Young Dutchmen Hang Tough, Fall Victim To Lancaster County Christian Fourth Quarter Surge As Lions Nab Key Road Victory At Annville Cleona For Themselves, CCAC On Monday Night

Written by: Andy Herr on December 16, 2025

It’s the third full week of December. It’s been a few days (literally) since section play around the Lancaster-Lebanon League officially commenced. A big chunk of everyone’s respective resumes thus far is attributed to that of the legwork done in the non-con portion of the slate. We’re still a week out from Christmas. And we’re still a ways away from actually deciphering what any sort of playoff picture around the L-L League might end up looking like as we head towards February. Even still….Temperature check time, anyone?

In Section One, good luck trying to make heads or tails of any possible early storylines other than to say that McCaskey does indeed look like a force to be reckoned with as forecasted by some. Well, that, and Lebanon’s Derek Franco is a walking bucket capable of going off for 30-plus points quite literally any time out as he showed in just week’s sample size against the likes of Warwick and McCaskey alone.

In Section Two, both the preseason players (Hello, Cocalico) and perhaps some of the originally undervalued clubs (Looking at you, CV), look poised to make this a divisional field that is full-fledged cannibalism this winter where everyone can knock off anyone.

Section Three thus far looks like it’s Octorara against the field. But don’t sleep on that ELCO bunch either.

Then, once we get to Section Four, things look a bit more interesting.

For years, this was Columbia and Lancaster Mennonite’s personal playground with everyone else being relegated to playing a version of, “Who got next?” in Section Four (or Five) when both of those two clubs were among the favorites to win District 3 titles in their respective classification levels. Since then, however, there’s been a bit of a changing of the guard if you will.

Just look at Annville-Cleona for instance. Yes, that same A-C program that routinely makes it a tradition of hanging out near that playoff bubble for years on end now.

Coming into this season, the Dutchmen had to do some replacing in order to keep the proverbial bar that high. Like, the very casual and very easy task of replacing a pair of 1,000-point scorers found in Elisha Slabach and Jon Shay respectively-type replacing, ya know?

And through their first four outings thus far on the year, it’s been the quintessential mixed bag of sorts for the Dutchmen. Two games up, two games down for their record overall. One game up, one game down in terms of A-C’s Section Four progress through the first two matchups in league.

This week though, with the season really starting to ramp up for real just prior to that upcoming holiday lull hanging out right around the corner, this looked to be an important week for the Dutchmen coming in.

On Tuesday, an up-close look behind the curtain at one of the best stories that has bubbled to the surface thus far as A-C tangles with an ELCO squad that is all of one point away – in overtime no less — from owning an unblemished record on the Raiders’ home floor. From there, how about being the literal first guests into a new house when Pequea Valley officially opens its doors on Thursday night for the first boys’ basketball game at their new gym? Oh yeah, a pretty key sectional game at that too when A-C comes a ‘calling.

But before all of that, we must first start with Monday night.

For that was marked by a visit from the Lancaster County Christian Lions by way of the CCAC, the same conference that produced last year’s 2A state champion, Linville Hill, a league that (still) does not get near enough pub and love for the level of hoops they have churned out here in recent memory.

And yeah, while perhaps County Christian’s 1-4 overall mark coming into Monday night at A-C’s “Barn” would’ve been easy to gloss over at first blush, taking this pack of Lions lightly could prove to be a fatal error.

In the end, while Annville-Cleona did anything but the sort, what did prove to be fatal in the long run would be a key Lions’ burst inside the game’s most critical of junctures – the fourth frame.

Before that though, way back at the start of the contest, the offensive rhythm and flow for either side seemed to be sputtering.

Case in point, Lancaster County Christian going through a three-minute scoring slump before a pair of triples sunk by way of Aaron MacCartney and Parker Stone respectively gave the Lions their first lead of the early going, 8-7, thanks to the exploits by way of their senior wing and junior guard operating in tandem with one another.

All told, for a first quarter largely defined by either team’s defenses — the 2-3 employed by Annville-Cleona against that of LCC’s 1-2-2 — it seemed rather apropos that an eight-minute slugfest end in the slimmest of differences – that being a 9-8 Annville-Cleona lead held upon entering the second act.

