Seth Brouse

Chambersburg’s boys basketball coaching staff had a chance to do a little scouting Tuesday night when Central York hosted Warwick in a first-round game of the District 3 Class 6A tournament.

And they came away impressed with Central York, which handed the Warriors an 82-51 beating.

The Trojans (19-5) host the Panthers (18-6) at CASHS Field House on Friday at 7 p.m. in a quarterfinal game. The winner advances to Tuesday’s semifinals and also clinches a berth in the PIAA Tournament.

“Those teams were of similar makeup, although maybe Warwick had a little bit of a hangover from losing in the Lancaster-Lebanon final,” Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said. “But Central York played well and shot the ball really well.”

The Panthers, who bagged 50% of their shots from the field, raced out to a 23-9 lead after one quarter and led 42-16 by halftime. Guard Alex Salter led the way with 20 points, point guard Larry Hunt and forward Gabe Guidinger each had 13 and forward Evan Eisenhart added 10. Forward Braden Richard (7 points) is the other starter.

Shreffler said, “All five starters are good and they go deep on the bench. They all move well, handle the ball well and can shoot.”

Central York, which hosted the Trojans for a preseason scrimmage, typically plays man-to-man, but it will constantly switch off assignments.

“We’ve played teams that switch, but they seem to switch on everything,” Shreffler said. “Every screening action is a switch. It’s fortunate that we’ve seen it in that scrimmage, but they’re good with it because they are quick.”

On offense, the Panthers don’t normally post up inside — 6-4 Guidinger and 6-3 Richard are the tallest players.

“What they do is spread the floor, get great spacing and shoot it well,” Shreffler said. “It’ll be a challenge for us.”

The Chambersburg defense has allowed only 40.1 points per game and the team has scored 54 per contest.

The Trojans have done it with balanced scoring: the starters and scoring averages are Seth Brouse (6.4), Ethan Shreffler (9.8), Tyler Collier (9.9), Ty Holsopple (9.0) and Terell Williams (9.1). Max Doctor (5.4) is the top scorer off the bench.

Shreffler said, “We do have an advantage in size, but their kids inside are pretty good.”

Chambersburg is coming off a 47-38 loss to Trinity in the Mid Penn championship, ending an 11-game winning streak, and will have had a full week to recover.

Ethan Shreffler

“That loss helped us see things we need to improve on,” Shreffler said. “We had been really good late in games closing teams out, but this time we were behind, which put us in a new spot.

“I don’t know if the time off was good or bad. We tried to prepare as best as we could, not knowing which team we’d play, and went a little longer Tuesday night because we figured we wouldn’t be able to practice (Wednesday, because of the snow).”

BRACKET NOTES: If the Trojans win Friday, they would host a semifinal game Tuesday at 7 p.m. against the winner of No. 3 Reading (17-6) and No. 11 Manheim Township (18-7) … If it loses, Chambersburg would host a consolation semifinal Tuesday, with the winner gaining a PIAA berth … If the Trojans win that game, they would also host the game for fifth place next Thursday, unless it is against No. 1 seed Wilson.

COMMON OPPONENTS: Central York crushed Cedar Cliff (89-39, Max Preps has this backwards) and Chambersburg beat the Colts, 51-42 … The Panthers handed Carlisle a 43-37 defeat, while the Trojans beat the Herd 56-44 and 43-39 … In Tuesday’s game, Central York had five blocked shots and made 13 steals.