NEFFSVILLE — With Antanee Pinkard ringing up 16 of his game-high 22 points after the halftime break, McCaskey claimed a 61-52 victory Friday night at Manheim Twp. that kept Steve Powell’s Tornado tied with Hempfield atop the Lancaster-Lebanon League’s Section 1 basketball standings.
Randolph Speller and the Gantz brothers, Kobe and C.J., chipped in eight points apiece for McCaskey (14-6, 12-2), led by three points (27-24) at halftime and after three quarters (39-36) before opening things up down the stretch.
Powell’s Tornado converted 12 of its 16 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter, including six straight at one point. Pinkard’s flush with 1:13 to play, off a La’Detrius Sibley dish, upped McCaskey’s lead to 59-50 and closed out Township.
Seth Brewer bagged 20 points and Christian Mitchell chipped in 19 for Dan Relin’s Blue Streaks (11-9, 9-5), who were eliminated from L-L tournament contention. The Streaks, however, are still trying to land a spot in the District 3-AAAA field.
Below you’ll find some post-game reaction and additional notes from Friday night’s nonleague scrap.
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THEY SAID IT
(Powell on capturing the L-L 1 road victory) “They’re a good team. They look for Brewer every time down and he gets his. That helps you and sometimes that hurts you, too, but everything goes through him.”
(Powell on bagging a fundamentally sound victory with made free throws down the stretch and few turnovers) “We’re 14-6 right now. Hopefully you want to peak at the right time when you’re trying to make the league playoffs and you’re trying to get into those districts and have a good seeding in the districts — if you can. We’re still way down there.”
(Powell on Kyaire Bynum’s defensive work on Brewer, who was limited to seven second-half points) “I thought Kyaire did a great job on him. I told Kyaire with all the screens they set and [Brewer’s] got a license to shoot anywhere and they set multiple picks for him, screens, he’s smart with the ball, he’s crafty.”
(Powell on the L-L 1 race, despite Cedar Crest's 49-48 loss to Warwick) “It’s three teams. … It’s still down to three teams. [Cedar Crest is] only one back and we’ve got to play them and Hempfield. So, yeah, it’s still three teams.”
(Powell on the Tornado having control of its own fate) “That’s what I told the kids. Three weeks ago, we didn’t know if we’d be there. We figured we’d have a shot if one of them stumbled, because we were only one behind Cedar Crest at that time and two behind Hempfield. Hempfield stumbled a little bit. Cedar Crest stumbled a little bit. Now we can’t afford to stumble coming to the home stretch, so we want to take care of our business.”
(Powell on Pinkard’s performance) “Pink’s a horse. Pink’s tough. I told the kids, when you look at our team we have a lot of people who can do some things. [Andre] Dixon didn’t have a good game tonight, but he’s been there solid all year long. Kobe didn’t have a good game, but was solid and then his brother comes in and does a real good job for us. … You look at it and Sibley did a nice job for us. We have different people that can step up and that’s what happened for us tonight.”
(Relin on trying to match up with McCaskey) “They’re just very athletic and quick and we knew this would be a difficult game for us because we just don’t match up very well with them. With that being said, our guys played really hard. We have three guys that really battled tonight, Seth Brewer, Christian Mitchell and Alex Ready. They’re our three main guys and then we have a bunch of role players that kind of fit in. Those three guys battled the whole game.”
(Relin on McCaskey’s work on the glass) “Second-chance points. We’re a very undersized team. We’re guard-oriented. We don’t have a lot of size. … Against McCaskey, they’ve always been very good at second-chance points. That’s their M.O. You don’t turn the ball over against them, transition defense and you have to rebound. I thought our transition defense was pretty good. Second-chance points was not very good. And we had some turnovers or quick shots. They kind of bait you a little bit when you get fast. When the game was still in the balance, we had some bad possessions on offense, quick shots. We can’t have one-pass shots, that’s not who we are. We usually work the ball, but we got baited and we took quick shots that led to some of their breakouts. And to be honest, I thought the third quarter they really tightened it. First half they weren’t playing great defense, but the third quarter they put the heat up in the half court and it was hard for us to execute.”
(Relin on Bynum’s defensive work on Brewer) “Any time we set ball screens or anything for him, he created a lot of attention so he was getting doubles and hedges and people were slowing him down. But they did a great job defensively. That’s a pretty good team defensively.”
(Relin on trying to reach the District 3-AAAA playoffs) “We’re not even thinking about districts because last year we thought we were in on the last game — and we won. And because of the power rating system, teams we beat lost on that day. We were like 19th with a win and the last day we went from 19th to 23. The teams that we play, Hempfield and Warwick, those are very tough games. Either one of us can beat each other. Anything can happen. We don’t even talk about it. My goal is for us to be competitive in Section 1 games. And we want to beat everyone in Section 1 at least once, that’s always our goal. If we can beat them twice, that’s even better. And that’s where we are. I liked our effort. We did try hard. Skill-wise we were just a little overmatched and we struggled to score. Their skill level’s a little better than ours and sooner or later the better team is gonna prevail. That’s what happened.”
(Relin on Pinkard’s performance) “Pinkard had a huge third quarter. He kind of took over in the third quarter and that really hurt us. … He is tough.”
MORE NOTES AND NUGGETS
McCaskey claimed the earlier meeting by an 86-70 count. … Powell’s Tornado will host Cedar Crest on Monday and visit Hempfield on Wednesday. … Relin’s Streaks entertain Hempfield on Monday and play Wednesday at Warwick. …
Powell’s club came into Friday’s game at No. 9 in the District 3-AAAA power rankings, while Manheim Twp. checked in at No. 16. Only the top 20 advance to postseason play. … C.J. Gantz attempted three shots and one free throw, converting all four attempts. … McCaskey has won its last seven contests.
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