Balanced Bears Roar Past Garden Spot As Elizabethtown Rattles Off 45-Point Second Half To Win Going Away, Keep Playoff Chances Pulsating With Thursday Night Section Triumph Over Spartans
Written by: Andy Herr on January 23, 2026
It’s amazing how much things can change with just one game, isn’t it? Then again, when the margin for error is next to nil, maybe it shouldn’t be all that much of a surprise. Just look at what happened with Section Two on Tuesday night — with two teams in particular — when observing just how dramatic the pendulum can swing in either direction.
Take the E-town Bears for instance.
Prior to their Tuesday night road game down at Solanco — an oddity of a scheduling quirk that saw the Golden Mules bookend the pair’s season series with E-town on either side of a single game with Ephrata over an eight-day span for the Bears –, E-town, even despite hovering right around .500 on the season and all, nevertheless sat in an extremely favorable position when it came to potentially making it into the league playoffs as they, along with Cocalico with Warwick, remained in a dead-heat behind Conestoga Valley in terms of snatching the last and final spot behind the Buckskins out of Section Two with E-town already owning a tie-breaker over Cocalico given the Bears’ win earlier this season.
Then, Tuesday night transpired.
Aside from dropping a 53-40 decision at the hands of Solanco, Warwick also fell at home to Conestoga Valley on Tuesday evening, meaning that the clear-as-mud chase for second-place shared between Cocalico, E-town, and Warwick was truly locked up even-steven with each team possessing a 5-2 divisional record following the Bears’ baker’s dozen-point setback to the Mules, with all three clubs possessing some sort of tie-breaker over one of the others at present-day. Thankfully, all three are slated to renew their acquaintances over the course of the final few games, meaning that the situation will gradually steady itself and will course-correct. For right now though, it’s an obvious mess to try and sort out to say the least.
But Elizabethtown wasn’t the only squad who saw their fortunes change on Tuesday. In this case, changes coming in a most positive fashion.
Do you remember what you were doing back on December 1st? For the Garden Spot Spartans’ boys’ basketball team, they surely remember what they were up to.
On that day, the Spartans’ season-opener, things got off to a bullish start in New Holland considering how Garden Spot had staved off a valiant fight from Donegal, a team also kicking off their season on the first day of the final calendar month, with a 45-41 triumph which saw them get out of the chute with an 1-0 record.
However, that singular tally on the left side of the Spartans’ season ledger would remain in place for quite some time. Until Tuesday night as a matter of fact.
To be sure, while it’s been a frustrating season inside their camp no doubt, Garden Spot finally expelled what was a 14-game hex working against them once the clock hit zeroes on Tuesday evening as the Spartans picked up a section win over their neighbors from Ephrata in the form of a 42-38 final count. In addition, it was a victory which simultaneously vaulted Garden Spot up and out of owning last place in the Section Two standings all by their lonesome and suddenly into an 1-8 stalemate with those same Mounts meaning that Garden Spot, by way of a strong finish to round out the slate, could finish the 2025-26 campaign while looking down at Ephrata in the standings if things were to break the Spartans’ way along with some Mounts’ cooperation down the stretch as well.
Fittingly, these two teams, each of whom came into Thursday night’s contest while riding varying waves of emotion and momentum comparatively speaking, met one another at the center circle at Daubert Gymnasium on the campus of Elizabethtown High School just two nights following vastly different results.
For the Bears, it was the proverbial “Don’t let one loss morph into two” mentality. From Garden Spot’s perspective, the Spartans surely just wanted to keep the good vibes rolling following their best win of the season experienced a mere 48 hours prior. And while the final tally might’ve suggested otherwise, make no mistake. This would prove to be a game in which E-town’s shared guts and overall character would be the prevailing story come the end of the night.
Right from the jump, it seemed as if the theme that encapsulated this night at large was on full display – choppiness.
In fact, it took the hosts until the 4:20 mark of the opening frame to finally break the scoring seal once E-town’s Shedrack Wreh, playing on this, his senior night, canned a triple which had cut an early Garden Spot cushion down to a pair at 5-3 with neither side being able to generate any sort of tangible momentum against the other early on.
That said, if there was any sort of impromptu rally to be had, it would come by way of the visitors from New Holland once Reaky McClain and Seth Musselman cashed in a pair of buckets to aid in the Spartans’ cause respectively as the Spot sophomore and junior tandem made it a 9-5 ballgame before a clutch, turnaround jumper sunk right before the first quarter horn by way of another E-town senior, Nate Poff, clipped the difference right back down to two, 11-9, come the onset of the second stanza.
Gradually, and certainly not without struggle, E-town gradually climbed back up and onto level footing as the second quarter on Thursday evening continued to evolve and take shape.
Speaking of which, the specific moment in time in which the Bears were indeed back at a stalemate for the first time since the ball tipped off would come with 2:20 left to play before the intermission following a pair of back-to-back buckets chipped in by E-town junior big man, Carter Torborg, as Torborg’s latest exploits knotted things up at 18-18 with the hosts navigating their way back from what once was a four-point second quarter deficit.
From there, the Bears would experience their first foray in playing with ownership of the lead once another member of a talented E-town underclassmen contingent, Kolton Eckinger, tallied a deuce inside which made it a 20-18 Bears’ lead just a tick over one minute remaining in a first half of play where the neither team’s lead, Garden Spot’s most of all, extended beyond a two-possession gap.
