Disciplined Cougars Refuse To Yield As Kutztown Downs Annville-Cleona To Reach Championship Finale Of Inaugural York Tech Holiday Tournament
Written by: Andy Herr on December 27, 2022
Believe it or not, but we have officially reached the holiday week of the high school basketball season. And while this week isn’t quite a line of demarcation of sorts in that it marks the midway point of the year or anything finite such as that, it’s an important week for most everyone who has games lined up this short week nonetheless. Simply put, while some teams may be off from competition entirely, there are others out on the trail who are looking to obtain or in some cases add yet another trophy to their school’s glass case here in the month of December alone. That said, there are a handful of others who are just hoping that this week in particular can provide a much-needed lift and spark to their respective campaigns. Just take Annville-Cleona for instance.
Throughout the first few games of the year, the Dutchmen appeared to be making a strong and resounding case as to why they may have emerged as a group to take note of given their strong start. Sure enough, following a powerful 3-1 out of the chute that came courtesy of triumphs over Northern Lehigh, Upper Dauphin and Millersburg respectively, A-C had rightly turned heads around the Lancaster-Lebanon League considering that the wins have been in relatively short supply the last handful of years in and around Dutchmen Country. However, following their ultra-quick start, Annville-Cleona had proceeded to drop their next three in succession, including a hard-fought 49-40 defeat at the hands of Section Four playmate Lancaster Mennonite last time out against a Blazers squad that figures to make another long galivant in both the District 3-2A and PIAA state tournaments yet again this season should all the stars align.
So, without question, this was clearly an important albeit brief week smackdab in the middle between Christmas and New Year’s that figured to prove vital in terms of what the Dutchmen would be able to do the rest of the way home considering that entered their holiday tournament at York Tech on Tuesday with a 3-4 overall record with a key matchup against Kutztown lined up for them to begin the first-ever holiday tourney held at the vocational school on the south side of York city. And while they would grit their teeth with a strong defensive effort on Tuesday afternoon, a third quarter flurry put forth by the Cougars proved to be too much for A-C to overcome in this one once the dust had finally settled.
As one may have rightly expected and predicted in a matchup played between two teams not all that familiar with one another with both playing an hour and change away from each of their home campuses with not exactly many patrons found in the stands, the energy at the onset of this one was justifiably hard to come by. However, it did not seem all that difficult for Annville-Cleona’s Jonathan Shay to try and muster up as the 6’2 sophomore big man was able to begin the proceedings with a bucket to open up the scoring in the Dutchmen’s favor.
Yet while no one would have known it or suspected at the time given that the game was still in its infantile stages at that point, but that would prove to be one of Annville-Cleona’s final times playing with the lead the rest of the way.
Sure enough, Kutztown retaliated right back in the face of their early deficit by promptly rattling off a 6-0 flurry to answer back, an early salvo punctuated with a Dalton Furst layup that put the Cougars up by four at the 4:20 mark of the opening stanza. Then, with the offense serving as the key catalyst as to why they had been able to snatch up the lead right then and there, the Kutztown defense was equally as staunch given their shutout posted for the remainder of the quarter, a feat of strength best exemplified by the fearless charge taken by the Cougs’ Ethen Miller with two minutes and change left to play in the first, before a smooth pullup jumper sunk by Andrew Fleming off the minute-long delay game by Kutztown down on the offensive side of the floor made it an 8-2 affair which is exactly where things would remain once the final 1:20 evaporated off the first quarter clock.
Granted, while the Annville-Cleona offense may have appeared rather drowsy throughout much of the opening eight minutes of play, the Dutchmen clearly had awakened from their slumber once the second frame got underway.
Case in point, following a strong take to the tin by Shay which eliminated A-C’s existing scoring drought at the time, a key 3-ball dialed up in the corner in front of the Kutztown bench by way of 6’0 senior, Sam Slabach, suddenly knotted things up at 8-8 just two minutes into the quarter.
