While the basketball-playing youngsters at Susquehanna Twp. may have endured a tough go last winter, an athletic group packing plenty of want-to hopes to turn things around in a hurry and return to prominence.
Although Wednesday’s 53-36 triumph over a rising Carlisle program in the championship game of Central Dauphin’s expanded Hoffman Ford summer league is just that — a summer league win — perhaps good things are on the way.
Athletic 6-3 sophomore forward Joe Marshall pocketed 20 points and grabbed a half-dozen rebounds as Susquehanna — which played under the United Concordia banner — closed both halves with serious flourishes.
Diminutive junior lead guard Gabe Mack tacked on nine points and senior Jheran Dunbar chipped in seven points and five boards for Vince Rogers’ club, which led at the break 23-14 thanks to a 15-0 closing kick.
Another flashy run — a 22-6 burst fueled by contributions from a host of youngsters — closed things out.
Springy Jordan Dockens dropped in nine points for Carlisle, which owned a 14-8 lead with just over six minutes left in the first half. The Thundering Herd was down 31-30 in the second half when Susquehanna exploded again.
“I think this is like a statement, a statement game,” said the soft-spoken Marshall, who was sporting a satisfied grin. “Like we’re about to make it big. We’ve got a young, rising team and we’ve got a lot of components to be really good.”
If Susquehanna flashes the nasty man that made life difficult for Carlisle bigs Josh Clippinger and Jerome Evans (combined seven points) and triggered an effective transition game, positive results could follow.
“Collectively, this group of kids is playing well,” added Rogers, whose Indians finished 9-15 last season. “They trust each other and that’s a big thing.
“They trust each other and they also depend on each other a lot so the cohesiveness is definitely building and it’s something to take from and build toward the fall. That’s the big thing. Definitely a learning process.”
Carlisle’s going through similar growing pains.
“They’re playing,” said second-year coach and Thundering Herd alum Andre Anderson, whose initial outfit wound up 3-19. “We’ve got some solid guys. These are the kind of kids that are committed to getting better.
“We literally have 12 or 13 guys that came in and literally said that we’re not going to let what happened last year happen again.”
Might be late June, but both sides are getting there.