Landis Leads The Way, Reaches 1,000-Point Milestone As Lancaster Country Day Takes Care Of New Covenant Christian To Roll Into District 3-1A Semifinal Round And State Playoff Field
Written by: Andy Herr on February 22, 2022
Admittedly, prior to Lancaster Country Day coming into the Lancaster-Lebanon League, not many fans who associate themselves with the L-L basketball landscape likely had paid much if any attention whatsoever to the goings on taking place with the 1A classification system. Okay, while that may be true, since the small private school that is situated just a couple of city blocks up the street from Franklin & Marshall College along Harrisburg Pike was granted admittance into the conference, that whole notion has since been turned on its collective head.
To be perfectly fair though, the Cougars put everyone on notice before they came into the L-L League officially. That of course could all be traced back to the Cougars’ trip to the District 3-1A final back in 2018, a game in which Country Day would fall short to York Country Day in their final season as Tri-Valley League member school. Then, starting in the 2018-19 school year, with their full-fledged Lancaster-Lebanon League membership in tow as well, Country Day was able to capture the program’s first district crown nearly one year later to the exact date when they would vanquish Halifax to win the 1A crown in their initial rendezvous as an L-L institution. And from that point onward, the attention of L-L League fans would certainly have to turn to the 1A ranks seeing as how Country Day has seemed to make it a yearly tradition of making it back to the District 3 playoffs on an annual basis. This year too of course serving as no exception to the rule.
Sure enough, after posting a 14-8 record throughout the rigors of the regular season slate in this go around, LCD made it back onto the area’s premier stage for high school basketball by earning a #4-seed into the District 3-1A field for the 2021-22 postseason. Now, only time will tell whether the Cougars can replicate that same very level of success which the school was able to enjoy in those 2018 and 2019 respectively, but the road to Hershey got underway in earnest on Monday night inside the Parent’s Fieldhouse on the campus of Lancaster Country Day when they welcomed New Covenant Christian into town for a good old fashioned Lebanon County-Lancaster County private school scrap. And if Monday evening is to serve as any sort of precursor, seeing the Cougars reach the Giant Center next week might be something not all that far outside the realm of possibility.
That said, both sides appeared to be beisged by nerves, at least at the start. After all, aside from a pair of free throws cashed in by New Covenant inside the opening few minutes, both teams simply struggled to put the ball in the hole. Suffice to say, it figured to perhaps be a slightly unorthodox of way for either team to perhaps work itself into a groove as the opening quarter rolled along. For that, Country Day’s Christian Hoin seemed to speak that very notion into truth as a pilfer and layup by the Cougars’ junior forward made it a 2-2 contest with roughly 4:45 left to play in the initial stanza.
But from that point on, albeit a slow start with all the trimmings, Lancaster Country Day took off from the runway and never looked back down at the Flames.
In fact, just one minute following the Hoin steal and finish in transition, the Cougars’ tallied their first field goal from beyond the arc as sophomore point guard, Jake Kumah, splashed in a corner 3-ball right in front of the New Covenant bench to give LCD their first lead of the evening at 5-2. From there, the snowball really got rolling downhill against the Flames following a kiss off the glass by way of senior guard/forward, Chris Hedbavny, before a trademark Grant Landis trifecta shortly thereafter which allowed the Cougs’ to race out to a suddenly commanding and decisive advantage by the time the opening eight minutes finally concluded. And once they did, the scoreboard was certainly not a misprint given that it showed Country Day up by a cool dozen, 15-3.
Yet even despite getting out behind the proverbial 8-ball following the first quarter of play, New Covenant Christian seemed up for the fight. Of course, that certainly became easy to witness following a strong and determined take to the cup thanks to the efforts of guard Juan Torres, a deuce which gave the Flames their first field goal of the contest with 6:35 left to play before halftime.
That said, the momentum that New Covenant perhaps had been conjuring up at that point in time would prove to be relatively short-lived all things considered.
With the Flames struggling to find their way against the Cougars’ zone trap that helped pave the way for a litany of turnovers which the hosts were able to pounce and in turn capitalize upon, Country Day’s work in cleaning the offensive glass in a manner akin to Windex over the course of the second period proved to be instrumental as well. Speaking of offensive put backs, Hoin proved himself to be a monster inside later in the second quarter given his stick-back which put the Cougars up by a 22-9 count, promptly forcing New Covenant to burn a timeout with 4:49 left to go before the recess. And with their inside game proving to be muscle, the Cougars’ outside proficiency wasn’t exactly shabby either considering that a Hedbavny triple just before the first half horn sent Country Day into the dressing room with the comfortable 28-9 advantage at their backs.
But new half or not, Lancaster Country Day just kept on pushing.
