Ethan Shreffler scored a career-high 25 points for Chambersburg.

WEST LAWN — Just a step too slow.

That seemed to be the case in a lot of instances Thursday night for Chambersburg, which fell 53-51 in overtime to Wilson in the contest for third place in District 4 Class 6A.

The Trojans got a career-high 25 points from Ethan Shreffler, but it was not enough to make up losing the battle of the boards to the Bulldogs, or the fine-passing offense from Wilson, or 23 points by its sophomore star, Stevie Mitchell.

Chambersburg (20-7) will now have more than a week off before playing in the first round of the PIAA Tournament on Saturday, March 9. The Trojans will play the District 7 runner-up, likely in the Pittsburgh area.

Wilson (22-5) fell behind by three points twice early in the overtime, as Shreffler nailed his fifth 3-pointer of the game, and then dropped in a pair of foul shots to make it 49-46.

But Chambersburg managed only one other basket, a baseline drive by Tyler Collier that made the score 52-51 with 0:09 left. The Bulldogs then hit one of two foul shots with nine seconds left.

On the Trojans’ possession, a pass was knocked out of bounds by Wilson, and an inbounds play with 0:01 left was also deflected.

“I thought we were just a half step slow all night,” Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said. “That may have led to them getting a lot of buckets in the paint and too many offensive rebounds.”

The Trojans held five-point leads twice in the second quarter, at 26-21 and 28-23. But Wilson finished the half on an 8-2 run and trailed only one other time before overtime.

The Bulldogs were able to score inside after some slick baseline drives and passes into the lane, and Mitchell caused plenty of trouble along the baseline, too.

Shreffler said, “They execute well enough that if you’re not quite there (on defense) or not communicating well, they can really hurt you. We just seemed a step too slow to help or sink on the baseline, and they took advantage.”

Rebounding, normally a Chambersburg strength, was seriously neutralized by Wilson, which got plenty of second-chance opportunities and gave the Trojans very few.

Ethan Shreffler scored nearly half of his team’s points. The Trojans got more looks inside than Tuesday against Reading, but strong defense by Evin Timochenko, Avanti Lockhart and Bryce Callaway prevented many points from going on the board.

“It’s not that we didn’t get it inside,” Shawn Shreffler said, “but they played really good interior defense. We had some good looks that didn’t go down.”

Chambersburg took its last lead in regulation when Shreffler bombed in a three and Collier made a sweeping drive across the lane to make it 42-40 with just over three minutes left.

The Bulldogs hit four free throws, then Ty Holsopple made a difficult turnaround jumper with 1:28 left to tie it 44-44.

Wilson held it for the last shot and got close-in shots by Timochenko and Lockhart that refused to go down just before the buzzer.

Shawn Shreffler said, “Wilson is a really good team, and we had a long trip and competed very well with them. But we seemed a step off physically and mentally and I think maybe Tuesday’s game took its toll.”

Mitchell, a 6-1 sophomore, entered averaging 20.6 points per game and scored 23. That’s after Reading’s Wesley Butler, averaging 23 per game, had 19 on Tuesday. Ironically, both are guards who wear No. 3.

“I think I’ll be seeing No. 3 in my sleep,” quipped Shreffler. “They are different players, but they both can really score.”

NOTES: No other player for Chambersburg scored more than 6 points, and no other player for Wilson had more than 7 … Pairings for the PIAA Tournament will likely be released Sunday.

Wilson 53, Chambersburg 51
CHAMBERSBURG
DaQuan Rodgers 0 0-0 0, Braden Byers 0 0-0 0, Ethan Shreffler 8 4-4 25, Seth Brouse 2 0-0 4, Aaron Maynard 0 0-0 0, Tyler Collier 3 0-2 6, Kyere Morton 0 0-0 0, Henry Shearer 1 0-0 3, Max Doctor 1 1-2 3, Ty Holsopple 2 0-0 4, Terell Williams 2 2-2 6. Totals 19 7-10 51.
WILSON
Stevie Mitchell 10 3-5 23, Evin Timochenko 3 0-0 7, Avanti Lockhart 2 3-3 7, Bryce Calloway 3 0-0 6, Hassan Koroma 3 0-2 6, Mykel Huffman 1 2-4 4, Jack McCormick 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 8-14 53.
Chambersburg     9   15   6   14   7   —   51
Wilson                   9   12  10  13   9   —   53
3-point shots — Chbg 6 (Shreffler 5, Shearer); Wil 1 (Timochenko). Shooting — Chbg 19-44 (43%); Wil 22-46 (48%). Turnovers — Chbg 14, Wil 11.