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Gettysburg survives Palmyra's late push


PALMYRA - Making an art form out of survival mode, Gettysburg eked out a thrilling District 3-AAA boys’ basketball Round of 16 playoff victory Tuesday night.

The Warriors’ 45-44 triumph over host Palmyra featured two defensive stops in the closing seconds, plus their leading scorer walking a quarter-long tight rope in foul trouble.

Max Lampe’s 20 points – he’s the one who picked up his fourth foul just seconds into the final stanza – boosted Jeff Bair’s 10th-seeded club into Friday’s quarterfinal round, 6:30 p.m. at Giant Center against No. 2 Lampeter-Strasburg, a 67-58 winner against Dover.

“It happens in basketball,” said Lampe, who added three assists and four steals. “You get in foul trouble. I’ve been in that situation before, so just play a lot smarter than I was, and make sure not to pick up that fifth.”

Marquise Camel added 11 points and a vital late steal for the Warriors (13-8), who snapped a three-game losing streak and also picked up seven points and 17 rebounds from Rayvaughn Dillard.

Pete Conrad’s seventh-seeded Cougars (17-6), who trailed most of the second half before rallying for a pair of brief leads in the fourth, got two late chances after the Warriors missed two front ends of one-and-one trips to the free-throw line.

But Camel’s steal (his fourth) erased the first chance, and Bryant Willis (eight points) was long on a 3-point attempt at the buzzer.

Isaac Blatt scored 12 of his team-high 14 points in the second half for Palmyra, including a three-point play, a 3-pointer, and a put-back jam in the fourth quarter that ignited the comeback. He added seven rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Gettysburg, though, had answers, including Lampe’s three-point play, a 3-pointer from Connor Weikert, then Dillard’s put-back of his own miss for a 45-43 advantage with 46 seconds left.

Blatt made one of two from the stripe 10 seconds later for the Cougars, who were victimized by the Warriors’ triangle-and-two defense that limited the production of both Blatt and 1,000-point scorer Austin Yetter (eight points).

“The triangle-and-two has been an issue for us,” Conrad said. “When we haven’t been able to play through Austin and Isaac, it’s frustrating, because we do have a team with skilled offensive players. … Truth is, (Gettysburg’s) really good.”

The Warriors, whose bench was outscored 12-0, deliberately slowed down the deeper and more explosive Cougars.

“We knew tonight was going to be a challenge because they score so many points,” Bair said. “We knew something had to give. I’ve said the last two weeks a game in the 40s was going to be our game. We didn’t make every great play at the end, but we made enough to win.”

In addition to its one-point edge on the scoreboard, Gettysburg also boasted single-digit advantages in rebounds (28-27) and in turnovers (11-10). Camel and Dillard also added three assists each.

NOTES: Gettysburg hadn’t played since Feb. 1, and Palmyra was off since Feb. 3. … These teams last met in the 2013 Round of 16, with the Cougars posting a 66-61 win in Gettysburg that night. … Eric Lynn dished out a game-high four assists for Palmyra. … The teams played a turnover-free second quarter, with Blatt’s put-back at the buzzer pulling the Cougars within 22-20.

Gettysburg 45, Palmyra 44 
GETTYSBURG (45) 
Marquise Camel 5-12 0-0 11, Max Lampe 7-11 5-6 20, Devin Ringler 2-5 0-0 4, Connor Weikert 1-5 0-1 3, Rayvaughn Dillard 3-5 1-2 7, Cade Eckhart 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Biggins 0-0 0-0 0, David Buxton 0-0 0-0 0. Totals — 18-38 6-9 45. 
PALMYRA (44) 
Ethan Harro 0-0 0-0 0, Isaac Blatt 5-9 3-5 14, Eric Lynn 1-3 2-2 5, Braden Vernet 2-8, 1-1 5, Austin Yetter 3-7 0-0 8, Alec Cleckner 0-0 0-0 0, Bryant Willis 3-9 1-2 8, Bennett Von Stetten 0-1 1-2 1, Sam Sheils 1-9 0-0 3. Totals — 15-46 8-12 44. 
Gettysburg _ 12 _ 10 _ 13 _ 10 _ — _ 45 
Palmyra _ 11 _ 9 _ 9 _ 15 _ — _ 44 

3-point goals — G 3-9 (Camel 1-3, Lampe 1-3, Weikert 1-3); P 6-24 (Yetter 2-6, Lynn 1-1, Blatt 1-2, Willis 1-6, Sheils 1-7, Vernet 0-2).