Streaks build lead, hold on

Manheim Township gains rare win in Landisville

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Jan 08, 2009 00:51 EST

Landisville

By JASON FULGINITI, Sports Writer

To everyone else in the gym, it might have appeared that Manheim Township's ship was sinking.

But while he wasn't exactly at ease as he watched from the sideline Wednesday night in Landisville, Blue Streaks girls' basketball coach Lance Wagner also wasn't ready to reach for a life jacket just yet.

"I think we're too young and too naïve to feel pressure," Wagner said of his team. "We just came over here to play."

Whatever works.

Despite watching its 16-point lead midway through the third quarter get whittled to four with 4:00 left to play, Township battled its way to a 45-31 Section One victory in a game that was a lot closer than the final score indicated.

The win keeps Township (6-1 L-L, 8-2 overall) within a game of Section One leader Cedar Crest (7-0, 9-2), which kept pace with a 66-32 rout of McCaskey Wednesday night. Hempfield (5-2, 7-6), meanwhile, dropped two games off the pace into sole possession of third.

Perhaps even more uplifting for Township, though, was that Wednesday's victory was its first over Hempfield since Dec. of 2004 and its first on the Black Knights' court since the 1995-96 season.

"We finally came in here and beat them on their own court," said Blue Streaks sophomore guard Kiersten Green, who finished with a game-high 18 points. "It's amazing."

As was the chain of events that transpired after junior forward Lisbet Byler scored six of her 13 points during an 11-1 Township run to open the second half, giving the Streaks a commanding 33-17 lead with 5:29 remaining in the third quarter.

"The difference was the energy," Green said of the spurt. "We always say that the first three minutes of the third quarter are really important. And we just came out really strong."

Problem was, it didn't last.

In fact, when Hempfield responded with a 6-0 run to end the quarter, Township — which went scoreless for the final 5:29 of the period — saw its lead cut to 33-23.

And when the Black Knights opened the fourth quarter with a 9-2 run — capped by Shauna Walters' 3-pointer from the top of the key with 4:00 left to play, the Streaks' lead was suddenly down to four, 35-31.

Township's eight turnovers in the final period obviously didn't help its cause.

"You get it to a four-point game with two or three minutes to go and all of the sudden it's a two possession game," Hempfield coach Lenny Groft said.

But possession — or, more accurately, maintaining it — turned out to be an issue for the Black Knights the rest of the way.

After Green knocked down a pair of free throws to boost Township's advantage to 37-31 with 3:43 remaining, Hempfield turned the ball over on its next three trips.

In the meantime, Byler scored on the break with 3:32 left to give Township a 39-31 edge, before Annie Feingold drained both ends of a 1-and-1 with 1:00 to go that put the Streaks back in front by 10, and back in control.

"There were a dozen opportunities out there (down the stretch)," Groft said. "But they (the mistakes Hempfield's players made) are things we can correct."

In other words, don't count Hempfield out of the section title hunt just yet. Especially considering that the Knights, with six games regular-season games remaining, will welcome the return of six players — including two starters — who have been suspended from the team for the last few weeks due to a violation of school policy.

E-mail: jfulginiti@lnpnews.com