From there, while Kutztown’s Andrew Fleming would answer right back on the heels of Slabach’s bucket with a gorgeous trifecta of his own, good for three more en route to his game-high scoring honors in netting a 17-point outing, two more buckets in quick succession via Jonathan Shay put the Dutchmen back in front, 12-11, with the Cougars forced into calling a timeout to try and break the hex that A-C had levied against them.
Suffice to say, the plan would work.
In short, if Fleming wasn’t the one directly putting the ball through the net personally for the Cougars in this one, he clearly had no issues whatsoever in terms of getting his teammates involved either. For proof of that, look no further than his pair of assists later in the period that were dished out to fellow senior big man, Myles Schmidt, as the Cougars’ 6’4 twin towers of sorts helped Kutztown race into the intermission with ownership of the 20-16 lead over the course of the final 4:22 inside the second quarter courtesy of their shared late rally.
The third quarter? Well, that was where the Cougars inflicted their greatest amount of damage.
Coming out of the break, it became readily evident that Andrew Fleming was able to pick up right where he had left off prior to entering the dressing room for the halftime festivities.
Sure enough, after a pair of trifectas that helped raise the curtain on the third frame, the Cougars saw their advantage swell up to nearly double digits, 27-18, just 2:10 into the period. And with the Cougars’ 3-point barrage seeming to be contagious, EJ Miranda-Garcia tried his luck not long afterwards as the Kutztown point guard was able to successfully fire in a trey of his own which then upped the Berks County crew’s lead to a 34-20 count with just 2:10 left to go in the third.
But the hits just kept mounting against the Dutchmen.
In fact, after finding themselves down by two touchdowns at the time following the aforementioned Miranda-Garcia triple, the Cougars, most specifically Ethen Miller, would then exacerbate the situation by scoring four straight points all by his lonesome to put Kutztown up by 16, 38-22, which is exactly where the difference would hold firm had it not been for a take to the cup via A-C’s Ricardo Cruz with 15 second remaining, a deuce which made it a 40-26 Cougars’ advantage with the final eight minutes getting set to commence.
Yet try as they might, Annville-Cleona continued to keep whittling away at the existing gap up on the scoreboard.
Specifically speaking, it seemed as if momentum may have finally started tilting in the Dutchmen’s collective direction inside the initial stages of the final stanza seeing as how a sweet pullup jumper sunk by 6’0 junior guard, Ben Morcom, cut the Cougars’ lead down to a modest ten at 40-30 with 5:18 still left to play.
That being said, it would be all the closer Annville-Cleona would get the rest of the day.
In fact, following the Morcom jumper, Kutztown proceeded to answer back in the form of a 6-0 flurry in the immediate aftermath, capped off by an Ethen Miller bucket underneath which made it a 46-30 gap with 1:21 remaining, giving the Cougars the much needed breathing room they required heading down the final furlong.
And yet while A-C senior forward, Connor Horning, would finish a Dutchmen possession off with a solid bucket at the tin once he had checked into the contest, the separation garnered by the Cougars throughout proved to be far too great for the Dutchmen to try and erase inside the final few minutes as Kutztown was able to soar into the championship round of the York Tech holiday tournament by virtue of their 46-32 final triumph over Annville-Cleona once all was said and done.
NEXT UP: For A-C, there is no rest for the weary seeing as how the Dutchmen now make the long trek home, then make the long trek back yet again to York Tech tomorrow afternoon for a date where await either Big Spring, a team which already defeated them earlier in the initial month of the season, or the hosts, York Tech, in the consolation round 24 hours following their setback at the hands of Kutztown.
However, whether it be on Wednesday afternoon or sometime later down the line this season, there will be more wins to be had for Annville-Cleona. After all, the oft-said phrase in most every sport, particularly basketball, is that “defense travels.” And if the Dutchmen are able to bottle up and replicate some of that same energy they exuded at times throughout Tuesday, there’s ample reason to suggest that the earlier assertion is not farfetched. Then, when you add in the fact that 75% of the points scored by the Dutchmen on Tuesday came via underclassmen, it lends even more credence as to how and why Annville-Cleona may very well be on an upward trajectory that will become realized sooner rather than later.
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