a sweet dime to senior running mate inside, Jon Shay, as the A-C veteran tandem were able to put the hosts by half a dozen in relatively short order. And even when Pequea Valley had appeared to find some footing following this impromptu A-C salvo –most notably after a Cole Stoltzfus take to the tin which gut the gap down to a 19-15 difference with 3:40 left in the half – a timely Slabach rally, this of the seven-straight point variety, helped to propel the Dutchmen into the intermission with the 27-16 lead with Slabach having the lead over the Braves by himself considering his netting of 17 first half points.
Even with the mandatory halftime stoppage however, that too didn’t seem to deter Slabach, nor his teammates for that matter, once the second half got underway on Thursday night.
In fact, Slabach himself picked up right where he had left off earlier, sinking a jumper to begin the third quarter festivities.
But to their credit, even while trying to navigate against a player burning himself up while on an absolute heater of a performance and what Elisha Slabach was putting forth, Pequea Valley nonetheless seemed unimpressed all things considered by the way in which they retaliated right back into the fray.
Sure enough, while riding the momentum garnered behind an old fashioned three-point play courtesy of Nolan Stoltzfus that came sandwiched between a pair of takes to the rack by their leading scorer on the night, Owen Fisher, and his chipping in of 19 points to spearhead the Braves’ collective effort against A-C, the red-dressed guests were suddenly back within a penny at 38-37 with just under one minute left to play in the third frame.
Now, with the score standing at a 40-37 count in Annville-Cleona’s favor and the final quarter getting set to commence, stopping Elisha Slabach was obviously the key driver for what could possibly see Pequea Valley plant their flag on top of this mountain just eight minutes of game time later. Unfortunately, for their side however, A-C’s senior guard was up to his old tricks down the stretch too.
Eerily similar to the way in which he had kicked off the previous stanza, Slabach would begin the fourth quarter in a duplicative manner, knocking down a trifecta, bumping the Braves back on their heels right out of the chute. And aside from his two clean rejections of would-be Pequea Valley shots while working on the defensive end of the floor found on Thursday night, Slabach’s propensity to find the open teammate remained on display as well.
In fact, perhaps his dish to Jon Shay not long afterwards had helped to get the Dutchmen’s 6’3 senior big man into a groove as well seeing as how Shay would follow that deuce up by stepping outside and knocking in a gutsy trifecta, a bucket which was arguably the most important one chipped all game long from any Annville-Cleona player, not the least of which was because it saw the Dutchmen lead swell back upwards to six at 45-39 with 5:45 left to play.
From there on out though, Pequea Valley would get no closer.
And while Annville-Cleona was able to gradually build upon their existing cushion down the waning stages – thanks in large part to Elisha Slabach continuing to pour in the points – the Dutchmen would ultimately get that elusive win over the Braves which had been so looking for once the buzzer rang out and the hosts were able to walk off the floor following a 58-48 triumph over a very game Braves’ squad as A-C was able to keep pace atop the Section Four standings. Oh yeah, maybe important to insert and finally make note of here, but Slabach would finish the night by bucketing 37 points once the dust had settled, a number which signified his new career high.
Remarkably, while Slabach even came within one missed free throw inside the final minute for what would have given him the high-water mark for points scored in a game by any L-L player this year at 38 prior to McCaskey’s Ja’Loney Porter tallying 40 points against Manheim Township, also on Thursday night, Slabach was able to do inflict his damage while being held without any points whatsoever until there were 73 seconds left in the first quarter against Pequea Valley. Not a bad points-per-minute clip going on there, eh?
“Sometimes, if I miss a couple of shots in a row, that can make me a little bit concerned,” Slabach admitted afterwards when asked about being shut down by the variety of Pequea Valley defensive looks extended in his direction early on. “But once I hit two or three (shots) in a row, then I’m set, and then I’m cooking for the rest of the game.”
Even for the head chef, head coach Jason Coletti, he too was somewhat cognizant that his star chef de cuisine didn’t get off to the fastest of starts when turning on the oven against PV.
“I was thinking the same thing, ‘Elisha hasn’t scored yet,’” said Coletti harkening back to the first quarter of play. “Coincidently, we were also losing at the time. I was thinking that we needed to get him some shots,” he added. “(Pequea Valley) did a really nice job of face-guarding him, going 1-3-1 a little bit, and we’ve been preaching that we are going to need more guys to get involved since (Slabach) is going to see all the junk defenses everyone throws at him…I thought he did a lot of good things tonight obviously, but sharing the ball early, trying to get other guys involved, things like that most of all,” said Coletti of Slabach. “When we’re losing like we were early on tonight, we know we have to figure out ways to get him the ball and get him in a rhythm. Then, once when he got going, he really got going.”
Then again, setting a new career high against a team that you thought had ended your season a year ago, one that admittedly left you and your teammates understandably crushed and in tears afterwards, yeah, that’s a pretty sweet deal for a cherry to put on top no doubt.
“I know I did,” Slabach said lighting up with a wide smile in regard to making amends against Pequea Valley and the hurt they caused he and his team a year ago as they so thought at the time. “We’ve talked about this game for a couple of weeks now. But we just wanted to get through the first few games this week. We had a loaded week this week,” said Slabach. “We got through those two games first and then yesterday in practice, it’s like, ‘We’re playing Pequea. We’ve got to win.’ So, I had it circled.”
“Anytime we play them, it’s always a really tough and close game,” Coletti would then remark of playing Pequea Valley. “We’ve got a nice little section rivalry with them going on. Two kind of same-sized schools who have kind of been in similar spots throughout the years. We knew this game was coming, but we had a big week,” said Coletti in synchronicity with Slabach. “Three games in four days. Throw the (Lancaster) Country Day game in there and now we’re talking about four games within a week. It was a big week, but we knew Pequea was there at the end of the week. A section game to try and stay undefeated. That’s what the goal was for the end of this week. Stay undefeated in the section.”
Now that they have, it’s obvious that the confidence is growing in a very real and tangible way for the Dutchmen. It’s more than just lip service at this point.
“I was walking down the bleachers today and I saw them on their phones checking out the standings while watching the JV game. That’s a good thing,” Coletti remarked of his players. “That hasn’t happened in years. If you would have polled (past Annville-Cleona teams), they probably wouldn’t have even been able to tell you which teams are in what sections,” the Dutchmen head coach added with lighthearted humor. “I’ll use the term loosely, but this is a high basketball-IQ type of team in terms of knowing their surroundings and what the section races are, knowing the numbers needed to get into the playoffs, they all understand all of that. With every win, you can just see their confidence growing….They’re smart kids. They know right now that we’re a game up on Country Day, a game up on Northern Lebanon, a game up on Pequea Valley. I enjoy that because that tells me they’re really feeding in and buying in.”
Internally, the signs are obvious to the guys doing the actual work too.
“I feel that’s definitely the case,” Slabach stated in watching his teammates also starting to believe. “Winning close games helps. Knowing that if it gets close and goes down to the wire that we can pull it out. That’s what happened against Northern Lebanon in being a one-point game. That’s what happened tonight too where it ended up getting close.”
“Winning section games is a real confidence-booster,” the next in line to join the Dutchmen’s 1,000-point club said in closing. “Once we play these teams again, we will have known what it takes.”
Whatever it takes. Whether it be Slabach continuously pouring in 30+ points every time out. Whether it be his personal numbers taking a bit of a dip if it means the bulk of the scoring gets more evenly distributed across other avenues. Whatever “it” is, rest assured that the Annville-Cleona Dutchmen are ready to make good on this opportunity. You need only look at Thursday night as to what they achieve once they set their mind to something.
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