Delone Catholic overcomes shaky second half
Delone Catholic withstood a very uneven second half by virtue of playing a sparkling first half in its 50-32 victory against Biglerville in YAIAA Division III boys' basketball action Friday night at Sonny Shepherd Gym in McSherrystown.
The Squires led 33-11 after a fantastic opening 16 minutes where they held the Canners to 3-of-16 shooting from the field and forced the visitors into 12 turnovers.
"We played a really good first half," Delone head coach Lawrence Williams said. "We ran our offense very well early, got good looks and knocked them down."
Nathan Lawyer, who was making his season debut, started for the Squires and made his first two shot attempts of the game to get the hosts off to a good start.
Delone (3-5, 3-2 YAIAA III) received nine first-quarter points from Logan Alexander and led 19-9 after the opening stanza.
The Squires scored the first seven points of the second quarter and the last seven. Biglerville's only points of the frame came from Drew Riley with 3:12 left in the quarter, which made it 26-11.
Biglerville (2-6, 1-4) scored the first seven of the third quarter and headed to the fourth quarter trailing 38-21.
But the Canners weren't going quietly into the night as junior guard Noah Ayers sprang to life with eight points in Biglerville's 10-3 spurt to start the fourth quarter and Riley's hoop with 3:32 left cut the gap to 41-31.
Ayers had a chance to cut the lead to seven, but his 3-point attempt with a little less than three minutes to play rimmed out.
"Biglerville came out ready to play in the second half, and we didn't match them," Williams said. "They got it down to ten and had a chance to make it seven. We settled down and finished well, but we need to play a complete game."
Delone, which made just one field goal in the fourth quarter, connected on 9-of-11 from the charity stripe over the final 2:41 to put the game out of reach.
The Squire defense harassed Biglerville into 20 turnovers and held the Canners to 25 percent (11-of-44) shooting from the field on the game.
Ayers led his team with 13 points, though he shot just 4-for-13 from the field. And Cody Shaffer, fresh off of a 24-point effort in Tuesday's loss to Littlestown, was 1-of-7 from the field and scored just three points.
"We came out nervous, which was a big surprise to me," Biglerville head coach Steve Elsier said. "We have good, experienced guards, and that doesn't usually happen to us. Delone defended us well and they didn't let us get comfortable out there."
Bryce Mundorff led the way for the winners with 16 points and 10 boards, while Alexander finished with 14 points and Tavian Dorsey, who drew the assignment of checking Ayers, had seven points, seven boards and four assists.
With eight games in the books, the Canners have played seven road games already.
"It's been tough playing so many road games," Elsier said. "You don't have your home crowd behind you. So it'll be nice to finally have some home games next week."
Biglerville hosts Halifax on Monday and Fairfield on Tuesday, while the Squires play at Littlestown on Tuesday. All games are slated to tip at 7:30 p.m.
Biglerville (32)
Griest 1 2-5 5, Shaffer 1 1-1 3, Bell 2 1-2 5, Noah Ayers 4 3-4 13, Riley 2 0-0 4, Parker 0 0-0 0, Cox 1 0-0 2. Totals — 11 7-12 32.
Delone Catholic (50)
B. Alexander 0 2-2 2, Logan Alexander 4 3-3 14, McNutt 0 0-0 0, Maitland 1 0-0 3, Dorsey 2 2-4 7, Kuntz 0 2-2 2, Brady 1 0-0 2, Schussler 0 0-0 0, Lawyer 2 0-1 4, Bryce Mundorff 5 6-8 16. Totals — 15 15-20 50.
Biglerville _9 _2 _10 _11_ — _32
Delone Catholic_19 _14 _5 _12 _— _50
3-point goals — Big 3 (Ayers 2, Griest), DC 5 (L. Alexander 3, Maitland, Dorsey).
J.V. Score — Delone 55, Biglerville 20