Lampeter-Strasburg Remains Bubblicious For Districts As Pioneers Claw Back From Five-Point Fourth Deficit, Tally 12-2 Run Over Final Three Minutes To Ultimately Push Back Feisty Donegal Crew On Friday Night
Written by: Andy Herr on January 24, 2026
Pi-o-neer: a person or group that originates or helps open up a new line of thought or activity or a new method or technical development. That’s the definition as Merriam-Webster defines it. Ironically though, for this group from Lampeter-Strasburg, while that is indeed their school’s nickname and mascot, these Pioneers wanted to be labeled something different. Like, say scavengers for instance?
You see, coming into their Friday night road game at Donegal to wrap up their season series against the Indians inside of Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Three play, L-S found themselves just outside the cutline when it came to making it in to the District 3-5A playoffs, a 16-team field with the Pios occupying the 18th slot in the pecking order prior to tipoff in Mount Joy. So yeah, while this may be program that has done plenty of winning to the point where their nickname being Pioneers is in some ways a most ironic use of the word, this was admittedly a bit of unchartered territory for L-S to find themselves this late into a winter considering this is usually the same time of year when the Pios are determining whether it’ll be a section championship or runner-up finish, along with their district seed line being nothing at all to sweat about.
Even still, beyond this game against Donegal, Lampeter-Strasburg had three more opportunities remaining to try and make good on that postseason push, but a loss here to these Indians on Friday? Well, that would be a nothing if not devastating mark to have listed right there on the season-long resume.
And hey, this next test at Donegal figured to be an easy night at the office, right? After all, besides the fact that the Indians entered this contest while still in search of their first win of the entire campaign, the Pioneers took it to them in the season’s first meeting considering how L-S appeared to roll when looking at the 75-55 final verdict between these two clubs back on December 18th down in Lampeter.
But boy oh boy. Talk about the danger in simply judging a book by its cover. That’s a lesson that these Pioneers, er, Scavengers nearly learned first-hand in the Indians’ house.
Now, if anyone had wandered into UPMC Gymnasium on this bone-chilling night outside to take in this contest from some far and away distant land, it might’ve been hard for them to determine which team was fighting for its playoff lives with the other just trying to obtain some good momentum heading into its final stretch of games.
With that in mind, seeing as how the Pios required a nice spin move inside finished off by way of junior guard, Asher Jones, in order to find themselves with a three-point lead in the form of a 7-4 score with a shade over two minutes left in the opening frame, Donegal would be the ones to author the final blitzkrieg off an opening eight minutes to come out largely unharmed.
Specifically, the Indians’ abrupt late quarter rally would culminate not just in a 5-0 countersuit inside the first quarter’s waning stages, but it would be punctuated in exclamation mark-fashion courtesy of sophomore sniper, Jake Scanlin, as Scanlin’s trifecta inside the final 20 seconds helped to vault the homestanding green and white into the second quarter with the benefit of a 9-7 lead pushing behind them.
Speaking of vault, that’s surely what it must’ve felt like once the Indians reconvened come the start of the new quarter that was now getting set to commence.
In fact, Donegal’s Tyler Bernhardt would start the second quarter festivities by pouring in a 3-ball on the very first offensive possession, a three-point addition to his dozen points tallied by the end of the night, as the hosts enjoyed their largest lead of the early evening courtesy of the junior’s trey.
And while L-S wouldn’t flinch in the face of some early adversity here – such as the case once Hayden Martin was able to locate a waiting Asher Jones underneath the cup for a nice dime and finish between the two Pioneers’ guards which cut the Indians’ lead down to a 12-11 difference – a later steal and runout by way of Zach Rohrer once again saw Donegal answer their guests’ sudden charge with Rohrer’s theft and finish making it a 16-13 ballgame with slightly over half the second act still yet to unfold.
Finally, certainly not a moment too soon for what their side to be feeling, L-S would finally surge back in front over the course of what the final few portions of the first half had to offer.
