Warwick’s Reign Over Section Two Continues As Warriors Push Away Conestoga Valley, Stalk Possibility Of Sweeping Divisional Foes This Season
Written by: Andy Herr on January 22, 2025
You know that old cliché used in sports? The one that says, “You want to be peaking at just the right time?” Well, yeah, even here in the world of Lancaster-Lebanon League boys’ basketball in the year 2025, there are indeed some teams that seem to be prescribing to that notion with the season now situated at its absolute hottest inflection point.
Just take the Conestoga Valley Buckskins for instance.
Coming into their Tuesday night home game after having the weekend off from game competition, the Bucks from Witmer have been one of the best revelations within the entire the conference here in this most recent stretch. In fact, save for a game against West York two weeks ago now, CV has known nothing but winning within that same time frame, something best evidenced by Conestoga Valley coming into this week as winners of four of their last five contests. Ironically enough, while that four-game uptick was massive in and of itself, the fact that all of those victories came against fellow L-L Section Two competition, the division in which Conestoga Valley calls its home neighborhood, the Buckskins have suddenly since elevated themselves into second-place all by their lonesome in terms of the divisional race thanks to a crucial 60-50 road win at Ephrata this past Friday night. Not only that, but when broadening the scope out even wider, seeing the Buckskins sitting exactly one spot outside the cut line of the current District3-6A playoff hunt at #17 regarding to-be-finalized 16-team bracket now signifies that every game in which CV plays from here on out will come part in parcel with the most pressing of stakes in terms of their overall postseason aspirations. And hey, when you consider that it wasn’t all that long ago when the Buckskins were seeing riding the season-long roller coaster ride of pendulum swings in terms encountering a losing skid over here, finding a winning streak sitting there, this version of Conestoga Valley, the much more consistent version, has rightly elevated CV outside of the realm of being considering just a “dangerous” team into that of a true and viable threat come postseason time if they can punch their ticket(s) to the dance.
That said, that impressive slate of late would certainly come to a head on Tuesday night when the Warwick Warriors came calling.
As of the 21st of January, there are only teams inside the entire L-L League that have known nothing but victory against their section brethren. Aside from Lancaster Mennonite, the other team that can boast such an honor are those aforementioned Warriors.
In fact, Warwick has only been tripped up twice throughout the entire 2024-25 campaign to date, with one of those requiring Penn Manor to need overtime as a means to accomplish the feat. In terms of their reign over Section Two most specifically, aside from their unblemished 7-0 record they carried while coming into Rill Gymnasium on a bitterly cold Tuesday night, Warwick hadn’t even been threatened in terms of a single-digit victory aside from two very game efforts posed by the likes of Garden Spot and E-town found inside the month of January. For their troubles, while angling towards what appears to be an eventual Section Two title given what they’ve able to do to date, Warwick stood very comfortably and cozy while positioned as the #7 seed inside the District 3-6A power rankings coming into the new week.
And while the “official” line of demarcation for postseason play is still a few weeks away yet, what better way to try and get a gauge on what it may end up looking like than with the two top teams in Section Two in those current standings duking it out against one another in a battle between a pair of the hottest teams that the Lancaster-Lebanon League has to offer?
But in a game like this, with two trains heading down the track at one another while traveling at varying rates of speed, something would have to give here in this matchup. As it turned out, it would be the locomotive that’s been fully loaded with freight this entire season that would be the one (still) relatively unimpeded.
Early on, things couldn’t have started out much better for the visitors from Lititz. Aside from a Parker Horst take to the tin which awarded the Warriors an early 7-2 buffer which prompted the Buckskins into burning an early timeout with 5:49 still left in the opening period, a Brody Clausen triple, the 6’5 junior wing’s second of the initial few minutes on Tuesday evening, bumped Warwick’s cushion up to half a dozen, 10-4, before a much-needed answer inside courtesy of CV’s Grayson Fisher helped to stem the tide somewhat on the hosts’ next trip down the floor offensively.
However, Warwick would only continue building upon that existing cushion in the ensuing few minutes.
First up, a determined take to the cup via the efforts of rangy 6’4 junior guard, Ya’Majesty Washington, making it a nine-point Warriors’ lead at 19-10 before the dust eventually settled on an opening eight minutes which saw the section’s first-place team behaving as such considering their 22-12 advantage after one.
Yet not even a difference in quarters seemed to do all that much when it came to trying to slow down this Warriors’ machine.
In fact, following an opening frame which saw Warwick splash down two triples from Caleb Johnsen and Brody Clausen amongst themselves, the Warriors’ starting point guard, Parker Horst, continued in the fanfare by promptly burying one of his own from bonus distance to conclude the visitors’ opening offensive possession of the second stanza in style.
From there, Clausen remained up to his old tricks by bombing in his third triple of the first half, a three-point dagger which allowed Warwick to double up their hosts at a 28-14 count with just a hair inside of six minutes left standing in the opening half by that point.
To be sure, Conestoga Valley needed something to happen. And fast if they didn’t wish to fall victim to what has become the overriding narrative for Warwick’s performance against all comers inside Section Two most every night so far this season.
For that, the Buckskins leaned upon their youngest of blossoming stars, DeMere Salisbery, as the CV freshman lead guard was able to swipe the ball away from his on-ball defensive position while then racing to the other end and finishing things off with a one-hand dunk to help breathe some life into his Buckskins’ troops.
That said, what’s good for the goose is also good for the gander.
Ironically enough, while Salisbery sports the #3 jersey for his side, so too does Ya’Majesty Washington for his. And while one #3 had just helped tear the lid off Rill Gymnasium just moments prior, Washington felt the desire to do the same as a Washington steal and dunk of his own not long afterwards helped to silence any bit of CV-garnered momentum at the time.
Speaking of Washington, while he may have “only” finished the evening by bucketing a dozen-point effort in which would place him third amongst his fellow Warwick counterparts on this night, his well-rounded effort on both sides of the floor was most certainly loud on its own merit. Perhaps that is why his Euro-step move en route to the hoop would later make it a 20-point Warwick bulge at a 39-19 count with now inside of two minutes in Tuesday’s first half.
However, to their credit, Conestoga Valley steadily began chipping away at a deficit that was flirting dangerously close with triggering the mercy-rule into effect.
In that regard, a timely triple knocked down in transition by way of CV junior guard, Sawyer Esbenshade, helped to bring the Bucks back inside of 20 before a magnificent one-on-one, step-back triple hit just prior to the second quarter horn by Salisbery, the game-high scorer on the night overall thanks to his 20-point showing, made it a 41-26 affair at the intermission which wasn’t necessarily a terrible place for the home team to be residing considering what all had transpired inside the opening 16 minutes.
Suffice to say, while CV wouldn’t be able to erase the halftime gap in one fell swoop, they certainly could try and make amends by gradually slicing away at the Warriors’ margin. Sure enough, that’s exactly what they did when called upon.
Despite falling victim to what was largely a Warwick-dominated barrage of trifectas levied against them inside the first half on Tuesday night, the Buckskins opted to trying that same method of attack come the third period. And it seemed to work as desired considering how CV sophomore sniper, Camryn Bair, proceeded to steal the initial stages of the third period by burying two massive triples for his squad, the latter of which brought the homestanding Buckskins within their closest margin in more than a quarter, 45-34, with just shy of three minutes having been evaporated off the game clock by that point. Yet while the gap would remain at 11 following a walk-in triple sunk by DeMere Salisbery which then made it a 49-38 affair with now inside of two minutes left in the third, it was time for someone on Warwick’s side to offer a rebuttal.
Fittingly, it would come from the work of the one who drew the assignment of hounding CV’s freshman stud all evening long defensively as Warwick’s Caleb McCamant took his turn at offering his own offensive exploits inside the waning stages of the third stanza by authoring his own personal five-point salvo – from both outside and inside the arc — to help usher the black-clad guests into the final period while having the benefit of possessing the 54-38 lead.
Yet if it was possible for someone to have a “quiet” 18-point night, that’s precisely what Caleb Johnsen brought to the table on Tuesday night against CV.
While it wasn’t necessarily littered with tremendous fanfare, it was equally beneficial all the same from the Warriors’ perspective as the newest member of the program’s 1,000-point club came away with a pair of takes to the cup to help raise the curtain on the fourth quarter festivities all while helping to make it a 60-40 contest with the outcome all but cemented by that point.
And while another Sawyer Esbenshade triple inside the final few minutes would help bridge the gap back down to two touchdowns at 60-46 with 4:45 left to play, the Buckskins would get no closer for the remainder of the night.
Then, in terms of the punctuation mark placed on this one, it seemed apropos that Ya’Majesty Washington would be the one to offer such services as his two-handed dunk which seemed to be nothing if not effortless helped to put on a bow on this evening which was essentially Warwick’s all throughout its entirety as proven by their final 66-51 final verdict on CV’s home floor come the buzzer sounding.
So, with such a performance as the one in which they exerted against the team that came into the evening as their closest competitor found inside the section standings, it seems as if this indeed will be yet another year in which a Section Two title, no matter who happens to reside within it, will once again be run through Lititz. And while climbing ladders and cutting down nets have become fairly commonplace for this long-standing brand in terms of their divisional prowess most of all, they’re understandably feeling a little bit selfish this year. Yes, while winning a section crown is certainly nothing to take for granted, that’s rightly become a case of been there, done that, from Warwick’s perspective. Now, the challenge becomes doing something that hasn’t been done in almost two generations—climbing a ladder and cutting a net after winning the L-L League championship. Up til this point, it’s hard to find many others who have as reasonable of an argument to make.
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