Dell’s Column: Jan 2

Written by: Dell Jackson on January 2, 2023

Column: Jan 2, 2022

The week that was…

Andy
CD East/Hempfield
Camp Hill/Pequea Valley
LS/York
Kutztown/Annville-Cleona

Dell
Exeter/Cedar Crest
Wilson/Hempfield
Warwick/Lancaster Catholic
Dallastown/Penn Manor

N.East Beat- Jon and Phillip
Valley View/Lakeland
Carbondale/Mid Valley
Holy Redeemer/Emmaus

David Kehler
Christo Rey/Friends
Executive/Bensalem
George/Springsdale Chesnut Hill

District 2 info….
Jon K is updating weekly scores/standings and posting once on the main page.
After posting the schedule, all updates will be via a link on the top right via a lap top or scroll to the bottom of main page via cell.

Around the LL…..
Section 1
Hempfield and McCaskey are sporting 2-0 records in the section. Both the Knights and Tornado play some top notch non-league games in preparation for the LL run. Hempfield has taken on to name a few- Carlisle, W. York, LS, Wilson, Cd East. McCaskey played Reading, Harrisburg (although the Cougars are down this season), York, Coatesville, Northeastern, Lancaster Mennonite (at full strength). McCaskey travels to Hempfield January 10th.

Hempfield has a solid team of veterans. The Knights are led in scoring Miguel Pena, 6’2″ sn.(13 ppg), Ben Troyer, 6’3″ jn. (11 ppg) and Kamen Lawerence 6’5″ sn. (10 ppg). The Knights can play fast or slow. Although they are not deep, their ‘role’ players are more than capable of putting up some numbers as we saw with Nick Deeg vs. Wilson.

McCaskey is very much guard oriented. The Tornado fires up the three-ball often (59 makes in 9 games). Jonathan Byrd (10 ppg) is the straw that stirs this drink. He will undoubtably dish out some ‘wow’ dimes during games. De’Shaun McFadden (13 ppg) , Eric Centeno (12 ppg) and Elias Garcia (9 ppg) are the top scorers for McCaskey. The Tornado produces runs by using a variety of presses.

Section 2
Manheim Central, Epharta, and Warwick occupy the top slots in Section 2.

Warwick won its tournament for the first time in many years by beating Dallastown in OT :). The Warriors did not have top scorer- Carter Horst, out due a a sprained ankle, but Ya’Majesty Washington, 6’2″ frosh., popped a HUGE three-ball in OT to secure the win for Warwick.

The Barons lost to LL foe Columbia in the first round of Mifflin County tournament (67-57), but the Barons rebounded with a convincing W vs. Mifflin 64-43. The scoring machine, Trey Grube, continues notching points on his career totals (over 1300 so far).

The Warriors and Barons will have to wait until Jan 17th for their first head-to-head contest.

Ephrata comes in with an overall 7-2 record.

Section 3
LS, Cocalico and Octorara all sport unbeaten slates in the section. Octorara is 1-0 with the others being 2-0. With the exception of N. Lebanon, all teams in this section are at or above .500.

The surprise team here has to be the Cocalico Eagles. The Eagles have won 4 out of their last 5, with probably the best W coming against Lancaster Catholic. Cocalico is led in scoring by Camden Ochs, 6’5” spot (11 ppg), Aaryn Longenecker, 5’11” jn (11pg) and sharper-shooter Tyler Hambright, 5’10” sn. (7ppg with 10 triples). The Eagles can grind out games with the best of them as they are averaging 50 ppg and giving up 49.

Section 4
Has anyone forgotten that Columbia has run the table in the previous Section 5 three years in a row? Perhaps the Tide has been overlooked as they lost a bunch of 3 year players off of last year’s District 3 Championship team. However, Columbia sports a shiny 8-1 record with it’s only loss to 5A Muhlenberg.

The Tide are led by Brelon Miller (16ppg) and Jordan Poole (13 ppg). The Tide likes to get out and run- averaging 60 ppg. On defense they will play man and mix in some 1-3-1 zone.