Sure, while the Flames had flirted with the idea of cutting the Cougars’ lead in half nearly two minutes into the third quarter following a smooth pullup jumper sunk by Riley Newswanger which made it a 30-14 affair, Country Day would use their punishing mix of inside/out play to their advantage once again as the third frame rolled along as a Chris Hedbavny 3-pointer – appropriately following a sweet kick-out pass of course – propelled LCD past the 20-point plateau as the senior’s trey made it a 38-17 cushion with 3:15 left to go.
Needless to say, the eventual outcome of this one was all but decided at this stage of game, even despite the fact that there were 11 minutes left to go. To be sure, much of the drama that remained unsolved would be as to whether Grant Landis would reach the 1,000-point mark. And while he may have felt the need to have a flair for the dramatics, the Cougars’ senior sniper would indeed make good on that promise not long after.
To their credit though, New Covenant Christian certainly knew who Country Day’s catalyst was given how much attention was paid to Landis defensively throughout the course of the ballgame as he was often chased all over the floor for the entirety of the night. However, locking him down over the course of 32 minutes of play proved far easier said than done. And with the third quarter starting to tick down, Landis was able to slither his way to the cup through the Flames’ defensive unit for a smooth deuce which put the Cougars by a 41-19 difference a minute and change left to play in the quarter before one of his dagger trifectas, this one mere moments before the third quarter buzzer, vaulted Country Day into the final frame with the 44-23 lead.
Speaking of Landis-engineered treys, there would be yet another inside the final quarter, this one which put the Cougars’ up 51-25 with 5:30 left to play, as he found himself right on the precipice of having his name literally hang in the rafters for the rest of time. And while it might not have come in the most dramatic and thrilling of fashions, Landis’ 2-3 trip to the foul line roughly 30 seconds later finally allowed everyone in the building to celebrate and recognize such a stellar career-long achievement as Landis ended the evening with a 22-point outing, putting him right on the nose of 1,000 career points by the time the game was over with.
Yet even within those final few minutes of play on Monday evening, New Covenant kept battling, even with time running out against them. For that, the Flames could easily point to an Alexander Canakis kiss off the glass, a bucket which proved to be the final punctuation on this outing as Lancaster Country Day was able to romp their way into the District 3-1A semifinal round opposite of top-seeded Mount Calvary on Thursday by way of their 56-31 dispatching of New Covenant Christian on Monday night.
As mentioned though, while Lancaster Country Day admittedly started off rather sluggish in this one, there might have been some sound reasoning for that per their head man. “We’ve only seen a 1-3-1 one time all year,” Lancaster Country Day head coach Jon Shultz admitted regarding the defense that New Covenant Christian decided to employ against his squad. “We worked on that though because I’ve seen (New Covenant) go 1-3-1, man, 2-3, so I didn’t really know what they were going to throw at us. We don’t run that, so it’s hard to simulate a team that knows what they’re doing with that.”
“Feel it out,” Shultz went on to say of the start and whether he considered to call a timeout to address his troops’ somewhat choppy start to the night. “The only thing we had to really address with the 1-3-1 was that our guys were too low. We too many guys down below the foul line, so we kind of yelled that out and we were okay at doing that, but yeah we were a little bit sloppy there….I did think we played pretty good defense,” he continued. “As the game went on, I thought that if we played good half-court defense, I didn’t see (New Covenant) scoring a lot of points.”
Final score aside though, it was obvious that Grant Landis ended up stealing the show on this night. And as far as his team’s headliner who has made a habit out of scoring points in bunches, particularly here of late?
“He played his game,” said Shultz proudly of Landis’ outing on Monday. “His mindset going in was all about this basketball game and winning. He’s been like that all year,” he was quick to emphasize. “Towards the end, going into the fourth quarter, he knew he needed seven (points). He got two quick, then we called a timeout and said, ‘Alright, you need five.’ Then it’s just ball-screen city,” Shultz said light-heartedly.
But jovial mood coming out of Monday’s quarterfinal round triumph or not, make no mistake about it. Country Day has their eyes dead-set on that contest against Mount Calvary coming up on Thursday.
NEXT UP: Speaking of that tilt upcoming against what has been without question District 3-1A’s most premier franchises here the last couple seasons, this again figures to be the litmus test for all comers in the 1A field to try and measure themselves against. Ironically, Lancaster Country Day already made their own attempt earlier this season.
“We played them earlier in the year and gave them a really good game,” Shultz said of the game held back on December 27th which saw the Cougars fall short, 71-65. “We’re expecting to do the same thing here. We know what they’re all about. We’ve played them enough over the years. As I told (his players), ‘To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.’ They’re the man,” he added of his squad’s next challenge while also channeling his best Ric Flair imitation most certainly. “Whether it be Thursday night, next week or whatever it might be, we’ve got to play them, so let’s go play.”
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