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Enterline Helps Lead The Way As Manheim Central Knocks Off Conestoga Valley For Pivotal Divisional Win Amid Playoff Implications
 

Enterline Helps Lead The Way As Manheim Central Knocks Off Conestoga Valley For Pivotal Divisional Win Amid Playoff Implications

Written by: Andy Herr on January 25, 2023

 

If the prevailing notion posed by some (okay, perhaps just by yours truly most specifically) is that the road to the Section Two title entirely goes through Lititz this season, that very theme may have certainly been on display here of late. However, maybe not exactly in the manner that you would originally have suspected.

For Manheim Central, if ever there was a year where the Barons could possibly ascend to the same similar success levels as demonstrated by those famed Matt Walsh and Taylor Funk teams the better part of a decade ago now, 2022-23 figured to be the season. And to their credit, at least up until this point, the Barons have indeed lived up to that preseason billing and acclaim. Sure, while there was that loss to E-Town this past Friday night that knocked Central down a peg in the sense that it ended their seven-game winning streak, the Lititz portion of it all from their perspective came this past week in the form of a sensational overtime victory at Warwick last Tuesday night for a triumph that vanquished the league’s longest homecourt winning streak which was by then hovering around the 30-game mark. In that win, while key from not just an emotional perspective and reasons thereof, the logistics of it all in particular meant that the Barons would have a bit of cushion to play with here throughout the final leg of divisional play this season by virtue of what was a two-game advantage clear of second place. Of course, having not to rely on that added bit of grace would most certainly be the preferred method of attack if the Barons could help it. That said, the added buffer certainly wouldn’t be refused heading into their Tuesday night game this week against what was arguably the hottest team found in the entire conference.

When speaking on Conestoga Valley’s season, especially here of late, their road game against Warwick truly seems to be a bit of a tipping point in terms of how the Buckskins’ campaign has rounded into form. Simply put, coming out of what was a truly emphatic and dominant win exerted by the Warriors in the form of a 61-42 win a few days after New Year’s that was never really in doubt, it would’ve been understandable how CV’s season could’ve easily veered wildly off the tracks following such a defeat. To their credit though, the Bucks have done a total about-face since that loss that then signified a three-game losing streak. In fact, CV proceeded to rattle off five consecutive victories following the loss to Warwick –all of which came at the hands of fellow section opponents save for a win over Section One’s Manheim Township – to firmly entrench themselves back into the divisional race.

So, simply put, with both teams right on the precipice of perhaps snatching up a bid alongside Warwick, if not taking both berths all to themselves when it comes the league tournament which gets underway in a few short weeks, Tuesday night inside Rill Gymnasium was arguably the most critical piece of both Manheim Central’s and Conestoga Valley’s seasons respectively, or certainly up until this point at least. And in the end, while the game itself over the lifespan of its entire 32 minutes would certainly reflect an evenly matched affair, it would prove to the Barons’ determination in crunch time as a collective unit that would end up sealing the deal for good.

As mentioned, it would become readily apparent even in the early going on Tuesday that the margin for error was nothing if not slim at best. Case in point, while Central began the evening with the early lead, a 5-0 salvo courtesy of the vastly underrated and underappreciated Griffin Rishell who routinely engineers the efforts for Conestoga Valley on a nightly basis, gave the hosts the 8-6 lead at the 5:05 mark of the opening frame.

From there, while he would continue to get hounded all over the floor by way of the faceguard tactic employed against him all night long, Central’s Trey Grube would eventually work himself free the Buckskins’ collective clutches by sinking a spot up jumper which put the Barons back on top at 10-9 roughly one minute later. Eventually then, following a back-and-forth opening eight minutes of play, Manheim Central was able to maintain possession of the lead, 14-11, with more fireworks figuring to be in store once the second period got underway.

Sure enough, the fuse would indeed be lit.

While Central raced out to what seemed like a sizable lead all things considered at 16-11 following an Aaron Enterline jumper to start the quarter’s proceedings, a turnaround jumper sunk by CV’s Elijah Egerter wouldn’t be far behind as the senior’s bucket promptly sliced the Barons’ lead down to slimmest of margins at 16-15 with over six minutes still left to be played inside the opening half.

Yet again though, just when Central would up their lead to two possessions, such as case here via a sweet crossover move en route to the cup by way of 6’2 junior forward Sam Witmer which made it a 22-17 contest, a Rishell 3-ball bomb just outside two minutes of game time later would cut the Barons’ advantage back down to size once more, 22-20, with 2:10 left before the break.

All told though, while the score itself wouldn’t exactly be etched in stone over the course of the final two minutes and change before the halftime intermission, the visitors’ lead would indeed hold up over the course of time as Manheim Central carried the two-point lead at 24-22 with them once both teams got set to regroup for the second half of play.

C’mon now. If you thought the opening 16 minutes would be wildly different from what would take place once the third quarter began, you certainly would be mistaken.

Here again, even when Manheim Central clawed their way up to a five-point lead at 29-24 following an Aaron Enterline put-back bunny inside, an Elijah Egerter trifecta would almost immediately follow suit to cut the Barons’ lead right back down to two at 29-27 just 1:30 into the third. And then, even with Central perhaps starting to flirt with a double-digit at 39-27 following a Sam Witmer take to the rack, a pretty floater in the lane by way of CV’s Chris Dukes just as quicky got the Buckskins back within four at 39-35 courtesy of the sophomore’s nifty display of athleticism with 3:20 left in the frame by that point.

But when speaking on the topic of athleticism, the one who stole the show in that regard was most certainly Aaron Enterline without a shadow of a doubt.