As far as the actual exchange of the lead was most concerned, that would come following a triple sunk by the youngest member of the Pios’ entire rotation, Johnny Galarza, as the L-S freshman guard, on his way to finishing as a 10-point scorer on the night, made it an 18-16 Pioneers’ cushion before another bucket from bonus distance, this one via the efforts of Chase Messinger, allowed L-S to saunter into the halftime break with a 23-18 lead over Donegal as Messinger’s trey right before the horn helped to serve as fuel for the L-S contingent after a somewhat rocky and cumbersome initial 16 minutes out of the chute despite possessing the lead all the same.
Fuel for L-S perhaps. Or maybe it was gasoline truly intended for Donegal. Either way, if the truest measure was to be judged in terms of separation, consider the gas line to have been frozen considering how just like throughout the entire first half which had just concluded, neither of these two teams could quit the other once they both returned from out of their respective dressing rooms and back onto to the floor to begin the third frame.
Case in point, remember Jake Scanlin? L-S certainly won’t forget about him.
On the night, while his 10 points saw him finish as the third leading scorer on an Indians’ outfit that was paced by Angel Mendez and Tyler Bernhardt respectively, both of whom chipped in 12-point showings, it was Scanlin’s timely buckets which proved vital all throughout Friday evening. And never more was that evident than with his second triple of the contest, this one cutting the L-S lead in half, 27-24, with just 1:20 having bled off the third quarter timer.
But speaking of Mendez, there’s a player that any coach would love to have suit up for their team.
Hustle, heart, determination. Beaten to death cliches perhaps, but turn on the tape of any Donegal game this season and you’ll likely see jersey #1 flash off the screen in a manner that suggests he feels that every loose ball either in the air or on the floor is his to rightfully claim. For that reason, you’ll see why such adjectives are befitting of Mendez’s game. Here again, with that level of ferociousness on display against L-S, Mendez was rewarded by the basketball gods for his efforts with an old-fashioned three-point play on the ensuing Indians’ trip down the floor following the latest Scanlin trey, this exchange knotting things up at 27-apiece and momentum tilting back overt and into the home team’s favor.
Later, Mendez continued to be the itch that L-S couldn’t really scratch.
After first coming away with a tough bucket inside that had trimmed the Pios’ lead down to the slimmest of margins at 34-33 with 3:20 left in the third, Mendez would then take his talents out beyond the arc as his timely 3-ball not just allowed Donegal to stay within that same one-point margin at 37-36 with one minute showing on the quarter clock, but it also helped to stave off any possible L-S jaunt with momentum considering what had just been a four-point buffer.
What momentum? That’s probably what Donegal’s Tyler Bernhardt had to be feeling.
As mentioned, while Bernhardt would share in team-high scoring honors alongside Mendez in pacing the Indians’ collective effort, it would be the junior’s triples, such as this one inside the final 30 seconds of the third, that proved to massive every time they came to pass. How massive you ask? Well, consider this latest one, a trifecta which made things totally undecided throughout the first 24 minutes of play, with L-S and Donegal now setting sail on a final period with each team knotted up at 39-39.
Simply put, if one had any sort of rooting interest in seeing a team come up with their first successful triumph in what has been an incredibly difficult season – in more ways than one – you were likely falling victim at getting swept up in the emotion and overall hopefulness of it all suddenly wafting inside the gym to where this may finally be their night. The Indians’ night.
And considering how Donegal found themselves with ownership of a 44-40 lead following yet another Scanlin 3-ball, Mendez, always prone to doing the dirty work necessary, fearlessly took a charge for his team on the very next defensive possession, a selfless moment which awarded the ball back to Donegal with arguably their most hopeful spurt of optimism since their last, most recent exercise in trying to obtain a victory, a 55-54 defeat at the hands of East Pennsboro back on the morning of December 29th.
