Cross Court Vision: LL Section 4 Mid Season Observations
Written by: Sterling Cross on January 16, 2025
Ordinarily I’ll use this space to post quick observations from the latest game I’ve seen, along with some game film that is expanded from our quick social media edits. But to start, let’s get up to speed on what I’ve seen so far, through the first 12-15 games of the season. Please note that these views are my own and do not represent the collective thoughts or opinions of LLHoops.com. This is the last of 4 posts and covers Section 4:
I went back and forth about whether to write up any mid season observations about section 4. At the start of the week, there wasn’t much need since the main takeaway’s would’ve been pretty clear to anyone interested enough to read. Lancaster Mennonite is a class above the rest, and Annville-Cleona, while a distant second, appeared to be by themselves on the next tier down. LLHoops senior writer and all-around high school hoops expert Andy Herr provided a ton of context on section 4 in his write up of the Mennonite vs Country Day game on Monday. That has more detail, better analysis, and greater insight than I could ever hope to provide. If you have some time, Andy’s Take is always worth the read. All that, and I admittedly haven’t watched these teams much. Before last night I’d been to 2 games and seen just 3 teams in section 4.
Almost all of that is still true now – LMH is still head and shoulders above the next best team in the league, Andy’s Take still has more insight than you’ll ever find here, and I’ve still only seen a handful of section 4 teams. But one major shift in the landscape occurred on Monday night in Lebanon: shortly after scoring his 1,000th career point less than a minute into the first quarter, Annville-Cleona superstar and the LL’s leading scorer Elisha Slabach (24ppg) checked out of the game with an ankle injury. He hasn’t been back on the floor in the seven quarters since and the Dutchmen are 0-2 without him. That one development changes section 4 from a foregone conclusion to a complete toss up for the second playoff spot. LMH is still the prohibitive favorite to go undefeated in the section, and for my money, I think Lancaster Country Day School should have the best odds to finish second, but every team in section 4, save for maybe Pequea Valley, now has a genuine shot at it.
With that context, here are my just-past-mid-season Section 4 Team by Team observations
Lancaster Mennonite: I posted a quick highlight of the Blazers contest against Halifax to the LL Hoops Instagram page back in December. I made the trip out thinking a rematch of last year’s district 3 2A title game might be competitive. It wasn’t. Mennonite dunked on them (literally) the same way they’ve dunked on everyone else this year (with Linville Hill being the lone exception). This is the caption from that post: ”here are 3 things you probably already know about @lmhblazersbball : 1. Hurst attacks the rim like he’s 6’8” 260lbs 2. As a team the Blazers share the ball, but Grau is an elite playmaker 3. Fisher can get a 🪣whenever he wants. No surprise, LMH is still unbeaten.” Still sounds right to me.
Lancaster Country Day School: I saw the Cougars play for the first time yesterday, but covered the Iungo World Summer league in July which they played in alongside last night’s opponent and fellow District 3 1A competitor La Academia. Observations from that game are forthcoming, so I will be brief here: LCDS is currently 3-1 in league play, excluding games against LMH. Their one loss is to the Dutchmen whom they play again at the end of this month. Who knows whether Elisha Slabach will be back in the line-up for AC by then, but it may not matter. The Cougars look to be in prime position to finish second in the league regardless. They need to knock off Northern Lebanon on Tuesday and it would help if AC drops another league game (but the Cougars could take care of that themselves).
Northern Lebanon: The Vikings are very interesting in section 4. Northern Lebanon gets good production from an 8-man rotation of exclusively upperclassmen. Junior Brady Krall is a dog. Yes he’s a 6’4” junior who leads the team in scoring at 15ppg, but I’m talking more about his on court demeanor. Guy is a competitor, at least from what I saw when they faced Columbia just before the holiday break. I thought they were the better team that night, but when the clock hit zeros a double-digit half-time lead had melted into a two-point loss. The Vikings had a three-point lead through 2 quarters in their first match-up against AC but ultimately fell short by a single point. Slabach scored 26. On Monday, the Vikings had their rematch with the Dutchmen and won handily. In order to sneak into the LL playoffs, N Lebanon will need to win each of their next 3 games, including a road trip to LCDS, and for the Dutchmen to struggle down the stretch. I don’t have that on my bingo card just yet, but AC lost to Columbia on Tuesday and the Vikings will be favored against both Columbia and Pequea Valley the second time around. While they’ll be underdogs against the Cougars, they only lost the first match up by 7.
Columbia: Senior Ladarian Miller last suited up for Columbia when they played Pequea Valley on the road in mid-December, a game the Tide ultimately lost by just 3 points. Miller still has 23 more total points this season than his next closest teammate. That teammate happens to be freshman Chase Houck, the only player to appear in all 10 games for the Tide so far this year. Two other freshman, Martez Baker and Rome Elliot, are also in the rotation. The road ahead looks tough, but not impassable. The Tide have 4 section games left to play, excluding one against the Blazers tomorrow, and need to win them all. To start, they’ll have to get through PV and N Lebanon. The Tide split those contests in the first go-round, losing by 3 on the road to PV and winning by 2 at home against N Lebanon. Following those games they’ll have a rematch against the Dutchmen, who they just beat on Tuesday. Finally, if they come through that gauntlet unscathed, a road game against LCDS awaits them to close out the season. I think the Tide are favorites to beat PV this time around in Columbia. They’ve already beaten N Lebanon and proven they can beat the Dutchmen if Slabach is not in the line-up. They wouldn’t be favored against the Cougars, but who knows, anything can happen when the post season is on the line. The path for the Tide is narrow, but clear.
Annville-Cleona: I haven’t seen the Dutchmen play, but the box scores paint a pretty clear picture. The question is whether Elisha Slaback will return to the line up, and if so, what the Dutchmen’s league record will be when he does. They may be able to get by Pequea Valley a week from today, but LCDS would be another story altogether and they already lost to Columbia in their first full game without #14. If AC beats the Braves and Slabach is at full health against the Cougars, the Dutchmen may yet be able to hold on to the final post season spot in section 4.
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