Lampeter-Strasburg Continues To Build ‘Confidence’ As Pioneers Dismantle Chambersburg In Hoops For Harmony Showcase, Score Arguably Lancaster-Lebanon League’s Premier Nonconference Win To Date
Written by: Andy Herr on January 14, 2024
Arguably, one of the chief takeaways that most anyone will make mention of when asked about the benefits of playing a high school sport during their formative years figures to be the intrinsic value of which it can offer. Within that, perhaps the vital being the ability to compartmentalize and handle the effects of both adversity and success equally well. In football, putting those lessons learned into action must wait for the duration of an entire week until your next scheduled contest. In the game of basketball however, forget all that noise. Shoot, go ahead and forget “days” altogether in some instances. Sometimes, the ask of either bouncing back or starting over can be just hours away. Ironically, that happened to be the exact same storyline for both Chambersburg and Lampeter-Strasburg once both met up in the early hours of Saturday afternoon at York Tech in the “Hoops For Harmony” showcase event with each coming off impressive road victories far away from home late on Friday evening.
For L-S, while the Pioneers were indeed able to snatch up a key road win Friday night to remain right in the thick of the Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three race, it wasn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows this week for the Pios once you realize that they unfortunately let a critical game slip away from them at home in the early portion of the week against what appears to be the divisional kingpin heading down the final stretch of the regular season slate, Octorara, as the nearby Braves from Atglen now control the terms of engagement directly when it comes to deciding an eventual section champ. Suffice to say though, while some may not appreciate the task of then going up to Northern Lebanon and coming home with a victory, rest assured that L-S’ impressive and emphatic 63-32 win in Fredericksburg could’ve easily slipped by the wayside had they still been licking their wounds coming off that aforementioned Octorara contest just three days prior.
Their opponent on this day though, the Chambersburg Trojans, seemed to be right in the middle of a similar task heading into MLK weekend as that of their L-L counterparts found on Saturday afternoon.
For a program the likes of Chambersburg, a lot of their secret formula already comes baked in the cake. Or, put more succinctly, competing at the 6A classification level while also residing inside the mighty Mid-Penn Conference does wonders for your overall strength of schedule and overall District 3 power ranking at large without much in the way of thought. And true to form, when you come into the weekend while owning a 9-2 overall mark while simultaneously stalking down a possible Mid-Penn Commonwealth crown too, seeing yourself at the #2 line in the 6A power rankings really requires no further explanation quite frankly. That said, both their overall seed line and Commonwealth aspirations received big notches in achievement on both fronts Friday night as the Trojans were able to post a massive road win at Central Dauphin to remain in the hunt against the likes of those very same Rams, Carlisle, and Cumberland Valley to name the other primary frontrunners.
So, perhaps the other underlying oddity to it all when it came to Saturday’s L-S and Chambersburg outing? Well, aside from one being a 5A school and the other being a 6A behemoth as mentioned, how about the miles logged amongst both the Pioneers and Trojans over the span of roughly 18 hours give or take?
For Chambersburg, a trip to CD comes with an hour-drive one way that spans from Franklin to Dauphin counties respectively. In L-S’ case, venturing up to Fredericksburg –not exactly the easiest place to get to anyhow from Lancaster as it is – comes with a similar hour and change drive time in one direction meaning that both likely arrived safe and sound back at home into the very late hours on Friday night. Then, how about both going to bed and then waking right back up to board a bus back to another foreign land, York County, as Chambersburg and L-S came to York Tech’s fancy new digs after logging another combined 100 miles between them, yes, in just one direction once again on Saturday.
But, aside from this perhaps serving as a potential AAA or travel agency advertisement for central Pennsylvania tourism altogether, the fact of the matter was that someone would finish this weekend while still riding on a high with the other getting dinged up somewhat despite each coming off critical divisional road wins in their own right as mentioned. And while some may have been wondering as to what the other program brought to the table as how the shared history between Chambersburg and Lampeter-Strasburg is next to nil, you can best believe that each knows quite well of what the other is capable of. Specifically, as far as Saturday afternoon turned out, it would be Chambersburg receiving a doctorate level education the likes that everyone in this section of the universe already knows all to well in that trying to take L-S down is usually a task far easier said than actually done.
In fact, the Saturday matinee couldn’t have started off much better for the Pios.
