Dell’s column: Feb.4, 2024

Written by: Dell Jackson on February 4, 2024

Dell’s column
Feb 4, 2024

And so it ends…
The regular season ends this week for LL teams.

The girls playoffs start next Saturday (Feb. 10th) There will be some top talent and top talented teams for this years girls brackets. LLhoops will be live streaming the final game at TWP on Feb. 15th. The games will be free sourced = not for pay. Here are the brackets.
GIRLS Bracket LINK from LL League

The boys LL playoff will start on Monday, Feb 13th. Some slots have been clinched (Cedar Crest 1-1), whereas others have to be decided this week. More on that below. Our standings are updated as we post the scores. LINK.
Boys Bracket

Tie breakers for the LL

Sponsors
Welcome ELA and PA/MD

There is still time to help sponsor the LL finals live stream.
Contact webmaster@llhoops.com or DM us on X @llhoops.

The Races
Section 1
Cedar Crest is the only LL team the has clinched a top spot in the LL playoffs. The Falcons have had some tough losses (LS, Berks Catholic, Central Dauphin), but, overall the Falcons have been the most consistent of the LL’s 6A teams. They await the second place team from Section 3 (that might be determined by District 3 power points).

Cedar Crest Clinching Section 1 Photo Credit: Rachelle Isgriggs

Penn Manor and Hempfield. This will be the battle for second. Penn Manor travels to Twp on Feb. 6th. (The Streaks beat PM 51-50 on Jan. 11th at Penn Manor). Hempfield has Lebanon on the same date. The second Hempfield/PM game was stopped on January 26th due to an injury and will be resumed this Thursday, Feb. 8th at 5 pm. The score on the resumed game will be 27-26 in Penn Manor’s favor with the Comets going to the line for 2 fouls shots. The clock was stopped at the 5:52 mark of the third. Here is the LINK for the first half of the first game up till halftime. IF both teams survive Tuesday, then the winner of this game will be the second slotted Section 1 team.

Aside- LLhoops plans to record the rest of the Hempfield/Penn Manor game and post it on our YouTube channel. It won’t be live streamed but will be recorded (John Graham and Warren Goodling have volunteered their services for the audio).

Section 2
Warwick has taken control of the Section. Currently, the Warriors have the longest winning steak at 10 games. Their defense has been outstanding, and they have proved, when hitting threes, that they can defeat most teams. It took awhile for the pre-season faves to develop cohesion, but the Warriors are battle tested and ready for another run in the LL’s and the District 3 tournament. With a 2 game lead going into the final week, one would think Warwick would have clinched. Well, not quite, Warwick plays Ephrata and Manhiem Central this week. One win for the Warriors and they clinch the top spot in Section 2 and the LL’s.

Ephrata and Manheim Central…Manhiem Central is one game ahead of Ephrata. Central defeated Ephrata 56-47 last week, which means that both teams split – first tie-breaker. Central plays Warwick this week on Thursday. Ephrata plays Warwick on Tuesday and then Ends the season with a road trip to Etown. IF Warwick beats Ephrata on Tuesday, then Manheim Central would clinch the second slot for Section 2. IF Ephrata defeats Warwick on Tuesday, then the Mounts would be one game behind Central and would need Warwick to beat Manheim Central for a tie, assuming Ephrata wins out this week. Remember that the tie breakers after the head to head goes to the team with the highest power points. Got it? 🙂

Section 3
LS made things very interesting this past week by defeating Octorara on the road. LS has 2 games remaining on their schedule (Northern Lebanon and Cocalico). The Octorara Braves have road trips to ELCO and Lancaster Catholic. Cocalico is lurking one game back of both LS and Octorara. If the Eagles can win out, then they could tie LS for second place (this assumes a Cocalico win at LS). The second slot in Section 3 will probably come down to some sort of power point determination. Stay tuned!

Section 4
Lancaster Mennonite is one game back of Columbia. Columbia won the first game between the
2 teams (61-54 at LMHS). The rematch will take place on Feb. 7th. at Columbia. If Columbia wins, then the title will go to the Tide and LMHS would be the second slotted team for Section 4 in the LL’s. With an LMHS win, both teams would be declared co-champs and the slots would be determined by power points (LMHS . 661350 and Columbia .661131 as of Feb. 4th) Pretty much looks like winner of this game will be the higher seeded team. Columbia with a win clinches. LMHS with a win should get the higher seed in the LL’s based on power points.

LLhoops live stream

Mark Palczewski Photo.

We covered the Hempfield/Penn. Manor game (first half is recorded – LINK). We also did a Girl /Boy double header at Lancaster Country as they played Lancaster Mennonite. It’s also fun interviewing our players of the game.

This week we end our regular season with a very meaningful game – Cocalico @ LS.

We will be live streaming the LL girls and Boys finals on February 15 and 16th.

District 3 games? The fees are very high, but we will consider covering some games if the school’s boosters or a sponsor kicks in to pay the fees to the District 3.

T me….
We continue giving out LLhoops merch to players of the game. Special thanks to Spooky Nook Basketball for sponsoring some of our gifts.

TJ told me several folks have asked him about shirts. LLhoops has a store and would be glad to send a shirt to you if purchased. Due to our multiple games we cover, and, hence, multiple giveaways, we have a very limited supply of this year’s version of the LLhoops Tshirt. We also have the links to purchase the 50th years of LL Boys basketball book on the site store.

LL playoffs..
Andy, TJ, and Dell will have a pre-LL tournament zoom next weekend. Andy will no doubt share his predictions.
We will be posting LL playoff information information on our LL Playoffs section.

Past games…
On the new website design, the most recent 5 posts are on the top of the page. They rotate thru but one can check out the posts using the 5 white dots at the bottom of the images. Each of our writers (Andy Herr, TJ Eck and Jon K) also have their articles link from the banners at the bottom of the page. For example, if I wanted to read Andy’s games from the past, I would click on Andy’s Take banner. This will give you a listing of his posts. We also have a search for the entire site. For example, if I wanted to check out all stories about Hempfield, I would click on the magnifying glass and type in Hempfield. The search will include any posts/pages we have done since 2017.

Standings
Current standings are under the standing tab. Also, we can find out past records on the standings page going back to 2019-20. However, the links to past team pages will not show up.

Special thanks …To all our LL staff…
Writers/X contributors: Andy Herr, TJ Eck, Jon K, Phillip Thrash, David Keller, Bruce Badgley
Live steam: Bruce Badgley, John Graham, Warren Goodling, TJ Eck, Curt Snelbaker, Deron Gue, Bob Wilson
Circle W: Server and IT support