We’re not going to keep you in suspense.
Cedar Crest will win its first District 3 boys basketball championship this afternoon at Giant Center.
Why? Because Cedar Crest has a better team than York.
Coach Tom Smith’s Falcons are taller, deeper, older and more experienced than the Bearcats, who start five underclassmen.
So far, those underclassmen — three sophomores and two juniors — have played like seniors in this district tournament, and maybe they will today too. But when a team gets to the ultimate game, nerves can become more of an issue and we have a sense York might not play quite as well today as it has in its wins over Lancaster, Wilson and Hershey.
What’s maybe most incongruous about this matchup is that Cedar Crest, the team that has never won a district title, is the team that was expected to make a deep run in this tournament. The stage was set a year ago, when a team with just two seniors (starting guards Killian Klopp and Clay Penchard) got hot late in the season, won 16 games and reached the championship game of the Lancaster-Lebanon League tournament, falling to a terrific Lancaster team. The Falcons then dropped a close district playoff game at Chambersburg.
With high expectations this year, the Falcons did what they expected to do. They won Section One (although they needed a playoff against Lancaster to do so) and then fought past arch rival Lebanon to capture their first L-L championship since 1976.
With the L-L title in hand, Cedar Crest, now 24-4, was primed to contend for the trophy the Falcons will try to win today.
York is the team with all the basketball history, having won 10 district championships, with the most recent in 2011. Today marks York’s third appearance in the district final in the past four years, so even though the players on this year’s team have little personal experience in playing for a title, they know their school’s proud history.
This group of Bearcats, now 21-6, has arrived a year early after showing few signs of being a threat earlier in the season when it went through a rough patch, including a loss to a South Western team that finished the season with just four wins. But York has caught fire and confidence late, relying on a strong defense and patient half-court offense. Kris Johnson, a 6-5 sniper who drilled some key 3-pointers against Hershey, gives the Bearcats a dangerous outside threat.
Coach Troy Sowers’s team lost to Central York in the York-Adams championship game but has played very well in districts, including impressive wins over No. 1 seed Wilson and Hershey at the Giant Center. Both of those games were tight, with York coming from behind against Wilson to take the lead midway through the fourth quarter and then spreading the floor, taking the ball to the hoop and hitting free throws to advance. They used a similar formula to pull away from Hershey.
As well as York has played, Cedar Crest looks like the team of destiny after its improbable win over a strong Central York team that held a 13-point lead entering the fourth quarter Tuesday. The Falcons took advantage of seven Central turnovers and four crucial missed free throws in the final eight minutes, catching the Panthers and then winning on Evan Horn’s memorable three-quarter court pass to Andrew Eudy, who sank a buzzer-beater that made Fox Sports 1′s national roundup.
Although Eudy and Horn are the team’s leading scorers, more often than not other players step up, often guys who come off the bench. Crest is a tough team to defend because, from one game to another, it’s hard to know from where the points will come.
All signs point to another close game. And gold medals for the Falcons.
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