That became especially evident when L-S’ 5’11 junior sniper, Chase Smucker, got the afternoon underway with one of his trademark triples to end the Pioneers’ initial offensive possession to give them the early 3-0 lead. From there, with both teams seeming to be in a bit of funk and overall slow start in general beset by turnovers and missed shots, the Pios would be the ones to get their sea legs back the fastest another L-S trey, this one via another of their sharpshooters, Dean Herr, made it a 6-2 cushion in favor of the Lancaster County-based squad before a much-needed triple dialed up on the ensuing Chambersburg possession by way of Colton Cornwell cut the gap down to the slimmest of margins, 6-5, with 2:15 still left in the opening frame.
Yet even with both teams still perhaps trying to get in gear from the early Saturday morning alarm with each struggling to get into a bit of rhythm and flow throughout much of the first quarter, it seemed as if leaving the door open for the Trojans wouldn’t exactly be the most preferred methodology when it came to L-S’ camp. Sure enough, immediately after a follow up bucket at the cup tallied by their talented underclassman, JJ Kelly, Chambersburg was able to enjoy their first lead of the day at 7-6 with 90 seconds left in the quarter.
However, as fate would have it, not only would that later prove to be Chambersburg’s lone moment of playing with the lead throughout the entire afternoon, but it would also be something that wouldn’t even last one minute worth of gametime.
Sure enough, for just as quickly as they had seemed to allow the Trojans to take the lead over top of them, the Pioneers were equally was quick to rebuke that right away as L-S was able to build their lead back up to three on the heels of a Yasin Abdi steal and finish to make it 10-7 L-S which is precisely where the margin of separation remained over the course of the final minute as L-S took the 12-9 advantage with them into the second stanza.
Speaking of that second quarter, that’s where it seemed as if L-S’ runway was totally clear and unimpeded for takeoff.
First up, a steal and finish which would result in an old-fashioned three-point play tallied by Jared Hostetter as the Pios’ 5’10 junior guard put his squad up by a half dozen, 15-9, inside the initial stages of the period. From there, a three of the more modern variety as L-S’ senior big man, Justin Glick, was able to rise and fire in a back-breaking trifecta which then upped the lead to an 18-9 count with Chambersburg forced to burn a timeout to try and regroup.
Unfortunately, for those with a rooting interest in the Trojans on this day, nothing seemed to stop the bleeding in which the Pioneers were directly causing.
In fact, the L-S clinic just continued to roll onward as a magnificent backdoor cut by Hostetter which caught the Trojans napping defensively made it a 22-9 L-S lead not long afterwards before yet another Glick jumper allowed the Pioneers to double up their opposition at 24-12 with 1:45 left to go before the halftime break.
But a break of any kind was the furthest thing on L-S’ mind collectively.
At least it seemed that way to both Chase Smucker and Dean Herr specifically as Smucker was able to author arguably the smoothest yet cruelest move of the entire day with a deadly step-back jumper with a defender in his face –good for a two-point addition en route to his game-high 19-point day at the office – which made it a 26-12 L-S lead before a final punctuation mark on a resounding second quarter effort that came in the form a Dean Herr trifecta, the senior’s second inside the first half, allowed L-S to absolutely cruise into the halftime locker room while owning the commanding 29-13 lead up on the scoreboard.
Needless to say, if Chambersburg was to try and conjure up any sort of comeback while working against the incredibly strong headwinds of which L-S was presenting, time was of the essence for the Trojans. But yet again though, this would prove to be a day whether by initial design or rather by sheer circumstance, Lampeter-Strasburg would end up making nothing if not an emphatic statement felt across the mid-state.
Ironically, picking up right where he had left off in the waning stages of the second quarter, Dean Herr proceeded to come out of the locker room firing from deep yet again as another Herr triple helped to pave the way for a trifecta later sunk by another senior starter, Justin Glick, as the L-S lead had suddenly ballooned out to a 20-point margin at 37-17 with much of the third quarter already well in the books by that juncture.
And while Chambersburg would do their darndest to try and whittle the sizable L-S cushion back down to put them within shouting distance at least, a tough bucket inside tallied by L-S’ 5’11 senior guard, Yasin Abdi, made it a 41-25 ballgame with 45 seconds left before another Pioneers’ bucket from point-blank range, this one via the efforts of 6’2 junior forward Emory Fluor, propelled L-S into the final eight minutes with a 45-25 lead which quite literally made it a closer to inflicting the mercy rule as opposed to a possible Chambersburg frantic scramble down the stretch purely given the time and score situation at hand.
