Hempfield Completes ‘Business Trip’ As Black Knights Tame ELCO, Advance To Wednesday Night’s L-L Semifinals
Written by: Andy Herr on February 15, 2022
For as good as the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament is –and selfishly we truthfully believe it is the best of any local conference around – there are certain unalienable qualities about it that make it so intrinsically special and unique. Sure, while it’s fun to see the matchups of teams that don’t meet eye-to-eye in the ring against one another during the regular season yet still observe each other from a distance before finally squaring off in the league playoffs, such as the case with nearly all of the games contested in Monday’s quarterfinal round, perhaps the best feature of this week-long marathon is the fact that it can sometimes throw teams way outside of their normal, routine environment. And if that flavor is more up your alley, boy oh boy, did the matchup in Myerstown come Monday evening tantalize your taste buds.
To put it mildly, the Hempfield Black Knights and ELCO Raiders never really seem to come across each other’s paths very much. Sure, while there’s always a chance that they may meet up in a summer league game here or there, perhaps even at a team camp in the dog days of the offseason, the interaction between these two programs is essentially null and void. And sure, that’s probably to be expected seeing as how Hempfield hails from the ranks of the 6A classification system, along with Section One of the L-L League, while ELCO on the other hand is a District 3-4A school who always seem to reside in Section Four of the conference, whether there are five divisions in the league on any given year or not. Suffice to say, the prospect of seeing the Black Knights and Raiders appear opposite of one another in the quarterfinal round of this year’s bracket was enough to raise more than a few eyebrows for those who monitor the happenings of the L-L basketball landscape on a more intimate basis. However, thanks to Hempfield finishing the regular season as the Section One co-champion alongside Manheim Township, that meant that ELCO would be there waiting for them given that the Raiders finished their impressive regular season campaign as the champs hailing out of Section Four.
But if the aspect of seeing these two successful programs match up with one another wasn’t already enough, consider the fact that it meant that Hempfield would be tasked with making the extremely rare trip up to Myerstown on Monday night for the battle, a contest which would be held inside a hornet’s nest of a setting that the Black Knights likely had never seen before, nor will witness since considering the cozy and shall we say, “unique” layout of ELCO’s home gymnasium, coupled with the Raiders’ faithful surely frothing at the mouth at the opportunity to slay a giant who happened to wander onto their home turf.
On this night though, not even a change in scenery appeared to do much good in terms of slowing down the Black Knights’ machine, albeit unfamiliar surroundings and all.
That said however, the visitors from Landisville didn’t exactly get off to a blazing-hot start once the game itself got underway. No, not when you consider ELCO proceeded to start the contest off by racing out to a quick 4-0 lead in the early going on Monday night, an early salvo that was capped off by a pair of Corey Attivo free throws with six minutes and change left in the first quarter proceedings. Somewhat surprisingly though, the Raiders were unable to generate any distance from there on out throughout the early portion of the opening frame seeing as how the hosts left several bunnies underneath the cup begging, allowing Hempfield to still stay right in the thick of things as the opening period rounded itself into form. Finally, and at long last most certainly as far as they had to be concerned, the Black Knights were able to break the scoring seal with an Cole Overbaugh bucket underneath courtesy of a sweet dish from junior guard, Miguel Pena, as the Hempfield senior big man made it a 4-2 ballgame at the 3:44 mark of the opening frame.
Even still, ELCO wasn’t about to let Hempfield start to feel good about themselves.
That became even more true seeing as how a timely 3-ball sprayed in from beyond the arc from fearless sophomore, Camden Marquette, put the hosts up an impressive 9-4 count shortly thereafter, undoubtedly putting some shred of hesitation within the Hempfield faithful who traveled to Lebanon County given how much of the first quarter narrative came to be.
Granted, it’s much easier to wipe away of those lingering doubts when you have a point guard the likes of Miguel Pena on your side. Well, fortunately for Hempfield, they can pull that ace out from underneath their sleeve at any given moment whenever the waters get choppy. Case in point, while staring up at a five-point deficit in the early going on Monday evening, the Black Knights’ confident junior guard proceeded to come right down the floor and answer the Marquette trifecta with a pullup deuce of his own, slicing the Raiders’ cushion down to three within the blink of an eye with roughly 1:30 still left to go before the first quarter would later expire. The thing was though, Pena wasn’t done there. No, not when you factor into the equation his own personal 4-0 spurt within the final few seconds to end the first frame, all of which capped off a key 8-0 Hempfield haymaker that sent the Black Knights into the second stanza with ownership of the 12-9 advantage once all was said and done.
