McCaskey Takes Down An Old Foe As Red Tornado Withstand Persistent Lancaster Catholic Charges, Punctuate Important Week On Three-Game Win Streak
Written by: Andy Herr on December 18, 2022
You know, there was a time not all that long ago where this game would’ve effectively shut the entire city down. Not to say that it still couldn’t by and large to some effect, but the fact of the matter is that if you were to go back roughly 20 years in time, there was ample reason to suggest how the balance of power not just in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, not just in District 3, but yes, perhaps even the entire state of Pennsylvania as well was confined to just a few city blocks.
For years, both Lancaster Catholic and McCaskey took their fair share of turns trading shots back and forth across the bow at one another with those tantalizing matchups only ever taking place in the L-L League tournament, typically in the championship round. And with both teams then eventually went their separate ways before making long and successful runs throughout their respective classifications in both the District 3 and PIAA state tournaments, Lancaster city was the happening place for all things high school basketball shortly after the turn of the century.
Now granted, although perhaps the same type of sizzle and feverish anticipation might have been lacking coming into Saturday afternoon’s matinee at Shultz Transportation Gymnasium on the campus of McCaskey was concerned, the fact that both the Crusaders and Red Tornado made the fantastic decision to square off head-to-head against one another –in the regular season no less – was a sight for sore eyes for those like-minded hoops junkies who for years had yearned to witness these two powerful brands square off on a much more perennial basis against one another absent of hoping the stars would eventually align come the postseason.
And as fate would have it, while the game may have not been played in front of a standing-room-only crowd which it may have not gotten at earlier points in history, a solid crowd nonetheless in attendance was surely treated to an affair that came complete with all the momentum swings one would expect between these two stellar franchises. In the end though, one team simply just made more plays than other once the dust had finally settled in this battle waged between two worthy combatants. And once it did, it would prove to be McCaskey’s night to enjoy that came complete with all the spoils of city-wide bragging rights.
To say that the Red Tornado started off Saturday much in the same vein as they had ended Friday night in a thorough trouncing of fellow Section One foe Penn Manor –by spraying in a litany of 3-balls from beyond the arc – would be a bit of a gross understatement. In fact, after seeing one go down by way of senior shooting guard, De’Shaun McFadden, which opened the scoring to the tune of a 7-2 McCaskey lead, two more triples sunk courtesy of another senior sniper, Elias Garcia, would not be far behind as the Red Tornado began the afternoon with a decisive 13-2 advantage with Lancaster Catholic forced into burning an early timeout with 3:50 still left to play in the opening frame.
Yet while the Crusaders would be able to weather the storm somewhat in the immediate moments afterwards in getting the margin cut down to single digits given a triple of their own cashed in by way of 5’10 junior guard, Crew Wells, to make it a 13-5 affair, the Tornado would be able to head into the second stanza with the benefit of owning of the 17-10 cushion at the end of the opening eight minutes of play.
In the second quarter, McCaskey seemed to pick up right where they had left off.
Case in point, yet another trifecta, this one fired in by senior point guard, Jonathan Byrd, upped the Tornado lead back to ten, 20-10, within the blink of an eye once the second quarter got underway.
However, this here would be where Catholic would enjoy their first excursion in playing with the game’s momentum.
Sure, while spotting McCaskey a sizable early lead while inside the confines of their raucous environment isn’t exactly the most advantageous way to try and make a living, the Crusaders seemed no worse for the wear all things considered. There, with the Red Tornado starting to cool off somewhat in terms of filling it up from bonus distance, a prompt 6-0 Crusaders’ salvo would arrive in short order as a pair of buckets from the Lancaster Catholic junior duo of Logan Weyforth and Thaddeus Lee respectively suddenly sliced McCaskey’s advantage down to a much more modest four-point gap, 20-16, with three minutes still left before the intermission.
However, with the mojo starting to tilt in the Crusaders’ direction at that point in time, a timely 5-0 spurt courtesy of De’Shaun McFadden opened the window back up as the eventual Tornado team-high scorer — who would finish with an 18-point effort on the day — proved to be the key catalyst as to why McCaskey would be able to enjoy the fruits of a 25-18 lead at the intermission despite the Catholic late charge there.
In many ways, the third quarter would help to serve as a perfect microcosm for how the afternoon at large would play itself out.
Sure enough, after regaining their outside shooting stroke considering the pair of treys hit by Johnathan Byrd and Nemias Tirado immediately coming out of the break which made it a 31-20 McCaskey lead within the first 2:15 of the third frame, Lancaster Catholic just kept grinding away.
And with that grit, seen largely in the tangible form of a pair of Thaddeus Lee buckets from point-blank range that came coupled with a 3-ball sunk by Crew Wells, the purple-clad guests from right down the street had stormed back to within five, 34-29, with two minutes and change still left to go in the third. From there, the Crusaders just kept crusading as the Red Tornado lead would be sliced down to the slimmest of margins, 34-33, following a pair of freebies knocked down at the charity stripe courtesy of yet another in the embarrassment of talented junior riches found in the Lancaster Catholic rotation, Chris Koltunovich, with still over one minute having yet to evaporate off the third quarter clock.
