Current Conditions
72°F - SUNNY
(1922) (785) (706) (595) (230) (38) (21) (7) (6) (4)His personal scouting report told him Lancaster Mennonite wasn't a great outside shooting team. So why not use a 2-3 matchup zone?
It didn't work.
Mennonite's Ash Kemp picked apart the defense. The 6-foot guard drilled six 3-pointers and scored a season-high 28 points in the Blazers' 69-60 boys' basketball win in Kinzers Wednesday night.
"That's the first time I saw him shoot like that," Schatzmann said.
That's probably because Kemp had five 3-pointers all season before this Lancaster-Lebanon League Section Four matchup.
Mennonite's victory, which kept it in sole possession of first place, highlighted the Blazers' No. 1 asset: their versatility.
They're balanced and deep. They can play a fast pace or they can play half-court. They can score inside, and — if Wednesday night is any indication — they can fire away from behind the arc.
"Tonight, they were playing zone, which gave us some more looks from the perimeter," LMH coach Geoff Groff said.
"The next night it might be some more opportunities in transition. I think that's a real strength of this team. We don't all have the same skill set."
Mennonite, which improved to 8-4 overall and 6-1 in the league, appeared to be in trouble late in the first half. The Blazers trailed 28-20 and Pequea Valley's raucous Red Zone student section was going crazy.
This is a difficult environment for a road team, but Mennonite shrugged off the distractions.
The Section Four leaders closed the second quarter on a 6-0 run to make it 28-26 at halftime. Kemp's 3-pointer just before the buzzer sent his team sprinting into the locker room.
The Blazers never slowed down.
"That shot Ash hit right before the half got the crowd into it and helped us carry the momentum," Mennonite's Matt Hostetter said.
LMH opened the third quarter with a 22-8 run that created a 12-point lead. The Blazers drilled 4 of 6 3-pointers during that key stretch.
Kemp's offensive eruption, which included 17 second-half points, was a rarity for the incredibly balanced Blazers. Entering Wednesday night, they didn't have a single player averaging more than 7.9 points.
Generally, they succeed by spreading the shots around and not worrying too much about who gets the credit.
"If you look at our stats, it's real balanced," Hostetter said. "Anyone could score on any given night.
"It helps out a lot because teams don't know which player to key on. There's not one main guy to go to. Everyone contributes equally."
Mennonite was considered a sleeper behind Lancaster Catholic and Pequea Valley when the Section Four race began. At the moment, the Blazers lead Catholic by one game.
This has been a rough week for PV, which lost to Catholic and Mennonite in the span of three days. The Braves (8-5, 4-3) are tied with Columbia in third place.
Pequea Valley needs to turn it around quickly to stay in the hunt.
"Right now we have some guys in a slump and we have to get them out of that slump and get them on track," Schatzmann said. "Basically, we're playing 1-on-5 on offense. We've got to get more guys involved."
The one in that equation is Matt Schatzmann. The league's leading scorer finished with 27 points, five more than his season average.
Ultimately, Pequea Valley lost because it couldn't find a way to get enough defensive stops.
The Braves thought they had a plan, but Kemp ruined it.
E-mail: jguarente@lnpnews.com
