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Chambersburg comes up just short against State College


If Chambersburg boys basketball coach Shawn Shreffler knew his team would hold high-scoring State College to just 39 points, he'd probably be pretty happy.

Although he was, it was also hard not to be disappointed after State College's 39 points were good enough for a one-point win over the Trojans on Wednesday night in a Mid Penn Commonwealth Division game. 

"Obviously, it's tough, but I still feel like we take away a lot of positives from this," Shreffler said. "The first three games were against teams I feel were the three best in the conference and other than (Central Dauphin) East, who I think is the best team, I feel good about the other games."

Chambersburg nearly pulled off the upset, but State College forward Drew Friberg had other ideas. With 15 seconds remaining and the Trojans ahead by two, Friberg launched a step-back 3-pointer that dropped straight through the net for a 39-38 lead for the Little Lions (4-2, 3-1 MPC).  

"We were in-bounding it from the side and we were going to try and run a back screen for Tommy (Friberg) to come around and I would post up on the side," Friberg said. "I just saw I had a shot and decided to take it."

On the ensuing possession, the Trojans (3-3, 0-3 MPC) had a chance to take back the lead, but a mid-range jumper from Jacob Brouse fell just short.

"We thought they were going to be in a man, so we bunched in," Brouse said. "Coach said to be aggressive and get to the hoop, so that's what I tried to do. It just didn't work out."

However, Chambersburg wouldn't have even had a chance to win if it wasn't for its defense. The Trojan defenders stuck with the Little Lions all night, making it tough for them to get open shots. State College came in to the game averaging more than 67 points per game, yet for awhile it looked like it might not even get half that. Chambersburg led 15-14 at halftime. 

"I thought we did a phenomenal job defensively," Shreffler said. "We really limited their better scorers and made it really tough for them to get into any kind of rhythm offensively."

Unfortunately the Trojans also struggled to get into a rhythm offensively, unable to play at the up-tempo pace they were looking to. 

"We wanted to play a little bit faster and get into transition more to get some easy buckets," Shreffler said. "That was really one area we thought we could capitalize on but didn't. Once we get all our bodies back and we get in sync offensively, I think we'll be much better moving forward."