As it turned out though, that little momentum shift in the Black Knights’ direction would prove to be even more fruitful following the brief respite in between quarters.
Suffice to say, Hempfield’s zone trap following made buckets on the offensive end proved to be a key catalyst as to how and why the Black Knights were able to stymie ELCO and throw them out of any sort of cohesive rhythm when the Raiders were operating offensively seeing as how the hosts suddenly found themselves having to with being bitten by the turnover bug. So, with one facet of their attack purring like the engine of a foreign sports car, the Black Knights proceeded to exacerbate the Raiders’ open wound by pouring in even more offensive firepower just for good measure.
For that, look no further than a confident Pena triple –three more en route to his sharing of team-high scoring honors alongside Ben Troyer on the evening – as the junior’s 3-ball put Hempfield up by double figures at 19-9 with 5:40 still to go before the intermission. And while a pair of Luke Williams freebies at the charity stripe would later bring ELCO back within a touchdown at 19-12 with 3:28 still to go at that point in time, a tough-as-nails rebuttal of a jumper on the Black Knights’ ensuing offensive trip from 6’2 senior guard, Parker Wolfe, doused any sort of Raiders’ flames the hosts may have been able to try and conjure up. From there though, Hempfield would be able to push their lead out in even further, this time to a baker’s dozen, as the Black Knights soared into the dressing room with a 25-12 lead to their name after holding ELCO to just three points within the eight-minute session which had just been retired.
Regardless, even the third quarter too would seem to take on much of the same narrative that had enveloped the contest up until that point.
Yes, even with ELCO starting off the second half with a trifecta, this one sunk by 6’3 senior forward, Luke Williams, good for an addition of three more en route to his sharing of team-high scoring honors alongside Dallas George with each netting an 11-point outing respectively, the Black Knights would push that lead right back up over the ensuing few possessions seeing as how a coast-to-coast finish by 6’5 big man, Cole Overbaugh, made it a 27-15 affair in favor of Hempfield with not even two minutes having been evaporated off the third quarter clock. Later, the Black Knights just kept right on pouncing. That seemed to ring even more true especially considering the old-fashioned three-point play converted by way of Parker Wolfe, an exchange which gave the Knights their largest lead of the evening up until that point, 34-20, with 2:48 remaining in the third.
To their credit though, realizing that their window of opportunity was rapidly shrinking right in front of them, ELCO took off on one final jaunt.
In that regard, the three-point play capped off by ELCO 6’7 senior center, Corey Attivo, surely felt like a bottle of water in the desert considering that it came coupled with a triple sunk from bonus distance by 5’10 sophomore guard, Dallas George, a late 6-0 ELCO outburst that eased the Raiders back into the fight somewhat given the 35-26 lead that Hempfield carried with them into the final frame.
Yet in the final stanza, the Black Knights slammed the door on any ELCO upset bid once and for all.
While he may arguably the best true point guard in all the Lancaster-Lebanon League, Miguel Pena isn’t one that is lacking for a gorgeous shooting touch either. With that in mind, it seemed appropriate to see him promptly sink a trey with the fourth quarter still well in its infancy to help push the Black Knights’ lead back up to double figures at 38-26 with 6:14 still left to play.
But for all the fanfare that consistently gets heaped upon Pena –and rightfully so in most every regard – the waning moments of Monday night’s affair were minutes in which Ben Troyer absolutely stole the show.
To be sure, if you’re going to have a coming out party of sorts, you might as well make a grand spectacle of it. In that regard, the Black Knights’ 6’4 sophomore certainly cashed in on his opportunity in the limelight given his absolute cold-blooded theft from an ELCO ball-handler that came complete with a one-handed dunk down on the offensive end, an emphatic swing in momentum which Hempfield was able to cap off with an exclamation mark. And when he wasn’t dunking, Troyer could be found in the final stages of Monday’s quarterfinal bout by sinking a pair of late-game free throws at the charity stripe, such as the ones with 2:20 left to play that put the Black Knights up by a 46-31 count with time dwindling down. Fittingly though, Troyer only continued to sizzle as the contest drew to a close as the up-and-coming Black Knights’ wing player proceeded to cap off the evening by tallying the final two buckets from the field to close things out, all of which helped put the finishing touches on an outright impressive Hempfield 50-33 triumph behind enemy lines to help vault the Knights into Wednesday’s semifinal round of the league playoffs.
