Lebanon Starts Fast, Finishes Strong In Knocking Off Manheim Township As Cedars Entrench Themselves For Playing ‘Meaningful Games’ Down The Stretch
Written by: Andy Herr on January 11, 2025
There will come a day in the not-too-distant future when college students will write their doctoral thesis on this topic. If not that, then perhaps NASA would like to come in and do some kind of case study. That topic of course being Lancaster-Lebanon League Section One boys’ basketball during the 2024-25 season and how to try and make sort of sense of it all.
You think you have an idea on what’s going on? No. No you don’t. Call it parody, call it whatever you’d like, but this is without a doubt the most wide-open the field has been, perhaps maybe ever, with the sheer notion of a preeminent frontrunner almost an oxymoron. Every game out, the team currently sitting in the top spot is capable of losing to the team that’s currently slotted in the very last spot. And to be perfectly honest, you probably wouldn’t be all that surprised to see it quite frankly. Either way, with such a convoluted gaggle of teams bunched up on top each other here at the end of the first leg of the section journey, rest assured that there will be plenty of storylines that take shape heading down the final stretch.
But on Friday night in Lebanon, those storylines got off to a bit of an early start.
The team leading the race heading into the night? The Manheim Township Blue Streaks. And in a division where the standings feel like they’re written in sand rather than in stone, the Streaks have been the closest thing to a sure bet thus far seeing as how they had vanquished every other team in the field, save for a comeback levied against them by way of Penn Manor, that was somewhere in the verbiage of miracle-esque in describing that Comets’ triumph over Township on December 12th.
But the one team they had yet to play? Well, they didn’t want to fall victim to a Township triumph like most of the other neighbors living in this neighborhood.
For a team that came into this year lugging around an elephant on a leash that didn’t feel like cooperating very much in walking with them when it came to describing their 0-44 record over the last two seasons, to watch the Lebanon Cedars play ball this year, you’d have a hard time knowing this is a squad who knew nothing but being on the short end of the stick in recent history. Forget winning “a” game, the Cedars’ rapid rise can be attributed to their five wins already tabulated thus far, including high-water marks that included Lebanon taking the crown of their own tip-off tourney back in early December before then knocking off arguably the two most historic brands in the history of Section One all-time, McCaskey and Hempfield, for the Cedars’ lone two wins within league play to date.
Again though, even for sitting on just all of two wins in the first full week of January would normally regulate you to the bottom of the standings for the remainder of the year, that’s not the case this season. In fact, if the Cedars can handle their own business and receive a little help elsewhere along the way, Lebanon will be firmly entrenched in this wild ride that will be the final go ‘round of section contests as this month continues to unfold.
Ironically enough, by the end of the Friday night with both of those two things operating in tandem with one another, that very notion was berthed into the existence for the Cedars to see come to life with their own eyes.
While you certainly can’t take anything for granted, Manheim Township was probably nonetheless not all that panicked once the game started out on Friday night and the homestanding Cedars began making their first few shots. After all, this was a Streaks team that had just knocked off the defending league champs in Cedar Crest their last time out while Lebanon on the other hand was in the midst of their own 1-7 stretch of late. However, any casualness quickly went by the wayside once Manny Martinez, Lebanon’s 5’9 sophomore guard, poured in his second triple of the early going, making it an 8-2 Cedars’ lead with Township prompted into calling a timeout with 4:11 left in the opening frame with Lebanon clearly taking the fight to their opposition.
But the deficit only grew larger in time.
Speaking of triples, another of the Cedars’ starters, Ihab Abdallaoul, rattled off his second trifecta of the first quarter not long afterwards as the senior guard would make it a commanding 16-4 Lebanon cushion with now two minutes left to play in the opening quarter.
And while the visitors would finally end their scoring drought with a pair of free throws knocked down by way of freshman forward, Yianni Papadimitrou, which then made it an 18-6 ballgame, a final Lebanon triple cashed in during the first eight minutes, this courtesy of Derek Franco, helped to send the Cedars into the second quarter with a mammoth 21-6 lead pushing behind them.
Yet while Lebanon was indeed making shots as the score would lead one to believe, the fact of the matter was the Cedars’ fuel that was responsible for creating this separation was largely due to their work compiled on the defensive end of the floor.
To say that every Blue Streaks’ shot attempt was an arduous task might not be doing it enough justice in trying to illustrate just how ferocious Lebanon was exerting themselves on that end of the floor. Needless to say, if Township could just somehow calm the waters and try to get some open looks, perhaps the gargantuan deficit wouldn’t seem quite so mighty.
Finally, as far as they had to be concerned, the weight gradually started to be lifted off the Streaks’ collective shoulders in due time.
The one acting as the release valve? 6’1 junior guard, Jack Kenneff.
Needing to fill the role as the spark off the bench, Kenneff delivered in kind for his squad by getting a pair of clean looks from beyond the arc before then knocking in both, the last of which suddenly sliced the Cedars’ once impressive lead down to a measly three-point gap at 21-18 with just 90 seconds remaining in the opening half. From there, Kenneff continued to get loose from the Lebanon defensive clutches as his third trifecta of the second quarter gave Township their first lead of the night, 23-22, with now inside of a minute left to play in the second.
Yet even with all the momentum in the world, and Lebanon held to just all of one Derek Franco free throw for the Cedars’ lone point in the second period at the time, that would later prove to be the Streaks’ final opportunity to dance with the lead for the remainder of the contest.
And speaking of free throws, Lebanon’s star freshman guard delivered three more at the line standing all by himself for his troops with 0.0 on the clock after Franco’s 3-3 trip after getting fouled on a last-second shot attempt helped to send the Cedars into the locker room with the 25-23 advantage following the freebies.
Whenever you can go an entire quarter of a Section One game without having tallied so much a field goal but you still find yourself leading at the break, that’s obviously not a feat all that common. When it came for making up for lost time however, Manny Martinez up to the assignment in registering the Cedars’ first buckets since the waning moments of the first quarter as four quick points tallied by the Lebanon sophomore guard got the hosts out to a much more vivacious start for the second half.
Back and forth the punches and counterpunches came inside the third stanza from there on out.
Sure, while Lebanon senior guard, Ben DiScuillo, would pepper in a corner triple in front of his team’s bench which gave the Cedars a 34-28 lead with 2:40 left in the third, a follow at the cup chipped in by Township’s leading scorer on the night, Yianni Papadimitrou, who finished in netting a 16-point outing, cut the deficit down to four at 36-32 roughly one minute later. Even still, such as the case when Ihab Abdallaoul was able to finish off an old-fashioned three-point play in the waning moments of the period to aid in the Lebanon cause, the game remained situated in that same four-to-six-point window throughout, something best exemplified by Lebanon trudging onward and into the final frame with the 39-35 lead.
By this point, if any team could string together some kind of run – especially the Cedars – that might prove to be just enough in order to finish the job. As if to be right on cue, that’s precisely what Lebanon wound up doing.
For the specifics of it all, once Martinez was able to collect himself a steal and finish things off with a layup at the cup which preceded a crucial three-point play right afterwards contributed by way of 6’2 senior forward, Robert Santiago, the Cedars suddenly saw themselves possessing a double-digit lead once again at 46-35 with 6:46 still left to be played in pushing Township away once more.
One final rebuttal. That’s what Township needed to author up.
As he did all night long – not the least of which in this his first full season altogether in competing amongst the big boys found residing in Section One night after night – Papadimitrou looked right at home here as well seeing as how his pair of bunnies inside helped to rally the Streaks back to within five at 49-44 with three minutes and change now left to go in the contest.
Speaking of freshman, Lebanon has a stud of their own currently enrolled in 9th grade too.
