Hempfield Meets Its Match As Spring-Ford Halts Black Knights’ Postseason Run, Advance Onward Into PIAA-6A Round Of Eight Thanks To Staunch Defensive Effort
Written by: Andy Herr on March 16, 2023
Death, taxes, and Hempfield Basketball making a deep run in the state playoffs. Okay, maybe that’s not the exact the verbiage of the phrase, but as far as a local audience is most concerned, it isn’t a notion all that farfetched.
Remember if you will to a time not all that long ago, say five, six years ago to be exact, to when witnessing the Black Knights go on some sort of galivant throughout the PIAA bracket seemed almost as common as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. Sure enough, following that memorable 2017 quarterfinal run that ended in Hempfield coming up short against Archbishop Ryan –a team that featured future NBA player Izaiah Brockington in fact – the 2018 version of the Black Knights weren’t too shabby either when you consider that they too got out of the first round of the state playoffs before falling in the second round to another team hailing from Philadelphia’s city limits, Abraham Lincoln, in a game that saw Hempfield have to battle a bevy of foul issues.
Ironically, for as much as things change, things can stay exactly the same.
For this crew, the 2022-23 edition of Hempfield’s roundballers, the foremost goal on their sheet coming into the campaign without question was seeking out that sought-after Lancaster-Lebanon League title. Sure enough, after two tries which saw them come just excruciatingly short in both prior attempts, the Black Knights were finally able to revel in the sweet nectar of victory that came with beating Manheim Central for this year’s league gold.
But as Hempfield head coach Danny Walck likely told his team in the glow and aftermath of their triumph over the Barons that gave them the league crown, while that was understandably a prized fish which they could now finally mount up on their wall, there were bigger sea creatures out there to still be wrangled up this winter.
In districts, while Hempfield would not be able to replicate the same level of success which had just enjoyed in their own backyard when it came to winning the L-L League title, their #3 seed coming out of one of the state’s most powerful areas –in the 6A crop no less—meant that Hempfield would be awarded a home game to start out this year’s state tourney when they welcomed Emmaus into Landisville last Saturday afternoon. And for a team that has written the book on how to prevail in close victories this season, Walck and his crew saved their best chapter for last as a come-from-behind victory over the Hornets by way of District 11 helped set the stage for a Wednesday night tussle at Reading’s Geigle Complex –the same locale where that magical 2017 romp ended up culminating against Archbishop Ryan—when the Knights took on another league champion, Spring-Ford from out of the Pioneer Conference, for the right to meet State College in the Elite Eight round of states come this Saturday.
And as fate would have it, while this too appeared to be a Hempfield team that had all the makings of perhaps rekindling some of that same magic akin to recent Black Knights’ teams of yesteryear have put on display during their own recent playoff runs, the campus of Reading High School would yet again serve as the location where a Hempfield storybook run would end with the clock striking midnight at the hands of a very talented foe.
Right from the jump on Wednesday night, it was evident that points would be at a premium for both teams who had surely come into the evening viewing possession like that of obtaining precious diamonds. And in keeping with the metaphor, both Spring-Ford and Hempfield took their turns mining against one another inside the early portion of the opening frame seeing as how a bucket tallied inside by Spring-Ford 6’5 sophomore wing Tommy Kelly made it a 4-3 Rams’ advantage with 4:50 left in the opening stanza before a finger roll down on the other end courtesy of Hempfield 6’4 senior forward Michael Hester made it a 5-4 Black Knights’ lead with a shade over three minutes left to play in the opening act by that point.
In terms of early footing, albeit at a negligible level, those honors would have to be bestowed upon Spring-Ford inside the closing few moments of the opening quarter considering how a pair of buckets cashed in via the handiwork of Zach Zollers and Jacob Nguyen respectively allowed the Rams to coast into the second quarter with the slim 10-7 buffer in their favor.
Points being sparse in availability you say? Yes, even the second quarter continued to bear witness to that.
In fact, with both teams continuing to remain right at eye-level with the other as the first half wore itself down to its ultimate conclusion, the first real bit of separation came in the form of a two consecutive EJ Campbell takes to the tin to aid in the Spring-Ford effort as the 6’2 junior’s four-point swing somehow made it feel like a commanding 16-11 Rams’ lead with just over two minutes left to go before the halftime intermission.
But as he has demonstrated countless times over the course of his stellar Hempfield career, Miguel Pena was up for this fight.
Case in point, with his team desperately trying to find any tangible bit of momentum of which to go in their favor over much of an opening half of play that saw the Black Knights largely stuck in mud offensively, Pena’s 3-ball directly in the aftermath of Campbell’s most recent exploits not only closed the gap back down to a pair at 16-14 once the first half horn rolled around not all that long afterwards, but it also helped put a pep in the Black Knights’ collective step with someone’s season staring down the barrel of having just 16 minutes left in it.
Yet again, not even the halftime break would allow for either side to find the slightest bit of separation.
In fact, while Spring-Ford’s Jacob Nguyen would begin the third quarter proceedings by authoring an old-fashioned three-point play to get the Rams started off with a pop, a pullup trifecta sunk by Miguel Pean knotted things up once more at 19-apiece not even two minutes in.
Again, just when the Rams may have thought they could run away and hide, Hempfield was there to reel them right back in.
For proof of that on display, it’d be nothing if not easy to cite a pair of dead-eye triples sunk by Spring-Ford’s Tyree Banks as the 6’1 senior sniper helped to make it a 25-21 Rams’ cushion with roughly three minutes left to tick off the third quarter clock. Of course, that excursion with momentum proved to be relatively fleeting however once Michael Hester was able to come up with a hard-earned bucket inside which whittled the Spring-Ford lead back down to a deuce, 25-23, with 2:25 still unaccounted for in the third.
