Dist. 3 hoops: Shippensburg falls to 3-point blitz
YORK - A trip to the Giant Center? Check.
A trip to states? It's early, but go ahead and book that one, too.
That's Central York's updated itinerary after Wednesday. The Panthers shot better than coach Kevin Schieler can remember and blew past Shippensburg, 67-38, in a District 3 Class AAAA boys first-round game.
The Greyhounds ended their season with a 17-8 record. Central York (21-3) will play Hempfield (15-7) quarterfinal game Saturday.
"I'd seen them shoot well before, but they had kids making shots they don't normally make," Ship coach Ray Staver said. "They even had two kids come off the bench and hit threes."
Just days after a tough loss to Spring Grove in the YAIAA title game, Central came out firing on all cylinders against the Hounds' triangle-and-two defense. The Panthers shot 9-for-11 and connected on six 3-pointers — three each from Onterio Edmonds and Nathan Markey — in the first quarter.
"He (Markey) gets one or two early ones, then I give him his heat checks," Schieler joked. "I gave him his heat checks today and he was hitting from deep."
By halftime, the Panthers had already drained nine treys and led 37-23. It's hard to beat a team when they're shooting that well and Staver knew that.
"There's not much (you can do)," Staver said. "I knew they had that capability. I knew if they shot like that and we didn't respond, then we were going to be in trouble...We ran into a buzzsaw. They shot the lights out."
The Greyhounds cut the lead to 12 early in the third quarter but that's the closest they got in the second half.
Playing in his last game on his home floor, Central's Jared Wagner poured in 16 of his 20 points in the second half, including 14 of Central's first 17. Then with the game well in hand in the fourth, Wagner walked off to a standing ovation and Schieler emptied his bench.
"I'm always nervous about that," Schieler said of his team bouncing back from a loss. "We have a really resilient group here. They're super competitive and a great group of young men. We didn't let that hang over our heads too long."
For Ship, Shuntan Hickman and Carter Van Scyoc each scored 12 points and Wade Mills finished with nine.
Staver said, "They negated our size by holding us when we were trying to make cuts inside - it wasn't called all night. Because of that we had trouble executing our plays, and the only way we could beat them was off the dribble ... and that's not our style.
"But we have a lot to be proud of - we accomplished more than any Shippensburg team in a while. We won back-to-back league titles, we won a playoff game and we had 17 wins. That's not bad."
Central York 67, Shippensburg 38
Shippensburg (38)
Shuntan Hickman 5 0-0 12, Carter Van Scyoc 3 6-7 12, Wade Mills 3 3-4 9, Teagan Staver 0 0-0 0, Cody Gustafson 0 0-0 0, Brady Kuhn 1 0-0 2, Garret Cavanaugh 1 0-0 2, Adam Houser 0 1-3 1. Totals — 13 10-14 38.
Central York (67)
Jared Wagner 9 0-0 20, Nathan Markey 4 0-0 12, Onterio Edmonds 3 0-0 9, Landyn Ray 2 1-2 6, Niko Sobestanovich 3 0-0 6, Garrett Markey 2 0-0 5, McLaughlin 1 2-2 4, Tommy O'Neill 0 2-2 2, Richards 1 0-0 2, Courtney Batts 0 1-2 1, Evan Czulada 0 0-0 0, Pribula 0 0-0 0, Hunt 0 0-0 0. Totals — 25 6-8 67.
Shippensburg _ 13_ 10 _ 7 _ 8 _ — _ 38
Central York_ 24 _ 13 _ 10 _ 20 _ — _ 67
3-point goals — Ship 2 (Hickman 2), CY 11 (N.Markey 4, Edmonds 3, Wagner 2, Ray, G.Markey)