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Mounts Continue To Hunt As Ephrata Takes Down Daniel Boone In Decisive Nonconference Contest To Remain On 6A Playoff Prowl
 

Mounts Continue To Hunt As Ephrata Takes Down Daniel Boone In Decisive Nonconference Contest To Remain On 6A Playoff Prowl

Written by: Andy Herr on January 24, 2023

 

It’s finally time. Yes, with just a handful of weeks left to go inside the regular season, it’s time to take a gander at those District 3 power rankings once and for all. And as is typically the case, the big boys, those residing in the 6A world, generally happen to steal the show in terms of the where the eyeballs tend to wander off to. Well, wouldn’t you know it, but there just so happens to be a Lancaster-Lebanon League team hovering right around the cutline in that very classification level as of now that may be the most heartwarming story of all.

For the Ephrata Mounts, it has been obvious to point out that this particular campaign has already been a bit of a success in its own right thus far. In fact, the Mountaineers will be able to forever lay claim to the distinction of being the final unbeaten team inside the entire conference regarding the 2022-23 slate if they would so choose to do so, a feat which lasted until three days before Christmas when they were tripped up by their next door neighbors, the Cocalico Eagles, in a hard-fought rivalry contest that went the way of the boys from Denver in a 66-58 final decision.  

And since that night right before the holiday break, the Mounts have ridden the proverbial roller coaster in terms of the various ebbs and flows that a high school basketball can present. In fact, the setback against Cocalico would then morph into what would become a stretch of play where Ephrata would proceed to drop five of their six contests –save for a 20-point win over Northern Lebanon in the Vikings’ own holiday tournament — before promptly going back on the upswing by posting three consecutives triumphs heading into the start of this week which saw them welcome the Daniel Boone Blazers into town for a nonleague affair. And as one could have probably predicted given the wild spikes that have largely come to define the Mounts’ season up until the middle of January, it was nothing if not shocking to see that Ephrata came into the week with possession of the #11 seed in the 6A ranks, just one spot above what will be the 12th and final spot awarded in just a few shorts weeks.

So, suffice to say, the name of the game for Ephrata the rest of the season is to continue racking up the victories that are within your control. And hey, who’s to say that a little luck from outside sources wouldn’t hurt either while we’re at it? However, leaving nothing to chance is obviously the most opportune way to go about things. Well, in that regard, Monday night’s outing against the Blazers by way of Birdsboro was certainly an outing well spent at the office that is Ephrata Middle School.

Simply put, the white jerseys that the Mounts were seen wearing were nothing if not poetic given the white-hot way in which they began the contest against Daniel Boone. In fact, with fans still filing into their seats, Ephrata had already surged out to an early 8-0 lead, an early salvo that came via a pair of triples knocked down by way of senior forward Dylan Kohl, as Daniel Boone was forced into an early timeout as a means to try and regroup just 1:17 into the contest. From there though, the Mounts’ advantage only continued to increase as an old-fashioned three-point play courtesy of another Ephrata senior, Andre Weidman, made it an 11-0 lead in favor the hosts roughly one minute later.

Finally, the visitors would be able to find their footing somewhat thanks to the efforts of a senior of their own, Mason Sacarello, as Sacarello’s pair of buckets inside got the Blazers into a bit of a groove with the first quarter now starting to near its midway point.

But as he would prove to be all night long, including here inside the opening eight minutes, Dylan Kohl would simply be a force all his own.

Here, following what would be his third triple of the opening frame, the Ephrata lead had once again ballooned out to a commanding difference, 17-4, just a handful of seconds following the brief Boone spurt. All told though, for a quarter which had so clearly been painted in purple and yellow, a late Blazers’ push inside the final few minutes of the opening quarter made it a respectable eight-point cushion, 20-12, which the Mounts possessed at the end of the first.

That eight-point lead? Well, things got a little hairier for Ephrata once the second quarter got underway let’s just say.

Sure, while Kohl and friends, not the least of which included Cooper Truskey who had also spilled in his own share of trifectas in the initial few minutes on Monday night to get Ephrata out to a commanding early lead, Daniel Boone appeared unphased nonetheless. Case in point, a three-point play authored by Blazers’ sophomore guard Harrison Delissant –who would go on to share team-high scoring honors alongside fellow 10th grader Brendan Gaines with each finishing with an 11-point night – to slice the Mounts’ lead down to very modest five at 24-19 with 6:10 left before the intermission.

However, that would be all the closer the opposition would get while inside the purple palace.

If we’re talking about specifics, the Mounts would proceed to go on an 11-4 run over the next few minutes in spite of the impromptu Daniel Boone push, a key run right before the halftime recess that was capped off by a you guessed it, Dylan Kohl 3-ball, as the senior’s latest and greatest trey helped to send his troops into the break with the 12-point cushion to their name, 35-23, once the final minute eventually bled off the second quarter clock.

And as fate would have it, the second half too would continue to be nothing more than largely an Ephrata coronation of sorts.

