NEW KINGSTOWN — The effort was certainly there.

The chances were there, too.

But in the end, Chambersburg could not make that one more play it needed to put it over the hump against Pocono Mountain West.

The result was a heartbreaking 53-52 loss in overtime in a PIAA Class 6A boys basketball first-round playoff game at Cumberland Valley H.S. on Saturday afternoon.

“This is a bunch of great, unselfish kids,” Trojan coach Shawn Shreffler said. “A lot of them felt they made the play that lost us the game, but it’s never one particular person that wins or loses a game. They just made one more point than we did.”

Chambersburg, which finishes its season 19-6, fell behind 51-48 early in the overtime period when a 3-point shot by the Panthers’ Eddie Germosan hit the front of the rim, bounced off the glass and in.

But Cade Brindle converted on a strong drive and Joel Torres made a layup with 22 seconds left to lift the Trojans to a 52-51 lead.

PMW missed a shot at the other end, but Travis Elmore, a slick 6-foot-6 jumping jack, knifed in for an offensive rebound and was fouled with eight seconds left.

“Rebounding was the biggest thing,” Shreffler said. “They crash the boards really hard, and they were getting second, third and fourth shots. We did well sometimes, but not consistently.”

After Elmore sank both clutch free throws, Chambersburg got the ball to senior Cade Brindle, who made several moves to free himself up for a shot at the win, but it came up a little short.

At the end of regulation, Torres had a layup roll off the rim, and after Chambersburg regained possession, Brindle had a 3-pointer misfire.

The Trojans started out hot, hitting their first four shots for an 11-4 lead. But the Panthers used their extreme quickness to drive inside and on the baseline to hang close.

From a 29-24 halftime lead, Chambersburg expanded it to 37-27 on seven points by a very active Tyler Collier and a Torres foul shot. But PMW roared back with a 12-0 run fueled by out-of-nowhere threes by Germosan and Ishyne Pilgrim, that seemed to take about a minute to happen.

The Panthers held a slim lead most of the fourth period, but a three-point play by Tyron Williams and a pull-up jumper by Brindle helped forge the 48-48 tie.

Collier had a monster game for Chambersburg, scoring 18 points (5 more than his previous season high), blocking a couple of shots and grabbing rebounds.

Shreffler said, “Tyler did some awesome things today. It was great to see that. I hope he will expect that of himself now.”

One thing the Trojans did not do well was shoot foul shots — 3-for-13 — which ended up being very costly.

Shreffler said, “I thought the kids executed well and we did some really nice things out there. But they’re as quick of a team as we’ve seen all year and their ability to go after the ball at the rim really hurt us.

“These seniors are a special group of guys. Each of the last four years we’ve laid the foundation and built off that. They’ve seen what they’ve been able to do and are proud of that. Just look at that crowd we had today, and the two games at Giant Center and our last home games.”

Pocono Mountain West 53, Chambersburg 52
POCONO MTN. WEST
Ishyne Pilgrim 1 0-0 3, Lee Mosley 5 2-3 12, Shermar Ernest 1 1-2 4, Eddie Germosan 2 0-0 6, Josiah Burns 3 1-2 7, Travis Elmore 9 2-4 21. Totals 21 6-11 53.
CHAMBERSBURG
Noah Beidel 0 0- 0, Seth Brouse 2 0-0 5, Cota Heckman 0 0-0 0, Cade Brindle 4 1-3 9, Tyler Collier 8 0-2 18, Evan Shreffler 0 0-0 0, Terell Williams 1 0-2 2, Tyron Williams 1 1-3 3, Joel Torres 7 1-3 15. Totals 23 3-13 52.
Pocono Mtn. West     17   17   15   9   5   —   53
Chambersburg          15   14   10   9   4   —   52
3-point shots — PMW 5 (Germosan 2, Pilgrim, Ernest, Elmore); Chbg 3 (Collier 2, Brouse).