Sure, while he is already one of the L-L League’s most prolific wide receivers during the fall, the Barons’ junior wing is clearly looking more and more comfortable in the shorts and sneakers as this year has progressed, effectively helping to cement his status as being one of the league’s most improved players if such an award were to be given out. And here, with his team needing some sort of a boost from anyone wearing the black uniform with “Manheim” inscribed across the chest plate, Enterline effectively took matters into his own hands.

As far as the specifics of it all, aside from his team-high 18-point outing once the night was over with, Enterline’s most significant contribution at that time came in the form of a critically important three-point play inside the waning stages of the third quarter, an exchange which not only put the Barons up by seven at 42-35, but it also more importantly allowed momentum to reside on their bench heading int the final eight minutes.

Momentum, huh? Well, Enterline certainly helped carry that with him it would have appeared.

In fact, following a beautiful two-man game in transition that ended with a Trey Grube to Enterline dish from point blank range, the Central lead grew up to what felt like a commanding 44-37 difference albeit with much of the final period still yet to go.

Yet to go being the key phrase there.

Sure, while Manheim Central appeared to be well on their way to picking up a crucial victory, the Buckskins had one final push left in them.

All told, the impromptu CV rally didn’t waste much time when it came to getting underway seeing as how the Barons’ lead was then whittled down to just three at 44-41 following an Egerter trifecta from the corner with 6:26 still to go. From there, aided by a pair of even more triples cashed in by way of seniors Griffin Rishell and Tanner Petersheim respectively, the hosts had suddenly found a way to get back on level footing at 50-50 with only half of the final period having been expired.

However, that would be all the closer they would get for the remainder of the contest.

Granted, while he had largely been held in check up until that point, Trey Grube’s seemingly innate awareness for making splash plays never left him despite his prototypical night in terms of filling up the score sheet as the Manheim Central All-State senior guard proceeded to rise and fire quite possibly from a location nearer the timeline as opposed to the three-point arc with Barons’ offense not generating much movement off the ball as Grube’s longball from outside the town limits made it a 53-50 lead with 2:50 left.

It would be a lead which they would never relinquish.

And even if relegated to a somewhat different role in terms of being the setup man for the Barons’ offense on this night, Grube seemed no worse for the wear as yet another assist tallied to his credit would come in the form of a dish with guess who, Aaron Enterline, being the beneficiary, as the Manheim Central lead suddenly swelled up to a 57-50 count with just 1:28 to go.

Yet while Griffin Rishell would certainly do his part for the Buckskins –something best evidenced by his game-high 22-point night’s worth of work – the senior’s triple right before the final buzzer would seemingly be moot all things considered as Manheim Central figured to have yet another dance party in the postgame locker room for what would be the 14th time this season following their well-earned 60-55 victory over a very game and scrappy Conestoga Valley crew.

Then, after emerging from the nightclub, Manheim Central head coach Charlie Fisher was able to finally exhale following his team’s critical triumph.

“For us, our biggest thing was, and I think this is what hurt us against E-Town, is that when we get into games where it’s like our ball, your ball, our ball, your ball, when you play like that, you’re sort of putting more stock into the other messing up and less stock in you actually winning the game,” he profoundly stated. “Sometimes as a coach, you roll with what you’re going with until you do have a hiccup…The Middletown game was huge for us,” he then added of last Saturday night’s affair against the Blue Raiders from the Mid-Penn in terms of a quasi-reset button. “We were able to baby step without practice on what our ultimate goal is. Yesterday we had a nice practice where we worked on some things we didn’t necessarily work on up until this point in the year just with certain ball-control type things. Just stuff that you need to know in the game of basketball to understand. To this point, not that we’ve been putting it off per se, but now we’re starting to understand defensively that when we close the gaps, it makes things much more difficult for the other team and far less easy. I thought the defense tonight was tremendous.”

And if we’re being real here, much in the same vein as how the Conestoga Valley season could’ve looked wildly different following that aforementioned loss at the hands of Warwick back on January 6th, Manheim Central was able to prevent E-Town from beating them more than once.

“J.D, Coach Achille, actually said it, I forget if he said it on Saturday or whenever it was, but he said, ‘How many teams in L-L history, outside of some of the big dogs, have gone undefeated in league play?’ It’s one of those things when you play a 22-game season and our schedule’s tough. I mean, say what you want, but each team in our section has their own value. E-Town did everything right. Coach Lee (Eckert) coached a phenomenal game,” Fisher added of his colleague from that night…. “Our biggest thing was we needed to make sure we take care of our own business. We want to be us and control what we can control.”

Yet if we’re talking about the collective “us” from the Manheim Central perspective, it’s rather obvious that the strides made by one Aaron Enterline certainly don’t hurt matters when it comes to the Barons looking like a much more polished product out on the floor either.

“He’s learning to play basketball,” Fisher said matter of factly of his newfound tool residing in his starting lineup. “I’m not knocking pickup at the Nook. Look, I lived off pickup back in high school and when I was a much younger and more in-shape man,” he said with his typical dose of humor. “But when you play high school basketball and there’s scouting and prepping and just anticipation of everything, you gotta understand what to do. I think (Enterline) has grown tremendously with all of that. He didn’t play last year because of a knee injury, plays 9th grade as a freshman, Aaron’s just been incredible for us,” Fisher said trying to find the right words.

“He listens. That’s the biggest thing,” the Barons’ head man continued. “We can talk about the natural tools, and a lot of it is God-given for him, but he works, and he listens. I obviously can’t replicate what he can do out there, so he has to go off of what I tell him, and he’s just taken his athleticism and his skills along with things we’ve told him along the way and he’s developing into a phenomenal basketball player.”

In short, with this night in particular helping to serve as an ample supply of evidence to help bolster the notion, there’s more than enough reason as to why these next couple months could be very enjoyable for the Barons and their supporters.

 

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