Donegal 68 Lancaster Catholic 47: wrap via TJ Eck
Written by: Dell Jackson on December 14, 2023
Hot-shooting Indians open section play with dominant win
The ball was going in the net early and often for Donegal in Thursday night’s Lancaster-Lebanon League Section 3 opener against Lancaster Catholic.
“From the beginning tonight we were talking about playing together, sharing the ball and that showed itself…in that first quarter,” said Donegal head coach Ryan Shipper. “A lot of extra passes, getting each other wide open shots. I think that was big for us in that first quarter.”
Donegal (5-1 overall, 1-0 L-L League) knocked down five three-pointers in the first quarter while building an early 23-16 lead. The Indians would never trail the rest of the way en route to a 68-47 victory over the Crusaders (1-2 overall, 0-1 L-L League).
“We knew going in that they had more threes on the season than they did twos and that was a point of emphasis for us,” said Lancaster Catholic interim head coach Cole Portz. “It’s a little bit different once you get out there and you start seeing them get in a rhythm…Credit to them, they know their strengths, they played to it, and they executed down the stretch and the score showed it.”
Four different Donegal players scored in double figures led by senior guard Evyan Patel, who poured in 22 points while sinking four shots from beyond the arc.
“We reversed the ball in the beginning of the game because that gets the offensive moving and that just gets the momentum of the offense going,” said Patel. “We set good screens which leads to wide open threes…we just started hitting threes and it goes through, it’s fluid.”
While Patel was the star of the night, he had plenty of help from his teammates. Donegal sophomore guard Joey Williams sanks four three-pointers and logged 14 points while senior guard Jonzel Morant scored 12 points and junior guard Sawyer Floyd chipped in 10 points for the Indians.
Lancaster Catholic was led in scoring by senior forward Crew Wells. Wells notched 12 first-half points and finished the night with 14 in the scoring column.
“Crew had his best performance tonight that he’s had all season,” said Portz. “We were waiting for it. We knew that it was coming. We knew what he was capable of and we have confidence in him that he’ll be able to do that the rest of the season.”
Forward Brian Sowers added 12 points in a losing effort for Lancaster Catholic as the Crusaders now look to bounce back from back-to-back losses when they host city rival McCaskey in a non-league game Saturday night.
“Our mantra this season is ‘Together’,” said Portz. “We gotta stick together through it. We have a large group of seniors that I really lean on and they gotta remain confident and know that the season is a journey.”
Meanwhile, Donegal has now won five straight after a season-opening loss and the Indians have the look of a team that’s ready to compete for the L-L League Section 3 title and more.
“We had to make sure coming into this game that we had to get that section win so we are on top,” said Patel.
Shipper added: “I think they’re starting to kind of get to the point where we are playing together. We want to kind of put it together in four quarters as far as sharing the ball, playing together. And then just continuing to try and get better defensively and defensive rebound.”
Donegal returns to action Monday night when the Indians travel to Lampeter-Strasburg for another L-L League Section 3 tilt.
~TJ Eck
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