Hard to quantify 19 points as being somewhere along the lines of “quiet” per se, but Derek Franco’s bucketing of that very number to pace the Cedars on Friday night were nonetheless monumental. But especially here in this moment, with the worm starting to turn perhaps and Township getting back within the fight, before Franco came up with a timely take and finish amongst the trees for a two-point addition which made it a 51-44 Cedars’ buffer with time and score continuing to force Township in having to swim upstream.
But Township would get no closer.
And for the coronation, a pair of Martinez and Santiago buckets helped to finish things off as Lebanon had not just withstood Manheim Township’s pressure, run-and-jump style defense employed against them inside the final stages with easy buckets at the cup after showing patience, but the Cedars had successfully stared down and knocked off the leader in the race straight up as a decisive 62-52 Lebanon triumph over Township, a verdict in which the Cedars barely trailed in, continued to make the Section One race less than crystal clear.
How unclear you ask? Well, because of the outcomes from this game and others from around the league on Friday evening, a quick peek at the standings heading into next week shows 67% of Section One locked in a four-way tie 3-2 marks, 84% of the teams no more than a game out, and 100% of the teams within at least a two-game reach of the top spot. Fortunately, for Lebanon, they are now among that upper crust heading into the back half of slate.
“The success we had early in the year definitely helped, but we still went through a rough patch there where we didn’t really know how to handle the success we had early. We’re still learning,” Lebanon third-year head man, Kris Uffner, shared after emerging from his team’s winning locker room Friday night. “We got a little complacent in practice and we had a long break over the holiday. Until January 3rd, we hadn’t played since the 21st of December,” Uffner remarked. “It was just a goofy couple of weeks with practice and crazy things happening to where it didn’t really look like we were locked in. We had to get these guys back on track…Yes, we’ve learned how to win, but we’ve put ourselves in position now where we’re going to be playing in games way more meaningful than most of these kids have seen the first two years. That’s what I’m happiest about.”
Talent aside, the thing that will help Lebanon to continue to stay in this fight and remain a throbbing headache for the rest of their section mates to try and deal with in the second half? It’s a mindset thing they’ll need to bring with them. Their coach knows that full-well.
“Our defense. Getting every loose ball, having the mentality that every rebound is ours,” Uffner said in regard to the things that he’s looking to see from his bunch the rest of the way. “We’re not the biggest team in the world, but man do our kids battle. When they are in a competitive mood, they battle. Part of us getting over that next hump is us being more competitive more consistently,” he added. “Tonight’s a step. I’m happy with steps. Every step we take, I’m happy with.”
So, now what? There’s no hiding for the Lebanon Cedars anymore. Gone is the warm and fuzzy feeling of seeing the Cedars finally get back on the winning side of things. For some for find themselves in such a spot, talking about the bigger picture can sometimes feel like writing your own obituary when we’re still a ways away from the finish line. For others, relishing the opportunity of what lies ahead for helping in the immediate task at-hand is the best way to go about inspiring your club. For Uffner, he sees his crew being more in tune with the latter.
“As a coach, I’d like to think I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of our team,” said Uffner. “Right, wrong, or indifferent, just that little thing of playing for a championship early on in our tip-off tournament was enough for these guys to get a little more excited to play. We’ve never going to look ahead, it truly is one game at a time, but seeing how things are playing out in our section, I do think it’s important to say to our guys, ‘Look around. It hasn’t been pretty the whole year, and we haven’t necessarily been the greatest, but we have an opportunity here and we’re in the mix. If we play the way we’re capable of, we’ll have a shot to compete with everyone that we’re bunched up with.’ Luckily, we did that tonight and we were worthy enough of winning a game against one of the better teams in our section.”
“I brought it up for the first time tonight,” the Cedars’ coach added in closing of the larger discussion that Lebanon is now apart of. “I feel like these guys get a little more excited to play when they’re aware. Tonight, I made them a little more aware to try and give them a little extra boost.”
And because of what he and his team were able to do against Manheim Township in reeling the top team back into the water with them, Lebanon will be playing in those critical January games that Uffner alluded to. For the Cedars and their ever-present fanbase, with where this program just was, it’s hard to ask for much more than that.
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