Lancaster Mennonite is tied with Columbia at 1-0 in the Section. The Blazers are hoping to get high scoring guard, Cam Hurst (he was averaging 25 ppg), back later this season as he recovers from an injury. Meanwhile, LMHS is getting scoring from Myles Halvorsen, 6’2” Soph. (13 ppg), David Weaver, 6’6” sn. (12 ppg and averaging a double double-points and board- for the season), and Savier Sumrall, 5’10” sn. (11pg).

Last season, this section (was Section 5) produced 3 teams that played for District 3 crowns in different classification – Columbia 3A, LMHS 2A and Lancaster Country Day 1A.

LL Standings/Scores

Web design- LLhoops customer

We update the scores daily – usually within an hour of the last game. Thanks to all who send us scores via Twitter. We use a database from Circle W, which we then enter into that system. Once there, each team page and current standings are updated. The scores on the side of the main page are updated with the site- they appear on the right side on a laptop or computer (are there desktop computers anymore?). Bottom line is that the score page is the one updated first. Hit your refresh button often as sometimes we enter scores at various times and places throughout the evening. LL standings are under the standings section. The standings are linked to individual team pages. One can look back at the last few years standings- pretty neat. The links on past years standings will take you to this years games.

Live stream?
We back-loaded the scheduled games. Look for a bunch of games starting late Jan. Because games can change due to weather and staff conflicts, we will release live stream games the week of the game.

However, we are planning to cover the Mid Penn/LL shootout at Mannheim Central Doe Run Elementary School. The games will be on NFHS – You will need a subscription to watch the games. We will post up the link when the games are closer.

Tentative schedule for Jan 21st- Mid Penn/LL shootout:
Penn Manor vs Cedar Cliff 12:00
Cedar Crest vs Bishop McDevitt 1:30
Hempfield vs Central Dauphin 3:00
Warwick vs Lower Dauphin 4:30
Manheim Central vs Middletown 6:00

Other games will be on LLhoops YouTube page. The page includes past interviews and live stream games.

We hope to get the rights to the LL finals. Stay tuned!

We might cover some District 3 games, although there are fees involved.

Anyone that wants to sponsor a live stream game or all of our games, let us know 🙂
webmaster@llhoops.com

50th book….
Is it all a hoax? Nah…its getting closer and closer. Editing stage is completed, we are now in the layout stages of the book. We will have the book available via kindle, paperback (Amazon) and hard cover (Amazon). We hope to have the book available at Barnes and Noble as well.

We have several interviews with past and current coaches, past players, decade pieces, flashbacks to the LL’s PIAA championship teams, lots of standings, LL tournament results, and coaching records.

Excerpt via Andy Herr on the 2010-2022 decade:
“We Came Up Short, But I’m Glad We Came as Far as We Did”
Throughout much of the 2010 decade and beyond in Lancaster Lebanon League boys’ basketball, the conference had no shortage of remarkable teams it would be able to add to an already sparkling resume of squads that have grown into legendary status as time has progressed onward.And while previous decades may have been earmarked with the eventual emergence of one or two flagship programs above all others, the most recent chapter of L-L basketball saw both familiar faces and welcomed newcomers burst onto the scene.”

Dallastown/York updates
Thanks to Coach Mike Grassel for giving us some time and thoughts about his team and the York Adams league. This information will become more relevant as we getting ready for tournaments.

Store me…
We have added white long sleeve moisture wicking shirts, compliments of Spooky Nook Basketball ,to our inventory. The Black Beanies were a huge hit and sold out. We will see if we can get some more in our inventory. HERE

LL site info…
The site continues to gather hits as the season progresses. The standings and scores are our top views.
During the last 30 days, LLhoops has have over 60,000 page views. Yep 60k. Special thanks to our sponsors as we could not produce the site as free source. If you check google searches, there will be LLhoops front and center 🙂
BTW- Dell’s column comes in around 300 views per. 🙂

Our most recent sponsors are: