Chambersburg boys fall short of Carlisle, 47-39
CHAMBERSBURG - With two minutes left in regulation on Tuesday night, Chambersburg's boys basketball team was still playing catch up.
It had pulled within four of Carlisle in a Mid Penn Commonwealth Division contest. But then the Thundering Herd did something they struggled to do all evening - they got a pair of fast-break layups from DeShawn Millington through traffic. Although Millington didn't convert on either of his and-one opportunities, his buckets were in the final nail in the Trojans' coffin.
Carlisle won, 47-39, putting Chambersburg's playoff hopes in jeopardy.
"They weren't really running back on defense, so I just pushed," Millington said. "It was a one-on-one, basically, and I just got my body into them and tried to draw the fouls."
Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler had a simpler explanation for Millington's success.
"He's just really good," Shreffler said. "He's a Division I-caliber basketball player. He's very tough, so when you have him in transition out in the open, he becomes even harder to guard. When we were five-on-five, I thought we did an outstanding job of guarding them, but in those moments of transition, we didn't do as good of a job as we needed to do."
Out of the gate, the Trojans (10-10, 6-8 MPC) played with a sense of urgency. They were unstoppable on the defense end - literally. Carlisle (14-5, 10-3 MPC) didn't score in the first four minutes of the game and couldn't find the hoop in the first six minutes of the second quarter.
Despite all that, with two minutes left in the first half, Chambersburg held a lead of only 15-12.
"Luckily tonight we played solid defense at the other end, but some nights those slow starts have really hurt us," Carlisle coach Andre Anderson said. "Even though we didn't score, we had tons of energy on the defensive end. The first quarter was draining there where we couldn't get a shot to fall, but our kids are persistent."
Shreffler said, "It takes a lot of energy on the defensive end, so sometimes it's difficult to go from that end and transition on the other end, especially against quality athletes. They're the quickest and most athletic team in our league, so to grind it out against those guys can be a chore."
Rebounding was really Carlisle's saving grace. The Herd out-rebounded Chambersburg, 36-22, scored five putbacks and had countless second-chance opportunities after offensive boards.
"Usually we don't crash the boards like that," said Millington, who finished with eight rebounds. "Tonight was a big board day for us."
Shreffler said, "There were moments where we gave up multiple offensive looks. Had we done a better job of limiting them to one shot, I think we win the basketball game."
NOTES: Cade Whitfield led the Trojans with 14 points, while Cole Christian scored 10 ... Jordan Purcell (19 points), Millington (14) and Tyler Greene (12) all finished in double figures, but the rest of the Herd scored just two points ... Purcell flirted with a double-double with 9 boards ... For the Trojans, Whitfield had 6 boards and Carlin Christian dished out 4 assists.
Carlisle 47, Chambersburg 39
Carlisle (47)
Tyler Greene 4 1-3 12, DeShawn Millington 6 2-6 14, Ki Barnes 0 0-0 0, Jordan Purcell 6 6-10 19, Ethan Houston 0 0-0 0, Chuckie Nist 1 0-0 2, Gavyn Barnes 0 0-0 0, Nate Barnes 0 0-0 0, Ben Milligan 0 0-0 0. Totals — 17 9-19 47.
Chambersburg (39)
Cole Christian 3 2-3 10, Carlin Christian 0 1-4 1, Cade Whitfield 6 2-6 14, John Shupp 1 0-0 2, ByShawn Mincie 2 3-4 8, Tyler Collier 0 0-0 0, Cade Brindle 0 2-2 2, Evan Shreffler 0 2-2 2, Ezechiel Cadet 0 0-0 0, Reggie Adams 0 0-0 0, Tyron Williams 0 0-0 0. Totals — 12 12-21 39.
Carlisle _ 10 _ 9 _ 12 _ 16 _ — _ 47
Chambersburg _ 7 _ 10 _ 10 _ 12 _ — _ 39
3-point goals — Car 4 (Greene 3, Purcell), Chbg 3 (Co.Christian 2, Mincie)
JV score — Carlisle 42, Chambersburg 41, OT. Nate Barnes led the Herd with 14 points, while ZyShawn Burch and Reggie Adams each scored 8 for the Trojans.