But there would be no further slugfest if A-C’s Zari Houge had anything to say about it. No, he would instead offer up the fireworks display at the onset of the second quarter.

To say that the Dutchmen’s 6’2 junior wing did the bulk of the damage for the home side just prior to the end of the half might be selling Mr. Houge far too short. In fact, while ignited by his own personal flurry that saw him compile seven straight A-C points to help the collective cause — the last of which came on a sweet floater along the baseline — Houge had single-handedly propelled Annville-Cleona out to the 19-16 advantage over the course of two minutes and change with inside of four minutes left prior to the halftime buzzer going off.

That said, while LCC would counter back with a triple sprayed in MacCartney which later awarded the lead back to the Lions at a 21-19 count with roughly three minutes left before the intermission, the Dutchmen would respond in kind by then offering up their own 5-0 salvo to close things out – kickstarted by a 3-ball nailed by sophomore guard, John Ditzler, — as A-C marched into the halftime break with the added benefit of possessing a 26-21 lead.

Yet as Annville-Cleona was discovering in very real time, putting away this Lancaster County Christian crew for good was certainly not a task for the overly faint of heart.

Sure enough, the Lions would see two separate instances for themselves while playing with their largest lead of the night inside the game’s third act albeit at a modest three-point cushion, the last of which came following a smooth step-back jumper sunk by the LCC table-setter, Sheldon Fisher, as the Lions’ junior point guard scored two more amongst his 14-point performance on the evening to give the guests a 33-30 lead with roughly two minutes left in the third.

Fittingly though, for a game that featured a margin of separation next to nil all throughout the course of the game’s first 24 minutes up until then, it seemed just and appropriate that things conclude at the expiration of the third quarter with a 35-35 stalemate between these two clubs as a Lane Peters’ trey for A-C within the final minute helped to get the hosts back on level ground just prior to entering the final period.

Needless to say, with final outcome here most certainly still up for grabs, the time was now if either one of these two teams wanted to take the baton and run with it. Well, one team would. Actually, one individual would most definitely.

While it would’ve been easy to maybe not pay much attention to Devynn Mast’s overall stat line on the evening at large afterwards, that wouldn’t be giving the Lions’ sophomore guard his proper credit. Here, playing well beyond his relative years in terms of experience, Mast proceeded to rattle off six straight points in crunch time to propel the Lions’ collective machine out to what their largest lead of the night at the time, 47-41, with 3:50 left to play.

But County Christian, and Mast for that matter, were only getting started.

Case in point, even when Mast himself may not have been the one scoring for the Lions, his defensive prowess was equally as effective for the LCC contingent regardless. Case in point, a steal that resulted in a Parker Stone bucket at the cup down on the other end, good for a pair of Stone’s game-high 15-points tallied on the night, making it a 50-46 LCC lead with possessions now at an absolute premium.

Unfortunately, for those with a vested interest in that of the home side, A-C would net all of two additional points throughout the remainder of the game’s final furlong.

On the opposing side of the coin however, now playing with their clearest and most visible boost of added confidence seen at any point throughout the contest up until that point, the game’s dagger would come via an Aaron MacCartney 3-ball sunk right in front of his team’s bench inside the final minute for the final, back-breaking bucket which would seal the deal on a key, key Lancaster Country Christian 57-48 victory on the road at Annville-Cleona not just for the Lions themselves, but for the CCAC at-large in this quiet, yet prideful conference rivalry strewed about on the local high school basketball landscape.

All that is to say, not the start to a key week that the Dutchmen were hoping for coming out of Monday night. Fair. Valid. But, with only one senior on the roster this season, there’s plenty to like about the potential upside here for A-C moving forward. Not just this season, but well beyond it as well. With an explosive guard the likes of Zari Houge, pure size and strength not possessed by many throughout Section Four when it comes to Max Ortwein, James Garney, and Danny Shay amongst the few, Annville-Cleona will be a headache for opponents moving forward. And who’s to say? Maybe there’s no need to wait and see the fruits of that bright future coming into view until later. As they’ve proven throughout the first few contests, Annville-Cleona isn’t done winning this year. Sure, maybe it didn’t happen on this night, but there’s no reason to shy away from buying A-C stock. Right here, right now.  

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