After Swimming Through Season’s Worth Of Emotion In First Quarter Alone, Dallastown Steadies The Ship To Sail Past McCaskey For Strong Opening Win

Written by: Andy Herr on December 4, 2024

If you hadn’t already noticed, but it’s now the first few days of December, and we’re suddenly back to playing real basketball games with results that will have very real ramifications over the course of the next few months. Yes, it’s a bit of an oddity in fact considering how the season –usually—wouldn’t get started yet until the first weekend inside December. As a result, with the schedule being bumped up an entire week earlier and schools essentially having carte blanche to do a wish for this window of time, this week in particular is arguably the oddest of ones within the entire slate given what could be a huge schedule imbalance depending on the matchup. Case in point, some teams already having had played two games entering Tuesday night, some had yet to go period, while other won’t even get started until later this week(end). And as if to be right on cue, Tuesday night saw one such nonconference matchup take place between a pair of teams from the Lancaster-Lebanon and York-Adams Leagues respectively.

Granted, it wasn’t exactly a sheer mismatch in terms of games played. But, if there was a benefit to be had, you’d figure to give the slightest of edges to the McCaskey Red Tornado prior to their early week trip down to with Dallastown on Tuesday, with this being the Wildcats’ first game of the season considering how McCaskey on the other hand already got rid of their first batch of season-opening butterflies on Saturday afternoon, albeit in a 61-59 defeat at home at the hands of Penn Wood.

And for a pair of teams that so desperately want to submit strong resumes of consideration to the District 3 board for approval and their entry into the 6A playoff bracket near the middle to latter part of February, why not get things started off on the right foot with still the near entirety of the season left to go? Well, in that regard, while you can’t ever romanticize too much and go overly hyperbolic about having played just 32 minutes thus far this year, you’d certainly be hard-pressed to find a squad inside all of District 3 that began their 2024-25 campaign much better than that of the Dallastown Wildcats and what they submitted for their first bullet point on the 2024-25 scorecard.

There are fast starts and then there are fast starts. Then again, there’s also whatever the hosts got off to on Tuesday against McCaskey that was in its own category altogether different.

Right from the opening tip –this being their first of the season remember– Jalen Cook not only won the tap for his team inside the center circle, but he then promptly batted the ball out to a streaking Chase Meyer, who broken free from the Tornado troops, before Meyer threw down a two-handed dunk a mere three seconds into the season. Once more, something “fast” of an entirely different variety.

From there though, Dallastown looked nothing if not comfortable on either end of the floor.

If the ‘Cats were either turning McCaskey over, swatting shots, or holding the visitors to one-and-done’s defensively, Dtown’s offense was equally white-hot down on the other end as evidenced by a 3-ball dialed up by way of 6’0 senior forward, Aidyn Garner, makiing it a 8-2 affair before a pair of tough takes inside courtesy of the aforementioned Cook and Landon Williams respectively, prompted McCaskey into burning an early timeout while staring up at a 14-2 hole with 4:46 remaining in the opening stanza after the pair of bunnies chipped in by way of the Dallastown senior duo.

Finally, nearly two minutes of game time later, McCaskey was able to tally their first field goal of the evening, this coming in the form of an Eddie Bencosme triple, cutting the Dallastown lead back down somewhat at a 16-5 margin.

At this point, it was fair to say that it was “getting late very early” for McCaskey as Dallastown could seem to do no wrong whatsoever. In fact, it seemed as if only something totally unforeseen could possibly take the wind out of Dallastown’s sails to stop them. Unfortunately, just a few seconds later, that’s exactly what happened.

Cruelly, especially the way in which he himself had played the role of maestro in getting the evening started off with a bang and his two-handed dunk to begin the night, Chase Meyer was proving himself to be a blossoming 6’2 junior star who figured to make life miserable for opposing coaches in having to prepare scouting reports in order to defend against him moving forward. Yet after finishing off his latest exploit –a spectacular reverse finish at the cup in transition which at that time made it a 23-7 lead in favor of the home side — Meyer would be forced to miss the rest of the game due an injury that understandably left both his coaches and teammates alike visibly shaken up and having to fight back all the corresponding emotions that came packed into the nearly 20-minute long stoppage that eventually saw both teams retire to their respective dressing rooms given its duration.

Suffice to say, facing the chore of having to pick up and play again after bearing witness to something like that, but especially one of your own most of all, is something to where there really is no manual or gameplan for. Yet to their credit, while still probably playing in what felt like more of a hazy fog than anything else for the remaining two minutes and change of the opening frame, Dallastown continued to remain largely unimpeded against the McCaskey challenge, eventually sauntering into the second quarter with the benefit of the commanding 28-12 advantage.

In the second quarter though, that’s where McCaskey tried to make some hay.

Chief among those instances came with a dead-eye triple sunk by way of Tornado junior guard, Anthony Jiminez, slicing the Wildcats’ lead down to 11 at 31-20 with 4:45 left to play before the halftime break.

But as would be apparent really for the remainder of the contest, while the Tornado would fight back valiantly and claw their way into the thick of things despite after starting off in a such a wide deficit, Dallastown continued to keep their opposition at arm’s length.

In fact, following an offensive possession which saw Jalen Cook pogo-stick his way to two offensive rebounds over top of the fray which culminated in an eventual bucket inside tallied by Tripp Barton, Cook’s hustle efforts appropriately seemed to pave the way for he himself finishing things off with a dunk of his own as the Wildcats’ 6’3 senior continued to keep McCaskey at bay as the second period wound along.