That said, the former option as opposed to the latter seemed to more in the cards once the final eight minutes trudged along.
Case in point, in the immediate aftermath of an old-school three-point play made good by Chase Smucker, the L-S advantage grew up to an incredible 23 point clip, 54-31, with 4:20 left before this one could be cemented into stone for good.
And while Chambersburg’s Ben Etter would do his best to try and carry the Trojans’ flag down the stretch as exemplified by his trifecta sunk at the 3:30 mark which made it a 56-34 contest, the damage inflicted over the course of the afternoon by L-S was far too significant for even a talented crew the likes of Chambersburg to try and overcome down the final furlong as the Pioneers were able to score arguably the best win that the entire Lancaster-Lebanon League can try and lay claim to thus far in 2023-24 campaign as the day would culminate in a 62-38 Pioneers’ victory which sent shockwaves up and down the entire District 3 landscape.
Suffice to say, most every opponent that has Chambersburg on their upcoming slate would surely crawl over broken glass to try and get the tape of this L-S performance to see what clicked, or at the very least get the bare bones of when it came to the gameplan considering just how impressive L-S was able to look against one of the better 6A outfits in the mid-state. As it turns out however, maybe just a really solid cram session will do.
“I actually got up at like 6 o’clock this morning and watched a couple videos of Chambersburg just to give us an idea of what we were going to see,” Lampeter-Strasburg head coach Ed Berryman said afterwards considering how this game was placed at the very end of the very busy week for he and his squad which included two pivotal Section Three matchups which one could rightly argue are most pressing and far more paramount to their season at large. “You can’t overly prepare for (Chambersburg) because we don’t know them,” he continued. “But at least we had an idea of their personnel and what they could do along with a couple of things that they ran. We tried to squeeze it in there.”
Granted, while those who may not have been paying attention to L-S this season while just naturally assuming arguably one of the L-L’s best teams here inside of the last decade is simply up to their old tricks and that a decisive win like this against a power like Chambersburg is just further evidence of that, not so fast. Yes, while the Pios are still near the very top of the section standings which in theory is indeed nothing more than business as usual, the fact that L-S came into Saturday while in possession of a 7-5 overall record, only good enough to be seen barely sneaking into the District 3-5A field in the event the postseason for some odd reason started right now, this result is sure to stick out moving forward. That’s something even their well-acclaimed coach was well cognizant of.
“For us, we’ve had a little bit of a struggle here and there this year,” Berryman candidly admitted of the season at large. “I’ve been seeing us getting better defensively. We were really struggling defensively. We put that message out there (to his players) right before the Octorara game. We just came out on the short end of that one,” he remarked of his team’s narrow five-point overtime loss on Tuesday night. “But, we went up to Northern Lebanon, played great defense last night, and then held (Chambersburg) to 38 points today…It feels great for them,” the Section Coach of the Year receipt multiple times over offered about his team in general. “This win will help give them confidence as we go into the tail-end of our season now.”
Confidence you say? Yes, while it may seem odd to even suggest that confidence may have been needed considering we’re talking about one of the most prolific programs the L-L has seen over the last several years now that largely knows nothing but winning, their head coach was exactly right. After all, when you factor in the loss to Octorara which began this week, that meant that the Pioneers had dropped four of their previous five contests within that span. However, now after appearing to put that first outing against their neighbors to the south to bed once and for all given how they have now won their last two while also fileting a major piece of meat coming out of Saturday, this has suddenly become a very dangerous team once again for not just Section Three, but all the L-L to try and wrangle up once again. And how will they do it? Well, we’ll just let the head man explain it all.
“What I think changed it was the other day when I sat down with (his players) and said, ‘Ryan Smith’s team, 43 points a game. The team the next year, 44 points a game. We had seven losses with Seth Beers’ team and that was in giving up 51 (points). You guys are giving up 54 points a game right now. That’s unacceptable,”’ Berryman said bluntly of what the driving force figures to be inside the final month of the regular season for Lampeter-Strasburg if they can take heed of his message.
“If you look at all of these records, it all lines up with our defensive work and they took that to heart,” he was equally quick to point out. “There’s still a lot of things we have to get better at, but yeah, this was a really good win,” Berryman said in closing before summing it all perfectly up with, “That’s a really good win for the L-L League to get too.”
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