Crusaders rout Donegal, extend winning streak to four
Written by: TJ Eck on January 18, 2024
It’s a staple of Lancaster Catholic basketball and it was on display Thursday night.
The Crusaders broke out their full-court, man-to-man pressure defense early against Donegal. The press flustered the visiting Indians and forced them into seven first-quarter turnovers, which led to multiple easy baskets on the offensive end. LCHS built an 11-point lead in the opening frame and rode that early momentum to a dominant victory, 66-37.
“We’ve been working on that press a lot recently,” said Lancaster Catholic senior guard Logan Weyforth. “We’re a smaller team but when we get active on defense, we cause a lot of turnovers…and that’s been successful for us the last few games.”
From past coaches Danny Walck and Bill Southward to current head coach Joe Klazas, man-to-man pressure defense has been a calling card of the Crusaders for decades. It’s continuing under interim head coach Cole Portz.
“I think it was a big contributing factor (to the win),” said Portz. “But really it was our leadership and our composure of our players down the stretch that won us that game.”
One of the leaders for LCHS is Weyforth. He stuffed the stat sheet Thursday night by scoring 17 points, grabbing five rebounds, and picking up two steals. His backcourt mate Colton Hegener, a sophomore, scored a game-high 18 points and also came away with two steals. At one point in the fourth quarter Hegener scored on four consecutive possessions.
“(Hegener’s) probably one of my favorite sophomores in the school,” said Weyforth. “We have great chemistry…just playing with him, getting buckets, getting steals, it’s just great.”
Portz also praised his two guards: “Logan has done a really good job as a leader helping Colton, who’s a younger player, come up and develop his confidence.”
Also contributing for the Crusaders in Thursday’s victory was senior forward Crew Wells, who scored 12 points and grabbed six rebounds. Brian Sowers added eight points while Leo Lambert logged five points and six rebounds for the home team.
Senior guard Jonzel Morant led the way for Donegal, scoring a team-high 16 points. Sophomore guard Joey Williams chipped in 11 points and eight rebounds for the Indians, who drop to 8-9 overall and 2-5 in Lancaster-Lebanon League play.
Meanwhile, Lancaster Catholic has turned its season around after a rough start. Following a season-opening victory over York Catholic, the Crusaders lost eight straight including a 21-point defeat at Donegal in mid-December. They’ve rebounded to win four in a row and improve to 5-8 overall (3-3 L-L League).
“I would love to sit here and take credit for some of this but it’s not on me at all,” said Portz. “It’s our seven seniors and how they worked hard and they made a deliberate decision to say we’re not gonna let this season go down the toilet without a fight. And they have shown a lot of fight down the stretch and won some games.”
Weyforth added: “I just feel like we were tired of losing….at some point we were like this has gotta stop, we gotta do something different. We just keep grinding at practice and it’s been working.”
But the schedule doesn’t get any easier for LCHS. The Crusaders are scheduled to visit undefeated Berks Catholic (12-0 overall) on Saturday. The Saints are the No. 1 team in the Class AAAA District 3 power ratings.
“We’re still confident even though we know they’re a good team, one of the best ranked teams in the state, we know that,” said Weyforth. “But we are confident in ourselves and I think we can get it done.”
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