Even still, McCaskey just continued to hang around and hang around as the first half gradually ticked down. Sure enough, following a 3-ball dialed up wiry sophomore guard, Ja’Loney Porter, which sliced the gap back down to ten at 39-29, Avery Stauffer would get in on the act as well as the Tornado’s senior veteran forward chipped in a bucket right before the buzzer, giving McCaskey a jolt of momentum while still being down by a 40-32 count at the intermission.

Yet in the new half, Dallastown gradually began to take control and exert their muscle without leaving much in the way to chance.

That said, is it possible to have a relatively quiet 24-point night at the office? If there is, Chase McLane’s evening for Dallastown against McCaskey would certainly fit the bill as the Wildcats’ 6’3 junior wing was able to fill it up from just about everywhere in the halfcourt against the Tornado. And here, on this his most recent example, McLane’s tough three-point play after finishing through contact saw the Dtown lead creep back up to double figures, 49-38, with just three minutes having ticked off the third quarter clock at that time.

Ironically enough, that would largely be the way in which the hosts would continue to temper McCaskey’s desires of hopefully reaching the summit and overtaking the lead throughout the remainder of the third.

This time, it was Tyrell Etheredge’s turn to do the same as the 6’3 junior bulled his way through a foul on his way to the floor to then make it a 53-38 Wildcats’ advantage before another traditional three-point play, this one courtesy of Landon Williams, largely put the dagger in any possible Red Tornado rally as the senior’s exploits helped carry Dallastown into the final eight minutes with the benefit of the 63-40 cushion.

By this time, the eventual outcome was all but a formality save for waiting on the final score. But even still, there was plenty of good things to be found inside the final frame, particularly from the Wildcats’ perspective most of all.

Perhaps none more so than Aidyn Garner picking up where he had left off earlier in the first stanza –sinking triples from beyond the arc—as Garner promptly buried a pair of buckets from bonus distance inside the final few minutes, allowing he too to become what would be the fourth Wildcat starter to finish the evening with double figure scoring numbers. The lone exception? Chase Meyer, who even with having only played just shy of six minutes on Tuesday night, darn near flirted with the possibility doing so in his own right considering his final tally of seven points once the game and Dallastown’s 77-56 final verdict against McCaskey became official.

And while he may have been absent at the end of it, arguably the most anticlimactic part of the night was deciding who would be considered Dallastown’s MVP. That was easy.

“I’ve done this way too many times. This isn’t the first time we’ve had someone leave with an injury like that,” Dallastown head coach Mike Grassel said bluntly following his team’s opening win. “You just go off adrenaline honestly,” he then remarked when asked about how you possibly ask a group of young men to come back after seeing one of their brothers exit the scene so early. “Anybody that wanted to, they said a prayer in the locker room (during the stoppage)…Here’s the thing. That kid, Chase Meyer, he was talking on the way out, ‘I’ll be back. I’ll be back. Let’s get this win. I don’t know how long this will be, but I’ll be back.’ That’s just the type of kids we have,” Grassel went on to say. “They’re all so close and (his teammates) picked it up for him there. We have a Player of the Game award, and we gave it to Chase. I’ll need to go find him now and bring him his prize here wherever he’s at.”

But as far as the start and the game itself, even that too caught the Wildcats’ coach off guard somewhat.

“It’s not exactly drawn up like that, but #11 (Jalen Cook) and #0 (Chase Meyer) have been doing this a little bit and I guess they talked about doing it,” Grassel said harkening back to the opening tap that saw Cook hit Meyer in stride for the dunk to start the year in the most emphatic of fashions. “I’m not gonna lie. That was pretty freaking sweet,” said Grassel with a laugh. “Personally, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better start for a team overall. I thought we came out here with a chip on our shoulder and used all that pent-up energy. After the injury, I give our kids so much credit because it wasn’t easy in coming back from that. We went through a lull there, but then we picked it back up in the second half.”

And while you don’t ever want to exactly learn hard, matter-of-fact life lessons while playing a game that by its nature is inherently based on having fun, Tuesday night for Dallastown can also be served as a rallying cry moving forward.

“Life smacks you when you least expect it,” Grassel explained. “I mean, who expected 23-7 and the way things were going? (Chase) hits a three, rips down a dunk…Basketball and life sometimes, it’s just so scary and you never expect bad things to happen,” he added of the situation his team certainly didn’t want to find themselves in. “That’s what we talked about at halftime. ‘How are we going to respond? What are we going to do?’ We can feel bad for ourselves and possibly lose a basketball game, or we take eight points and turn it to ten, turn it to 15.’ That what’s we kind of did there. I wasn’t happy with some of the spurts where we were up 22 (points) and (McCaskey) went on a 5-0 run when we were playing their style instead of playing ours. But, McCaskey’s a scrappy bunch. Some of their guys too stepped up tonight without De’Andre Jones and deserve credit. (Eddie Bencosme) hit a bunch of 3’s on us tonight. (Ja’Loney Porter) is scrappy as all heck. And I really like (Amir Thompson). He’s just a freshman. He’s going to be really good basketball player.”

And while Dallastown will probably have to go back into the lab and do some further tinkering with roles and responsibilities for the interim, if we’re basing things off first impressions alone, it’s hard not to see this Wildcats’ crew too being something to like and then reckon with the remainder of this winter in their own right.

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