Aided by what had become their primary weapon of choice on the evening, shooting from beyond the arc, the Mounts’ most recent triple that came via the handiwork of sophomore Cooper Truskey helped usher Ephrata out to their largest lead of the evening up until that point at 42-25 with 4:40 left in the third. And with the outside game clearly being proficient, the Mounts then began to feed the ball down inside as well, something best evidenced in the form of an Andre Weidman bunny inside the paint a few seconds later off the Mounts’ “Wheel” action which made it a 44-27 affair in favor of the hosts.

Yet even with the deficit up on the scoreboard being a number that wouldn’t exactly be described as troublesome as far as the Mounts were concerned, Daniel Boone’s Brendan Gaines certainly did his best when it came to making Ephrata sweat bullets somewhat considering that the Blazers’ wiry sophomore would tally an impressive dipsy-do scoop shot at the cup which cut the lead down to a baker’s dozen, 44-31, with three minutes and change still yet to go in the third stanza. And once the quarter ultimately did conclude, the baker’s dozen went into the oven and suddenly came out as a sweet sixteen margin of separation as Ephrata carried the 49-33 lead with them into the final period on Monday evening.

At this point, shouldn’t the evening have ended much in the same vein as it began? Hey, if you were to ask Dylan Kohl, he certainly wouldn’t have a gripe about it. Sure enough, with 5:40 left to play in the contest, Kohl was able to bury yet another trifecta to add to his already stellar evening of shooting from bonus distance –good for three more en route to his game-high 20-point outing in this one – to make it a commanding 54-35 Ephrata lead right then and there.

But for all of the cheers that had been exuded up until that point, they would pale in comparison for what was about to take place next.

There, after checking into the contest for the first time all evening long, Ephrata senior Weston Nolt more than made up for lost time. And with the student section and others in attendance so clearly behind him, the Mounts’ big man would go on to tally a pair of buckets inside the waning stages to help make it a 20-point bulge with two minutes left to play with the decibel levels inside Ephrata Middle School being undoubtedly the loudest they had been over the past hour since the game got underway right before 7:30pm.

And in the end, while that 20-point lead at the time was impressive in its own right, the Mounts would only continue adding to it the rest of the way home as the night would eventually conclude not long afterwards in the form of what could only be labeled as a decisive and quite frankly dominating 67-44 Ephrata win over Daniel Boone that largely lasted from initial tip to final gun.

In some ways though, while the end result on Monday night would never really be all that much in doubt or in question, the irony of the game itself which saw Ephrata starting off strong before going into a bit of lull could serve as a bit of a snapshot for the Mounts’ season at large. Something their head coach could also get on board with.

“We’ve gotten off to fast starts in almost all of our home games and it’s just finding a way to keep going,” Ephrata third-year head coach Scott Gaffey said following his team’s 23-point triumph. “But yeah, that’s been the microcosm for us,” he went on to add of things in totality. “We make shots early and then we have to find a way to keep grinding and continuing to score.”  

But as far as that emotion-filled ride that is the regular season, that is something that Gaffey too was keenly aware of that would be coming right down the pike, yes, albeit with his club getting off to the best start of anyone who happened to call the L-L League their home this winter.

“We knew we had a tough stretch there with Central, Warwick, and Conestoga Valley in back-to-back-to-back games, but we told our guys after that, ‘Hey, we won five games in a row at the beginning of the season, who’s to say that we can’t rattle some off again? We’re 6-6 and we’re not that far out of districts. We just got to make a push again, especially with Central and Warwick coming here this time around,’” he said in regard to what was relayed internally following a rough patch that could’ve easily jilted most teams off course after falling victim to three consecutive L’s in divisional outings. “Our guys bought into that and knew that we’re capable of rattling some (wins) off again.”

Even still, while those on the outside with a keen rooting interest in the Mounts and their exploits will likely be updating the District 3 power rankings page seemingly daily, if not hourly here heading down the final furlong of the season to gauge as to where exactly Ephrata stacks up in the grand scheme of things, while he too is interested and vested in the prospects of a potential postseason berth, Gaffey knows better than to get bogged down with anything but taking care of the things he and his troops can control on a daily basis.

“Obviously we’re keeping an eye on it because it would mean a lot especially with us going up to 6A,” said Gaffey. “We thought this whole offseason that we had a really good shot in 5A thinking we could make it and then it kind of got a little disheartening once we found out we were going up to 6A and it’s like, okay, now we really have our work cut out for us,” he remarked. “We’re definitely keeping an eye on things, but at the same time, we’re just going game-by-game with it. But hey, obviously it would be nice and we’ll certainly take it if it comes.”

And if “it” comes to pass and Ephrata happens to snatch up a bid to what is arguably the most prestigious of all local high school hoops dances, while you’ve already got to recognize and appreciate the strides that the Ephrata Mounts on the hardwood continue to make on a perennial basis, that would at least lend tangible credence as to why this continues to appear as if it is a program on the rise.

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