In fact, Catholic would be able to come all the way back and establish themselves on level footing at 35-35 following a runout layup by the lone senior on the Crusaders’ varsity roster, Jaevon Parker, before a deuce chipped in within the final few seconds of the third quarter down on the other end of the floor via Nemias Tirado would just as quickly usher the Red Tornado into the final period with the 37-35 advantage.
Suffice to say, the game right here as it stood was at its most critical juncture. If anyone would be able to establish any bit of momentum here down the final furlong, chances were that it would prove to be what would amount to the final difference at the end. Fitting and apropos then it would largely hinge on a tale as old as time in Lancaster-Lebanon League basketball –McCaskey turning up the dial with persistent defensive pressure.
Sure enough, with the Tornado narrowly protecting what was a modest lead near the five-minute mark of the final stanza, three consecutive turnovers on three consecutive Lancaster Catholic possessions helped open the door for what would become a 46-38 Red Tornado lead within the blink of an eye. From there, the hosts would be able to keep their lead at eight following a marvelous offensive possession that began with a one-handed bullet pass from Byrd while operating from his point guard spot to recipient Eric Centeno who would then fire off an equally pretty dish to a waiting Markelle Caine underneath the cup as Caine’s bunny inside made it a 48-40 Tornado cushion with 3:15 left to go.
But to their credit though, just when things may have seemed at their most desire, Lancaster Catholic proceeded to mount one final rally.
Yet while the flurry may have started rather innocuously given that game-high scorer, Thaddeus Lee, who was able to pump in three more here from beyond the arc en route to his 20-point netting on the afternoon, made it a 54-47 difference with just 35 seconds remaining, a prompt steal and finish through contact immediately afterwards via the efforts of Jaevon Parker certainly made the Red Tornado think about it inside of the last few seconds.
However, as fate would have it, the Crusaders’ feverish charge at overtaking the lead once and for all would not come to pass as McCaskey was to finish off their neighborhood rivals to the tune of a 58-49 final triumph, a victory which oh by way punctuated an impressive week for the Red Tornado considering that it allowed them to finish on a three-game winning streak.
But as mentioned though, this game, while rightfully big in its own way within the moment, takes on a much greater significance when you consider all of the history and tradition that each of these two programs that Lancaster city is privileged to call its own square off with one another. Yes, sometimes even the game happens by pure happenstance.
“You want to know the truth here?” McCaskey head coach Freddy Ramos asked out loud when questioned about how this pre-Christmas contest came to pass while standing outside his team’s victorious locker room on Saturday. “Joe (Klazas) and I were watching a Phillies playoff game together. By the end of the game, we’re about to go our separate ways and as we’re saying goodbye, both recognizing that we each needed two games to fill out our schedules, (Klazas) says to me, ‘We should just play each other and get one out of the way.’ Right away I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it.’” Ramos recalled of the conversation. “We tried the last cycle to schedule each other, but our timing was off with schedules being full already and things like that. But yeah, this game actually came from us watching a baseball game together,” he said with a laugh.
“We’re playing it by ear,” Ramos acknowledged of the idea of this perhaps becoming a longer-term city series. “We committed to a two-year deal here and we’ll go from there with it. We actually talked about that today where in regard to classification and things like that, that it’s a game that would be good for both of our programs,” said Ramos of possible future dates. “That’s how we got here. It was a game that was good for both of our programs where we’re both in a place of going through a little bit of growth right now. We thought the timing was right and it all worked out.”
As mentioned previously though, on the micro scale, beating your cross-town rivals is certainly something that made this particular Saturday special. On the macro side? Most certainly the fact that it leveled McCaskey’s season record to a 3-3 mark heading into next week thanks to a current three-game winning streak. And suffice to say, this isn’t a recent output that anyone inside Red Tornado camp has taken lightly either.
“The first thing is I take my hat off to those first three teams we played,” Ramos humbly remarked. “Coatesville is a really good team. Lancaster Mennonite is just so disciplined. We played (Mennonite) in a game where we weren’t. And Reading? Man, they’re firing on all cylinders right now…Playing in those scenarios, especially against Coatesville and Reading, they did to us what we want to do to the other team,” he added.
“We did have to sit back and reflect. We had to come together as a group outside of the gym and really just talk about our values that we have as a group… It’s constant. I could bring the team in right now and ask, ‘What do you have to do to play basketball at McCaskey?’ They’d all say, ‘Play defense.’ We’re saying those things, but we weren’t doing them in the first three games. It sucks because you had to get your butt kicked. You had to commit, watch film, not point fingers, and get a mirror out.”
“The reality is we break our season down to into little ones,” the McCaskey head man continued. “Our first season, we had a goal that we didn’t reach and didn’t meet. Our next one, we’re in the middle of that right now…We had to get back together and say, ‘What’s important here and how do we do it?’ It changed our practices as well. In our approach, honestly, I don’t think we were really taking it seriously at the start. Unfortunately, it takes 0-3 to get that attention, but we’re feeling good. We’re feeling good as a group right now. Our energy is up and our guys are hungry.”
Follow LLhoops on Twitter @LLhoops
