In Battle Between Two Eastern State Stalwarts, Conestoga Proves Themselves To Be The Top Pioneers As ‘Stoga Rides Miller’s Big Day To Key Road Victory Over Lampeter-Strasburg

Written by: Andy Herr on December 28, 2024

Over the course of Friday and Saturday this week, nearly the entirety of the Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball slate was chock full of holiday tournament games. Those are fine of course. Nothing wrong with the opportunity to be crowned a champion during the season. But sometimes there are hidden gems scattered about too. Headline games if you will that don’t need to take place within the confines of a bracket. On Friday afternoon in Lampeter, one such contest would in fact take place.

How does a combined record of 13-2 between the two teams sound right up front? For that, the Conestoga Pioneers, coming in with a 6-1 record with their lone loss having come against an always-tough Coatesville squad by all of three points, have already scooped up what would appear to be a signature win this season in having won at Kobe Bryant Gymnasium in the form of a tough road win against Lower Merion. On the other side, Lampeter-Strasburg, coming in at 7-1, has certainly proven themselves to be no slouch whatsoever (again), as the Pioneers have torn through the month of December on yet another remarkably scorching hot start with their lone trip up coming against Hershey in the Trojans’ tip-off tourney earlier in the month.

Simply put, while there may not have been a trophy riding on the eventual outcome of this District 1 vs District 3 matchup on the L-S campus, these are two teams that may just end up being called champions of some sort later this winter. You know the far more important kind– the kind that get banners hung up inside your gym.

But on this day, it became apparent right from the outset that the visiting Pioneers had paid a visit to their host Pioneers while coming in with nothing but bad intentions.

Throughout the initial few minutes at least, both ‘Stoga and L-S appeared to largely remain at a stalemate. In fact, while the maroon-clad Pioneers would eventually climb back even at a 4-4 count following a triple knocked by 5’11 junior point guard, Rowan Miller, a Sam Gibbs 3-ball not long afterwards would give Conestoga a slim 7-6 lead with roughly three minutes left in the opening frame by that point.

However, that would prove to be the last instance in which Conestoga would ever let L-S enjoy the benefit of playing with a lead for the remainder of this dinner-hour game.

Sure enough, Conestoga continued on their torrid start by punctuating an 11-3 salvo after falling behind 4-1 right from the jump as a trifecta splashed in courtesy of junior forward, Shane O’Brien, preceded a magnificent no-look dish thrown by Miller to a willing and able Luke Hunter standing underneath the cup, making it a 12-7 ‘Stoga lead with L-S calling a timeout with just 37.4 seconds left in the first quarter by that point.

To their credit though, while the homestanding Pios would eventually clip the Conestoga buffer down to a penny at 12-11 heading into the second stanza, the visiting Pioneers only continued with their same ol’ tricks inside the second batch of eight minutes as well on Friday.

Case in point, following a silky smooth pullup jumper knocked by their lead guard — the same lead guard who go on to fill it up with a game-high 22-point outing by the time things had come to a close — Rowan Miller’s J helped ‘Stoga build their lead back up to a half dozen, 17-11, before a pair of successive triples knocked down by way of O’Brien made it a 23-15 Conestoga lead with the Pioneers’ entire collective work defensively largely proving to be the underlying key catalyst seeing as how L-S simply struggled to get into any sort of feeling when it came to being comfortable while operating on the offensive end of things.

So, with their defense proving to be the straw that was stirring their drink, it should have come as no surprise then to see Conestoga build their lead out to double digits, 26-15, following a nice move along the baseline by way of 6’1 senior forward, Ben Robinson, with now inside of two minutes left to play in the opening half.

And finally, certainly not a moment too soon from their perspective, a timely and much-needed triple put home by L-S’ 5’9 junior sniper, Brady Zuber, got Lampeter-Strasburg out of their existing rut as the Zuber trey helped cut the gap down to a 26-18 difference once both sides retired to their respective clubhouses for the halftime break.

New half, same Conestoga Pioneers, however.

As he had down throughout the entirety of the contest up to that point, Rowan Miller was quickly acquitting himself to be a collegiate-level floor general who is equal parts scorer, equal parts distributor. With that in mind, seeing the ‘Stoga point guard finish off just a cruel jab-step, step-back trifecta against his defender to help raise the curtain on the third quarter could’ve easily been a harbinger of things yet to come on Friday evening. Later, Miller would again bomb in another duo of successive triples throughout the third frame, these last two making it a 40-23 Conestoga lead with all of three minutes left to play in the third.

And while L-S would ultimately find some footing of their own late in the stanza, this coming by way of the charity stripe and Hayden Martin going 3-3 at the line after getting fouled on a shot from the field, the Conestoga lead had nonetheless ballooned coming out of the half as the road Pioneers were well on their way towards claiming yet another key victory inside someone else’s house in the final month of the calendar year considering their existing 46-28 bulge with just eight minutes left to go.

In the fourth, with the eventual outcome all but decided save for a possible L-S frantic rally, it was largely just a matter of Conestoga finishing things off and not letting L-S get any sort of tangible bit of momentum inside the final eight. Spoiler alert—they would continue not being exactly the most hospitable of house guests.

In fact, in the aftermath of a knock-down trey authored by Conestoga’s other key member of the starting backcourt found alongside Miller, Sunny Tummala, as the 6’1 sophomore got into the act inside the final stanza by burying a trifecta of his own which then pushed the ‘Stoga lead over the 20-point hill, making it a 53-31 contest with just a tick over six minutes left to play.

And while Lampeter-Strasburg’s Chase Smucker would continue fighting despite what had to understandably be a tough day at the office for both he and his teammates on the whole, the future Bloomsburg Husky’s pullup jumper with 2:03 left to play cut the Conestoga lead inside of 20-points, 55-37, as Smucker put the finishing touches on what would end up being an 11-point days’ worth of work against Conestoga.

Then, with just a handful of minutes left to play, it was time for the other members of the ‘Stoga crew to write themselves into the scorer’s book.

Chief among them, Adhvik Mani, as the Pioneers’ junior forward was able to finish the day’s scoring off with a bunny at the cup as Conestoga had successfully put the finishing touches on a trek west from Berwyn and into Lancaster County as ‘Stoga found themselves a sizable win that while it may be hidden amid a crowded field of holiday tournament results scattered about, doesn’t make it any less impressive as the current leaders in the Central League went back home to enjoy the weekend just a little bit more given their decisive 57-37 victory over Lampeter-Strasburg on Friday.

Granted, while it wasn’t obviously L-S’ best day, there’s little to suggest that this performance against Conestoga is more the norm and not the exception for this bunch. After all, is there a program that has been more familiar with putting forth a winning product more than Pioneers over the last decade or so? Others are right to stake their claim perhaps, but none so loudly that it audibly drowns out L-S’ voice. Regardless of what transpired against Conestoga, L-S remains arguably the favorite to win this year’s L-L Section Three title once the dust settles. From there, you want to write off a possible Pioneers’ league crown or deep run through districts? I think not. What this game however against Conestoga offered them was a chance from them to see what the other beasts found residing from around this side of the state have to offer once the state tournament starts. And yes, that’s a place that Lampeter-Strasburg has earned the right to feel like they belong. Whether there’s a holiday tournament title which happens to come before it or not.

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