Lancaster Country Day Turns Up The Heat Following 32-Point Third Quarter Showing, 32 Forced Turnovers Overall To Stymie Lititz Christian In Regular Season Finale As Cougars Roar Into Postseason While Forced To ‘Figure Things Out’
Written by: Andy Herr on February 10, 2024
Death, taxes, and Lancaster Country Day boys’ basketball in the postseason. Okay, even if that’s not the precise phrase that gets uttered, it doesn’t make it any less true.
Since the Cougars from Country Day joined the Lancaster-Lebanon League cast and crew six years ago now, LCD has known nothing but playoff basketball once the regular season expires. In fact, they made quite a first impression their first time in carrying an L-L membership card considering they would go on to win the District 3-1A title that same season. And, true to form, this year is no different when it comes to the tiny private school located just a stone’s throw away from the Franklin & Marshall campus.
But, if there is one notably exception to this 2023-24 version of the Cougars compared to its most recent editions, it’s found in their seed line before the district tourney begins given how Country Day appears poised to enter the bracket with their highest seed line yet to date in that same half decade plus, the #2 slot, sitting behind arguably one of the best teams 1A squads found in the entire state of Pennsylvania, Linville Hill. Of course, stumbling into district play with what would be a two-game losing streak wouldn’t exactly be the most preferred methodology if Country Day could help it. In terms of that assignment, that meant that Country Day could ill-afford to drop the final game of the final week of L-L League regular season play in 2023-24 when they ventured to Lititz to tangle not with the Warwick Warriors, but with the Lititz Christian Eagles instead at Bonfield Elementary late Friday night with Country Day coming off a hard-fought loss to High Point Baptist their last time out on Thursday night at home.
And while at times on Friday night the margin of separation was probably a little too close for comfort as far as the Cougars were most concerned, a blistering third quarter performance eventually helped set the table for what would be a Country Day runaway, complete with a mercy-rule being triggered just for good measure. Oh, that and 32 turnovers being forced didn’t exactly hurt the cause either it should be noted.
But even when it seemed in the early stages on Friday evening that Country Day would be off and running yet from the get-go, Lititz Christian was there to reel them right back into view.
Sure enough, while the Cougars began the proceedings with possession of the 14-4 lead throughout the first portion of the opening quarter while largely being buoyed by a 5-0 personal salvo tallied by 6’2 junior forward, Ben Sponaugle, a timely floater on the ensuing Eagles’ possession by way of freshman forward, Will Kriebel, set the stage for the Lititz Christian 9th grader tallying two more buckets to his name shortly thereafter with Kriebel going on to share team-high scoring honors on the night.
And while Lancaster Country Day’s team-high scorer on the night, Chris Dukes, knocked down a trifecta while already off on his own personal journey to what would culminate in a 24-point night’s worth of work, a Kriebel take to the rack would slice the Country Day cushion down to a half dozen with 30 seconds remaining, 21-15, as the freshman and junior cogs were found doing more than their fair share of damage against the respective opposition throughout the opening frame before the curtain would eventually close on the first eight minutes with Country Day in control with a 22-15 lead.
Here, even in the second period though, that same prevailing theme of Country Day not being quite able to run away entirely largely served as the overarching narrative.
Sure, while the Cougars would see their lead climb upwards to double figures at 25-15 in the aftermath of a Dukes triple with roughly three minutes having gone by in the period, a key put-back and 3-ball contributed to the Lititz Christian effort by way of the other part of the Eagles’ duo who shared in team-high scoring honors on Friday night, Caeden Harmon, also a freshman no less, propelled the “hosts” back within single figures at 31-22 with two minutes left before the halftime respite. And once it was time to for both teams to retire to their respective corners for the halftime break, the score on the scoreboard hanging off the Bonfield stage showed Country Day in front by a 36-24 margin thanks to a bucket chipped in mere moments before the horn by way of Dukes with Country Day’s dynamic lefty guard having tallied literally half of the Cougars’ points throughout the first 16 minutes.
But in the third quarter? Well, that’s where Country Day went into some sort of hyper-drive.
Granted, it didn’t always seem as if that was going to be part of the equation. Especially not when the Cougars reemerged from the halftime break while appearing to sputter. There, while LCD was stuck in neutral, a Caeden Harmon trifecta for the home team got Lititz Christian back within seven, 36-29, the closest the Eagles had gotten since the initial stages of the opening frame.
In reality though, that would be all the closer Country Day would let them get.
While the Cougars’ onslaught may have started off rather innocently in that it began with a pair of Chris Dukes’ buckets in rapid succession –something obviously having been demonstrated time after time by that point on Friday night – it nonetheless pushed the margin back to double digits at 40-29 with third quarter nearing its halfway point at that juncture. From there, the other piece of dynamite in the Country Day lineup, Jordan Ashby, got rolling as well. And once he did, Lititz Christian was essentially all out of rebuttals defensively while also turning it over against the Cougars at an alarming rate offensively as well which added insult to metaphorical injury.