Even still, that would prove to be a rather fleeting moment in playing with the larger number up on the scoreboard it turned out once Spot’s Seth Musselman would proceed to knock down a trifecta on the ensuing trip down the floor for the Spartans, making it a 21-20 halftime lead in favor of Garden Spot with the Spartans having either led or were tied with E-town throughout nearly the entirety of the game’s initial 16 minutes.
Simply put, this suddenly became a rather precarious situation for E-town as a loss here would all but extinguish the Bears’ postseason chances. And that’s whether you want to discuss either leagues or districts for that matter. With that in mind, something – or someone – needed to turn the tide. Enter Prince Wratto stage right.
To say that the Bears’ sophomore point guard got the second half started in a most favorable way would be selling Wratto short. Ironically though, his best work wouldn’t come on the offensive end of the floor in setting the table for his squad on this night. No, it would instead come by way of his defensive peskiness as an on-ball defender, such as the case on the very first Garden Spot possession of the third quarter, a brief Garden Spot possession as it were, once Wratto picked the pocket of his man and came away with an easy layup at the tin to give the lead back to the Bears.
Hard to predict perhaps, but it would be a lead they would never surrender the rest of the way home.
From there, following yet another pilfer that ended with Wratto then going 2-2 at the line after getting fouled in the act following his most recent theft, Wratto would then fearlessly take a charge on the very next Spartans’ trip down the floor to boot, a momentum-tilting opening few minutes co-signed by Wratto that saw E-town not just have the spoils of a 27-22 lead at the time, but also the most tangible bit of momentum yet seen on Thursday night as well.
That said, putting Garden Spot away would prove itself to be a rather tenuous assignment as it were.
Sure enough, Garden Spot would come right back into the thick of the fight once Reaky McClain would tally a bucket inside to trim the Bears’ lead down to the slimmest of margins, 27-26, with 3:25 left to play in the third.
Yet from that point on, the final 11 minutes would look nothing at all like the previous 21 which had just transpired. And that was something quite alright with Elizabethtown.
In terms of a Bears’ rebuttal, it would be found on the very next E-town possession as Carter Torborg, now the first player in the contest from either to reach double figures, came away with a timely jumper to extend the lead back out to three.
From there, the second member of what would become a triumvirate of Bears to climb into double figures on Thursday night, Kolton Eckinger, would hit a triple, a three-point addition to what would culminate in a sound, 15-point outing for the E-town sophomore, later making it a 34-26 Bears’ advantage with a shade over two minutes remaining heading into the final period.
And while the Spartans would get back to within as many as eight within the final couple of minutes, an Eckinger baseline jumper that coincided with the third period buzzer would see the Bears carry the fruits of a 38-28 lead with them into the fourth quarter.
Ironically, that bucket must’ve been the match that set the Bears ablaze throughout the final eight minutes.
Never more did that seem rather evident than with a pair of E-town triples knocked down in the early portion of the final act courtesy of Immanuel Dizon and Torborg respectively, Torborg later finishing as the game-high scorer on the night following an 18-point effort, as the Bears’ lead had suddenly swelled up to a 48-29 difference.
Later, the third and final member of that three-man Elizabethtown crew who tallied double figures, Nate Poff, a 13-point scorer in his own right against the Spartans, came away with a tough take to the rack which made it a 56-31 affair, before Torborg’s second and final triple of the evening saw the gap climb up to a 28-point margin, 59-31, with still roughly half of the final quarter yet outstanding.
Incredibly, in a game in which they had led for all of one possession back inside the first half, E-town would somehow, someway, trigger the mercy rule into effect following an old-fashioned three-point play finished off by Dizon, making it a 64-33 Bears’ lead with time now rapidly winding down given the running-clock situation.
And while Gavin Compton and Brody Torrance would sink a pair of Garden Spot triples over the course of the final few minutes, it would unfortunately be the last bit of good vibes experienced in Spartans’ camp once the click hit zeroes and E-town was able to walk away, though not totally unscathed, with a 65-41 triumph for their troubles over Garden Spot in a game the Bears absolutely, positively needed to have.
As a result, after coming out the other side successful on Thursday night, E-town’s hopes for making the postseason indeed stay alive. That said, it doesn’t figure to be all that easy of a road to ho the rest of the way home considering how the remainder of the Bears’ divisional slate sees them play every top team in the Section Two standings not named themselves as they will take on Cocalico, Warwick, before ending things off the newly-minted section champs, Conestoga Valley, in the regular season finale. As far as their District 3 aspirations are concerned, there is admittedly a bit more meat left on that bone over the course of the final few weeks as the Bears currently occupy the 20th slot in the 6A field, a bracket which only awards 16 teams with a ticket in.
Then again, if Thursday night against Garden Spot proved anything, it’s that taking the Bears lightly, thinking that they may not be up for a challenge and fight, is an incredibly grave mistake to make. As they demonstrated on this night against these Spartans, just when you think you might have them backed into a corner, this group of Bears will come out swinging. So much so that they can perhaps rattle off a 45-point second half performance to win going away as they did on Thursday. In other words, a second half showing put forth against Garden Spot that they that was so strong, they still would’ve prevailed by two possessions in the end anyhow. Yes, 45-41.
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