ELCO Responds To Adversity, Both Macro And Micro, As Raiders Author Stifling Fourth Quarter Performance To Vault Past Conestoga Valley For Third Place In Eastern York Holiday Tournament
Written by: Andy Herr on December 31, 2023
If you are one to prescribe to the notion of character being best defined not by what you do in your best moments, but rather how you respond when you get knocked down, then boy oh boy. Was Saturday night at Eastern York the place for you to be.
You see, while some may have thought that Saturday night’s intriguing foray between the two Lancaster-Lebanon League teams found in Eastern York’s holiday tournament in Conestoga Valley and ELCO respectively was nothing more than “only” being a battle for third place, there was far more to it than just that.
After all, both the Buckskins and Raiders found themselves in the consolation game after going through the most excruciating of setbacks in their pair of outings on opening night.
From the ELCO side of things, a narrow one-point loss at the hands of Spring Grove that came paired with CV’s two-point loss against the hosts, in double overtime no less, meant that a combined total of a measly three points –and eight extra minutes in CV’s case – was all that stood between these L-L Section Two and Section Three squads and the opportunity in going for gold at the Knights’ holiday tourney.
Suffice to say, if you again are one to believe that the mark of a good team is how you bounce back after having been given bitter pills of which to swallow, then this specific CV and ELCO outing came complete with all those trimmings given what both squads had just experienced less than 24 hours prior. And oh yeah, with CV head coach and certified good dude Jim Shipper sitting right at 199 career wins entering the night, that too would be on the line even if he himself would be much more laser-focused on getting his Bucks a bit of good juju and momentum heading into the 2024 calendar year as opposed to his own self.
Wouldn’t you know it, but in perhaps the most fitting of ways possible in a way that seemed to serve as a textbook example in coming back from what could have easily been a demoralizing setback in the form of their loss against the Rockets from Spring Grove, not only would ELCO come back from that game on Friday night all the better for it, but they would do so with a sensational fourth quarter effort against CV just when it seemed as if their ship had been lost at sea and thrown off course in the nearby Susquehanna thanks to the Buckskins early Saturday night high atop Wrightsville.
That said, the early portions of Saturday night’s consolation affair seemed anything but an ELCO struggle.
Easy to say perhaps once 6’0 junior sniper, Micah Gray, proceeded to fire in a corner triple on the Raiders’ initial offensive possession of the ballgame before later firing in another trey in relatively short order, giving the team from Lebanon County a bit of separation against their Lancaster County-based foes in the initial stages.
Steadily and methodically however, CV just kept chipping away at their existing deficit.
In fact, following a Buckskins’ corner triple of their own not long afterwards, this one splashed in by 6’3 senior forward, Jackson Esbenshade, to whittle the gap down to a pair at 7-5 with 4:40 left in the opening stanza, CV was able to dig themselves back onto level ground following a tough bucket inside chipped in their “throwback” big man of sorts, 6’3 senior Owen Fisher, making it a 10-10 contest with 2:50 left in the first by that point. However, the Conestoga Valley surge became crystalized once the Buckskins finally found their first lead of the evening in the aftermath of a smooth pullup jumper knocked down by way of 5’11 sophomore guard, Sawyer Esbenshade, making it a 13-12 Bucks’ lead nearing the two-minute mark of the first quarter.
Yet that would prove to be the last instance of CV playing from in front for the remainder of the first period.
Sure enough, on ELCO’s ensuing offensive trip following the Esbenshade jumper in fact, the Raiders went back in front courtesy of a bucket inside chipped in by 6’1 sophomore wing, Josiah Hayes, before another trey from bonus distance cashed in by 5’11 senior guard, Kody Boyer, eventually helped ELCO ascend into the second quarter with ownership of the 17-13 advantage to complete the 5-0 spurt over the final minute and change.
So much for the idea of ELCO running away and hiding though once the second act got underway, however.
For that, not only would CV fight tooth and nail, but the fruits of their labor were not in vain whatsoever once the Buckskins regained the lead at 18-17 following a triple knocked down by 5’11 senior point guard, Nigel Marquez, before another 3-ball sunk on the ensuing Buckskins’ trip thanks to another senior in the rotation, Nathan Showvaker, gave Conestoga Valley what was their largest cushion of the evening at the time, 21-17.
Yet here came ELCO with a mini burst to answer the dinner bell once called upon.
When it came to that assignment, the Raiders turned to one of their stalwarts who has been in the fold for a number of years now, Camden Marquette, as the 6’3 senior wing was up to the challenge yet again by tallying a pair of buckets inside in successive fashion to make things all square once again at 21-apiece with just 2:15 left before the halftime break at that point.
Ironically though, while ELCO had been able to finish the first quarter on a run to take command, the shoe happened to be on the other foot as far as the second quarter on Saturday was most concerned.
Sure enough, CV suddenly found themselves playing with the 25-21 lead following another tough bucket inside by Owen Fisher –the eventual game-high scorer on the evening in posting a commanding 18-point performance – before Marquez opted to take his talents inside the arc in the waning stages of the second as a perfect complement to help accentuate his earlier three-point shooting prowess which had given CV the lead previously in the stanza as the senior’s bucket underneath from point-blank range this time around helped to send CV into the break with the benefit of the 27-21 lead at their backs before entering the final 16 minutes.