Of course, the elephant in the room –the cavernous room of the Geigle no less – was that Hempfield’s Miguel Pena was forced to take a brief hiatus as he sat out of the most of the third quarter, the final 5:52 of it to be exact, while possessing four personal fouls.
And with one of the mid-state’s foremost studs having his efforts tabled in the absence of protection, Spring-Ford proceeded to lob their first significant volley as a result.
As far as the specifics of it went down, it would end up being a 6-0 Rams’ salvo following the aforementioned Hester bucket as a take to the tin by EJ Campbell gave Spring-Ford their largest lead of the night, 31-23, with just 70 seconds before the fourth quarter would get set to commence in earnest.
That said, even with the tide starting to rise against them, that same ol’ Hempfield moxie continued to remain tried and true.
Sure enough, following a crucial 3-ball sunk by Hester that saw Hempfield inch within four at 31-27 with 25 seconds left to go, an equally critical offensive rebound and stick-back just mere moments before the end of the quarter thanks to Hempfield 6’5 senior big man Kamyn Lawrence made it a 31-29 affair in favor of the Rams despite all the momentum appearing to reside with those who had come northward from Lancaster County.
Suffice to say, with this being the state playoffs and the game still clearly hanging in the balance, there would be monumental plays still out there to be had. First up, Spring-Ford’s EJ Campbell.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been that much of a surprise to see the Rams’ talented junior come up a game-saving play or two considering how he would end up finishing the evening as the game-high scorer in netting a 15-point effort, but Campbell’s timely 3-ball at the 5:10 mark of the fourth quarter broke a stalemate as the Rams surged in front, 34-31.
It would prove to be a lead which they would never relinquish.
In fact, following a field goal found in the form of another Spring-Ford underclassman, 6’4 sophomore matchup nightmare Jacob Nguyen, the Rams’ lead had swelled out to a 36-31 count before a perfect 4-4 display at the charity stripe by way of Nguyen and Campbell respectively made it a 40-33 Spring-Ford lead with just 90 seconds remaining.
Even still, Hempfield made one last heroic push up the mountain.
For that, the Black Knights most certainly needed to doll out the kudos to one Chase Calabretta seeing as the 6’4 senior forward picked the most opportune time to tally his first points of the evening as Calabretta’s kiss of the glass punctuated a wild scramble scene that ultimately ended in Hempfield having cut the gap back down to a modest three, 42-39, with just 8.6 seconds remaining.
However, with Hempfield having been whistled for fouling prior to the ball inbounded, that meant that Spring-Ford’s Zach Zollers was prompted to walk the length of the floor with the opportunity to ice it for his squad. And as if to be right on cue, the Rams’ 6’2 senior was able to deliver the goods as his 1-2 trip to line was all that was required as a final Black Knights’ shot bounded off the glass at the final horn, cementing Spring-Ford’s gritty and workmanlike victory over Hempfield to advance onward by way of a 43-39 final verdict.
Afterwards, while certainly not the end result that Hempfield had come into the evening searching for, Hempfield head man Danny Walck was understandably nonetheless proud of the way his team handled themselves on Wednesday inside the crucible known as the state playoffs, not the least of which included that quarter-long span of time during the second half of play that saw Hempfield without the services of it’s most recent 1,000-point scorer, Miguel Pena.
“I think that’s a characteristic of this team,” Walck stated after delivering one last postgame message to his team this season. “The resilience, the competitiveness. That starts with him over the years setting the tone,” he would add of his now departed floor general who’s impressive career had been over for all of ten minutes. “It’s contagious. I think that’s what you saw tonight when (Pena) was in that foul trouble and other guys had to step up. I love the team. When they’re going to do things like that, you’re proud of that. Tremendous heart is what it is.”
However, while he may not have been in the literal heat of battle for nearly half of the second half while battling that pesky foul bug, it wasn’t as if Pena was just a passive observer either.
“The other side of it is, when he came to the bench, it’s deflating. But he was in it,” Walck offered of Pena. “He stood up behind me and was coaching those guys up. That says a lot about his character too…Definitely a proud moment.”
And in a way, while it be an extreme micro example on display, that right there, the sheer will to stand by each other’s side when the seas get choppy needn’t be the defining characteristic of this Hempfield team as it solely related to Wednesday night in a vacuum. No, you could instead rightly argue that over the last few years that the various obstacles placed in the Black Knights’ path both of the literal and figurative variety could’ve easily seen this train go wildly off the track at times. Instead, while relying on that rock-solid backbone, this had become a program, largely spearheaded by this 2023 senior class in particular, that helped to make Hempfield arguably the premier franchise inside the entire L-L League over the last few seasons. If nothing else, just for their ability to spring right back upward after they had fallen to the canvas speaks the loudest of volumes.
“Their passion for the game and their goofiness together,” said Walck when asked what he thought might stick with him personally first and foremost years from now when he remembers this core contingent. “They had a lot of fun, and they’ll continue to have fun. They’ll be getting together ten years from now laughing at some of these things and reminiscing. That’s what scholastic sports is all about. Whenever you have a season like this, there’s a lot of memories.”
“They’ve been through it too with COVID and being on, off, on, off and everything with that,” he added. “Some really, really cruel hard losses, but also some bounce-back big wins. So yeah, they’ve got a lot of memories.”
Memories that perhaps will ignite the flame for another future Black Knights’ bunch found playing somewhere in their driveway right now inside Centerville, Mountville, Landisville, or anywhere in between pretending to be Hester, Lawrence, Calabretta, Rieker, or Pena, before getting their own opportunity to wear the red and black and perhaps ascending upward to these types of heights. Suffice to say, it’s a movie we’ve seen play out around those parts countless times before.
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