As far as Ashby’s antics were concerned, the Cougars’ 5’10 sophomore guard would get into a groove with a cut to the cup which allowed Country Day to hit the 50-point margin with their lead now standing at 50-34. Then, while clearly on something that could only be described as some sort of basketball version of a heater, Ashby would pepper in a 3-ball before following that up with a take to the rack on the ensuing offensive trip down the floor which somewhat incredibly forced the mercy-rule into effect for the remainder of the evening given the 65-34 score with roughly one minute left to go in the third.
All told, while Jordan Ashby would conclude the first half on Friday night against Lititz Christian in posting a rather modest eight points next to his name in the book, “modest” would be anything but the appropriate word to describe his third quarter showing as Ashby would finish one shy of matching Chris Dukes in Country Day high-scoring honors on Friday as Ashby would finish with a remarkable 23-point night that largely came during that third quarter blitzkrieg.
Finally, while the outcome was already a moot point with only eight minutes left combined with a running clock presiding over the rest of the contest with Country Day out in front by a 68-34 count, it was just a matter of what sort of high notes Country Day would be able to finish the night on.
First up in receiving those honors would be a bucket scored by 6’3 sophomore forward, Matteo Manfrin, as the Manfrin deuce obviously was well received by all the Cougars given their visible showing of excitement for their teammate. From there, another feel-good moment that Country Day could close the book on the regular season on, a Declan Jones bucket, his first varsity points, gave ample reason for celebration once the 5’11 junior was able to finish off a bucket in transition inside the waning stages.
And with time rapidly winding down considering that aforementioned element of the running clock, Country Day’s remarkable 32-point third quarter explosion largely served as the key catalyst when it came to what could only be described a resounding 72-37 final verdict against Lititz Christian that now ushers the Cougars into the postseason after concluding a jam-packed final week that featured four games within the span of five days, all of which came against fellow 1A opponents.
“We have two weeks off here, so we’ll get some rest and worry about ourselves,” Lancaster Country Day head coach Jon Shultz said following Friday night’s contest. “We won’t have Chris (Dukes) for the postseason, so we’ll have to find points in other ways. He puts the ball in the hoop for us,” said Shultz of his team’s leading scorer who must now sit for the remainder of Country Day’s season given the PIAA transfer protocol which creates a 17-point-per-game void all of a sudden. “We’ll be finding points, figuring some things out these next two weeks, so at least we have some time to do that,” he continued of the impromptu break given their first-round bye in districts along with not making next week’s L-L League tourney. “We’re not a big team. We don’t have a lot of size. Everyone knows that, so we have to figure out some things there too because we’re going to see teams with size…We’ll put our nose down and figure out things to do.”
“We’ll just have to see where we are,” Shultz added. “I think we have a good system in place to where we can pick things up. It’ll just be a different dynamic…There’ll be lots of opportunities and we’ve had a lot of guys step up throughout the year coming off the bench and things like that,” he was quick to share. “We’ve been looking at our possible matchups and we’ll probably go scout some games if there are some CCAC teams in their playoffs,” Shultz continued of the dead period. “We’ll practice Tuesday and Wednesday, try to organize a scrimmage for Thursday, so we’ll be prepared.”
Speaking of prepared, one could make an argument that Lancaster Country Day, no matter what your classification of choice across 1A thru 6A, is as well adjusted to anything and everything they may encounter in the upcoming District 3 playoffs than the Cougars. Not just considering the wars found within L-L Section Four in particular, but that element while also combined with a 1A-heavy nonconference slate that saw the Cougars match themselves up against nearly everyone the bracket may throw in turn at them over the course of the regular season gauntlet.
“We’ve seen Linville. We’ve seen La Academia,” Shultz said in remembering some of the foremost names to know inside the 1A crop. “New Covenant, they should get in. Mount Calvary, they might sneak in. York Country Day we’ve seen. Lancaster County Christian we’ve seen. Yeah, we’ve seen pretty much everyone,” he mentioned. “Greenwood is pretty much the only one, but I’ve seen them play,” said the Cougars’ head man.
“It’s just what we do,” he added of the method behind a slate that routinely features so many non-con games within their own 1A weight class to speak from around the mid-state. A large portion of which consists of teams within the Commonwealth Christian Athletic Conference. “1A has 20-some teams in it. We always try and play the upper half of the 1A bracket, so we get good competition… I tell everyone that wants to listen to me, ‘The CCAC has some quality basketball players in it and some quality teams too.’ So, we’ll see. We’ll see.”
And while Lancaster Country Day will understandably look a little bit different in the postseason as opposed to how they did during this regular season march, there’s something to be said for being ingrained in a culture that essentially knows nothing but a winning culture. To that end, while Coach Shultz may have to become Professor Shultz when it comes to tinkering and adjusting here in due time, there’s still more than ample reason to believe that Country Day will be a problem and a headache for the rest of District 3-1A to try and deal with over the next few weeks. In that regard, death and taxes surely aren’t far behind.
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