But even coming out of the break, it didn’t appear as if Conestoga Valley had any sort of ill-effects of having the game gone into its mandated stoppage for halftime.
In fact, the Bucks still maintained a seven-point lead at 30-23 following a theft and layup by ELCO’s Kody Boyer with 5:50 left in the third quarter which were the first points any Raider not named Camden Marquette since the end of the opening quarter when Boyer ironically enough had fired in a triple inside of the final minute of that stanza.
All told, CV would gradually build its lead first up to nine at 32-23 following an Owen Fisher bunny inside with four minutes left in the third before a far more emphatic gesture from Fisher, a one-handed dunk, made it a 35-25 Conestoga Valley lead which is largely where the difference remained at the end of the third with CV holding serve, 38-29.
Needless to say, ELCO’s offense seemed to be stuck in the mud upon entering the fourth considering the Raiders had only been able to muster a dozen points over the course of the second and third quarters combined, while Conestoga Valley on the other hand seemed to right on the verge of bursting this one open.
Or so they thought.
Offense struggling to find it’s groove you say? How about ratcheting up the heat defensively to perhaps find a spark and a jolt of momentum? Fortunately for the Myerstown contingent, that’s precisely what transpired by the time the last quarter got rolling.
In fact, for a lead that seemed to the naked eye at being somewhat insurmountable, the Raiders, namely Dallas George in particular, was there to prove that to the contrary as the senior floor general knocked in a pair of free throws in the aftermath of an earlier pullup J, as ELCO suddenly found themselves back within a pair, 38-36, with the enormity of 4:50 still left to play following George’s exploits.
Finally, and certainly not a moment too soon from their perspective on things, an Owen Fisher bucket inside was exactly what the Buckskins’ doctor had ordered to later push the CV lead back out to three, 40-37, with 3:15 still go at that juncture.
That said, the CV lead would last all of 45 seconds considering how ELCO 5’7 senior guard, Logan Kless, knocked in an enormous trifecta to follow suit, making it 40-all with 2:30 left.
Then, perhaps somewhat by choice, perhaps somewhat by necessity, CV proceeded to take a large chunk of the air out of the basketball and go into a bit of “stall ball” tactics. And while the operation was largely a success seeing as how it burned more than a minute of game time away, the patient would unfortunately not live to see the successful results if you fancy yourself with a Buckskins’ rooting interest as a missed three-point attempt from the top of the key was eventually snared down in the form of an ELCO defensive rebound which gave the ball back to the Raiders with 49.9 ticks left up on the clock.
And while ELCO head coach Brad Conners may have drawn up a divine end-of-game play during the timeout that would’ve ended in the form of a Raiders’ walk-off victory as the horn blared out, those plans would not be needed.
Not being needed seeing as how Logan Kless was fouled up top with the Buckskins already over the five-foul limit, sending the senior guard to the charity stripe with the score deadlocked at 40-40 with just 26 seconds left to go. Then, as if he too had a dramatic card up his sleeve that he felt the need to pull out, while after missing the first, Kless proceeded to the task at hand by knocking down the second as the senior’s split from the line made it a 41-40 ELCO lead with inside of 30 seconds left to go.
Yet even when once they were able to advance the ball into the halfcourt while staring down the barrel of a one-point hole, Conestoga Valley continued to be stymied by ELCO’s defensive effort inside of the fourth which seemed to do its job in that the Buckskins were just a bit too off-kilter and not in rhythm down the final stretch.
And with one final gasp in the form of a side-out with 5 seconds left to go, a final Buckskins’ shot would carom off the back rim as the clock read zeroes, punctuating ELCO’s tough as nails victory to snatch up third place in Eastern’s holiday tournament by virtue of a workmanlike 41-40 final verdict in which the Raiders held CV to just two fourth quarter points.
While you never want to really overstate or overkill one result, it’d be foolish not to recognize and appreciate the effort that ELCO put forth on Saturday night. For a Raiders’ group that is rightly there in the thick of the L-L Section Three race which figures to be an absolute bear of a challenge to try and figure out as January basketball only intensifies, wins like this, yes, albeit not directly influencing those standings, are a massive feather to put in your cap once section play resumes this coming week. If nothing else, everyone should know full well that putting ELCO away without so much of a whimper will figure to be a chore far easier said than actually done based on performances such as this one in particular against a far larger 6A school.
On the other side for CV, this is certainly a less than festive way to ring in the new year coming out of Eastern York this weekend. Yes, and while it may also be true that the Bucks enter 2024 while in the middle of what is now a four-game losing skid, it’s important to point out that CV has never truly been all that overmatched and purely outclassed in any of their setbacks yet to date. And while you never want to play the moral victory card, that’s not for nothing given some of the opponents the Bucks have encountered thus far while also realizing that they too find themselves right in the middle of what figures to be a crowded Section Two race in their own right once divisional play resumes with CV owning a 1-1 league record at this point. That, and with a coach who sits squarely on the precipice of a historic personal achievement that is anything but a phony number accrued over the years, you have to assume that more promising and brighter days in CV camp lie ahead as opposed to what they are now leaving behind in the rearview mirror.
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