Eagles can’t get over the hump, fall to West York in district quarterfinal (updated, with boxscore)
YORK — When Colin Payne hit a pair of free throws to cut his team’s deficit to two points in the fourth quarter Thursday, Exeter coach Matt Ashcroft turned to his assistant coaches and said: “We have this game.”
It sure felt that way. The Eagles, down 11 at one point during a sluggish first half, came out with energy in the third quarter and seemed to have all the momentum. Reece Garvin hit a 3-pointer, Zyion Paschall fed Anthony Caccese inside and suddenly it was a one-possession game.
“I thought we were one bucket away,” Payne said.
That momentum-shifting, game-tying bucket never came. The Eagles never could quite get over that hump. And now, after a 57-50 loss to a tough West York club in a District 3 Class 5A quarterfinal, they’re headed into the playback round.
“We wanted to get to the Giant Center,” said Payne, a 6-3 senior, hoping to will his underdog club to a spot in the district title game. “We don’t want to play a consolation game, but it didn’t happen.”
The second-seeded Bulldogs (24-2) were solid up and down their lineup. They were strong defensively and featured shooters throughout their lineup.
They had a knack for getting open shots and beating the 10th-seeded Eagles (12-13) to the basket.
Ashcroft hasn’t seen many teams do that. The Eagles have lived on their defense all season but they had trouble containing this team, especially in the first quarter when the Bulldogs ran off 13 straight to tilt the game in their favor for good.
“We were just a little bit late on some of our assignments,” Ashcroft said. “We got beat on some back cuts, and we were late on some closeouts. The tough thing is when you’re in a district quarterfinal you can’t spot a team a 13-4 lead.”
The Eagles have been playing from behind for weeks. They barely squeaked into the Berks Conference playoffs and saw their seeding in the district tournament slip dramatically in the final weeks, when they ended the regular season with seven losses in eight games. They were looking at a district home opener in mid January; instead they had to open at Milton Hershey, then make what became a two-hour trip to York.
They’re used to being the underdog now; they’re thriving in that role. They upset Wilson in the opening round of the Berks playoffs and nearly did the same to Berks Catholic in the second round, only to lose by a point on Josiah Jordan’s last-second basket.
They trailed by double digits for most of the first half Thursday and by eight at the break but straightened things out on the defensive end and finally started hitting some shots.
“We didn’t have too much energy (in the first half),” Payne said. “We got here 20 minutes before the game (because traffic was snarled on Route 30 after an accident). Our energy didn’t pick up until the second quarter. We definitely felt rushed (in pregame), but we wanted to play through it, tough it out.”
The Eagles have become good at toughing it out. They’ve been playing without their No. 2 scorer, 6-6 Penn State tight end recruit Joey Schlaffer, for three weeks and have found a way to compensate.
They pulled within 41-39 when Payne scored on a drive three minutes into the final quarter. A couple minutes later he made it a two-point game again when he was fouled going to the basket and converted twice at the line.
“One stop and this game is ours,” Ashcroft thought to himself at that point.
Payne thought the same thing, but it never happened. They let the Bulldogs off the hook, then had to start fouling.
Jaden Walker and AJ Williams each converted one-and-ones after that to stretch the lead and the Eagles never got within five again.
The Bulldogs showed why they’re the York-Adams league champ, and why they’re so highly seeded in this tournament. Their top player, Jaden Walker, scored just 12 points but three teammates reach double figures.
“Give them credit,” Ashcroft said. “They made their free throws (at the end). We tried to speed them up in the second half but they were composed.”
Now the Eagles head home to play for their seeding in the state tournament. They clinched a berth in the PIAA Tournament — their first since 1984 — by beating Milton Hershey. They’ll play No. 11 Lower Dauphin Monday at 7 at Reiffton for the chance to play for the No. 5 berth out of District 3. If they lose that game they’ll play for seventh place.
Payne was hoping for better. He thought the Eagles would get it. Three times in the final quarter they sliced West York’s lead to two. They never got closer.
“We get our lead (there), and we go home with a win,” he said, “but stuff like that doesn’t happen all the time.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final | |
| Exeter | 8 | 13 | 11 | 18 | 50 |
| West York | 17 | 12 | 8 | 20 | 67 |
| Eagles (12-13) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| Paschall | 2-11 | 0-0 | 0-4 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| Payne | 5-13 | 4-4 | 2-7 | 0 | 1 | 16 |
| Snyder | 3-9 | 0-0 | 0-5 | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Kelsey | 3-8 | 0-0 | 0-3 | 1 | 2 | 6 |
| Caccese | 4-6 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| Garvin | 2-4 | 2-2 | 2-2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| Totals | 19-51 | 8-10 | 4-21 | 8 | 22/28 | 50 |
| Bulldogs (24-2) | FG | FT | 3’s | A | R | Points |
| J. Walker | 4-10 | 3-4 | 1-4 | 2 | 1 | 12 |
| Detz | 4-6 | 4-4 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| McGladrie | 4-10 | 1-3 | 1-2 | 0 | 3 | 10 |
| Williams | 3-7 | 4-8 | 1-2 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
| Powell | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| M. Walker | 1-2 | 3-4 | 0-0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| Deshields | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 3 | 4 |
| Gibson | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Knisely | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 20-43 | 15-23 | 3-9 | 7 | 24/29 | 57 |
Turnovers: Exeter 11, West York 9.