From there, the Indians’ lead would swell out to what almost could’ve been viewed as a gargantuan five-point advantage, 47-42, once Bernhardt canned another triple, this one with 3:09 left to play, leaving L-S a little bit lost at sea in terms of how to respond from yet another unfamiliar, perhaps uncomfortable position they are not all that accustomed to.
But if they truly were uncomfortable or nervous, the Pios certainly had a funny way of showing it with the game, shoot, maybe the season, hanging delicately there in the balance.
In terms of what would become the team’s final comeback, it would commence courtesy of their freshman, Johnny Galarza, as a cold-blooded Galarza trey in the immediate aftermath of Donegal’s latest surge cut the deficit down to two, 47-45.
From there, after holding the Indians without points on their ensuing trip down the floor, a one-man show put on by Hayden Martin helped to put the Pioneers back in front as the L-S senior guard was able to extend the L-S possession with a back-tap off a missed shot that saw the ball bounce into the frontcourt with the Pios securing the pill before Martin himself finishing off what he had largely created as a Martin triple to conclude this extended Pios’ possession suddenly put L-S back in front, 48-47, culminating in an impromptu 6-0 Lampeter-Strasburg spurt, their most critical at any one point during this entire 2025-26 season most certainly.
Typically, in games such as these where the margin for error is almost impossible to find, one of the most likely places in terms of the difference is often discovered at the foul line. Sure enough, that’s where L-S was ultimately able to seal the deal over the final minute and change on Friday night.
That said, they all would have to be of the clutch variety down the stretch. Not the least of which was directly correlated to Donegal going back in front following the Martin trey with the Indians then holding serve with a 49-48 lead with just outside of a minute left in regulation. Then, after being bestowed with even more good fortune in coming away with another offensive rebound following a Martin split at the line which had knotted things up at another stalemate once more at 49-49, a bang-bang play that could’ve easily been called in the opposite direction, much to the chagrin of the home fans in terms of the actual whistle, ushered L-S’ Chase Messinger to the foul line to try and give the Pios the lead with exactly 40 seconds showing on the game clock.
There, Messinger, the eventual game-high scorer on the entire evening by virtue of his 15-point bucketing once the night had concluded, calmly knocked down both to make it a 51-49 L-S cushion.
Next, after needing some sort, any sort of answer to either draw back even or perhaps go in front, Donegal opted for the latter on this next possession. Yet again though, with much unfortunate news to the home patrons, this potential go-ahead Indians’ shot from 3 would come up begging, sending Messinger right back to the line following his defensive rebound to try and extend matters with now 22.5 left to go.
Sure enough, L-S’ senior guard would deliver the goods for his team with another successful trip after toeing the line as Messinger helped pushed the Pioneers’ advantage back up to two possessions, 53-49, with time quickly running dry on what moments earlier had just appeared — and felt – like it was to be Donegal’s first win of the season.
Fittingly, after yet again holding to Donegal to nothing on the Indians’ next and final offensive trip, Messinger would be the one to cap things off with another freebie inside of the final 2.4 seconds, cementing not just a final 54-49 L-S victory, not just his own five-point authoring of late-game foul shooting which emblematically proved to truly be the difference, but a final 12-2 Lampeter-Strasburg rally over the final 3:09 in sum after staring up at what had been a five-point deficit with everything seeming to be working against them.
Needless to say, for a team looking to make it back into the postseason, this one personified playoff grit and then some when talking about what L-S put forth with the stakes at their most massive late in this tilt against Donegal. And while no one truly knows what will come to pass over the Pioneers’ next three games – plus what happens on the outside as well –, this successful venture over to Mount Joy at least gave them a fighting chance to extend things beyond their currently scheduled finale on February 5th at Lower Dauphin. Sure, maybe these are circumstances not all that familiar to L-S with the calendar being this late into the month of January. But for a program that has winning in its blood, for players that have grown up in a system of winning, you can’t afford to give them second-chances. While they got one here, make no mistake. This one was totally earned. In that regard at least, it’s the same ol’ story when talking about the Lampeter-Strasburg Pioneers.
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