“We had to settle in,” Hempfield head coach Danny Walck said in assessing the 17-point triumph in which his troops had just completed. “We won the opening tip, the layup (following the tip) goes off, we miss two foul shots and you go, ‘Oh here we go.’ I thought we just needed to settle in,” he continued. “We knew (ELCO) was going to have a lot of confidence and nothing to lose. We just needed to calm ourselves….We were also settling for a couple of 3’s there that we shouldn’t have taken. Just get to the rim, man. Get your rhythm, then (the ball) is going to go down. We just needed to settle ourselves.”
And if you need to get your team’s collective heart rate down to a more manageable level so that it isn’t pounding out of your chest, putting the pill in Miguel Pena’s hands is certainly a good place to start.
“I just have total trust in everything he does,” Walck offered of his team’s maestro. “He’s a guy that if you make the right cut, he’s going to get you the ball. You need to make sure you’re cutting, and you need to expect the ball to come to you,” he added. “I’ve got total confidence, total trust, and he understands the game. I’m just fortunate to be his coach.”
But make no mistake about it. While Hempfield may have easily gotten off-kilter had they not steadied the ship following a somewhat frantic start to Monday’s outing, it could also be viewed as the perfect microcosm to describe their season at large.
“This is the second season,” the Hempfield boss said without hesitation about embarking on postseason play. “I said in the McCaskey locker room (following Hempfield’s 54-46 defeat at the hands of the Red Tornado last Tuesday night), ‘We’ve got to embrace the body of work.’ We didn’t finish the way we want, but don’t take away anything that we’ve built up. We had a little trend going where we would win eight, lose two, win eight, lose two. Not really what I like, but that’s sorta what unfolded,” Walck said dryly. “That’s what it was. Now, we’ve got to get started on the second season and this is what it is.”
Yet if you thought that Walck would get thrown off about playing at ELCO, a gym which he later admitted he hadn’t stepped foot in since the 90’s prior to Monday night, rest assured he had a plan for that as well.
“It was a business trip, but we didn’t practice in Buchannan. We practiced in Franklin,” said Walck of how he prepared to get his team ready for the much more intimate environment that ELCO provides by switching things up between the two gyms found on Hempfield’s sprawling campus. “We did that because we’re coming here and it’s a smaller gym and we needed to get accustomed to that. We’re going to be in a big environment, but it’s going to be a ‘close’ environment that’s going to have a lot of energy. That, and (ELCO) is going to be physical,” he continued regarding the prep heading into the trip south of Myerstown to kick off the week-long marathon that is L-L tourney play. “So be ready for that. No excuses. Let’s go play.”
Suffice to say, that message was received loud and clear.
NEXT UP: After the dispatching of ELCO on Monday night, Hempfield now finds themselves opposite of a familiar foe in Wednesday night’s semifinal round when the Black Knights draw the Warwick Warriors, a team that got the better of the Columbia Crimson Tide in the other quarterfinal round contest held Monday evening. And if the previous matchup between these two teams figures to serve as any sort of barometer for what may be in store, you can best believe that this next installment of one of the league’s most competitive series’ will yet again be a contest that will be remembered for quite a long time seeing as how the Black Knights ultimately prevailed in a buzzer-beating 57-55 affair over the Warriors nearly one month ago to the day.
For ELCO, the Raiders will now look to handle their own business internally for the rest of this week seeing as how they will next return to their home floor exactly one week from now when they tangle with the Wyomissing Spartans in next Monday night’s opening round of the District 3-4A playoffs with the winner set to meet up with top-seeded Berks Catholic in suburban Reading next Thursday evening. Ironically, the Raiders and Spartans have a bit of a history there too. Sure enough, next Monday’s tilt against Wyomissing will be ELCO’s second try at taking down the Spartans with only the Hempfield game sprinkled in between. And if you’re wondering, the Raiders will certainly be looking for vengeance given their 58-51 defeat at the hands of Wyo that came this past Thursday night.
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