By Levi Cressler

The Shippensburg community has seen the Greyhounds win a lot of basketball games since a varsity basketball team was adopted 89 years ago. Thursday night’s 51-49 win over Lower Dauphin, the defending 5 A district champs will certainly go down as one of the classics.

It was a night that saw Shippensburg battle foul trouble (Jeremy Thomas sat entire second quarter), cold shooting stretch (nearly 8 minutes without a field goal in fourth quarter), and a pesky Falcons squad, this was not an easy path to victory. Lower Dauphin set the tone early with their physical and relentless style of play. “ They play hard,” said Shippensburg coach Ray Staver. 

With 1:30 left in the opening quarter Thomas, guarding Lower Dauphin lefty Brandon Landis picked up his second foul. While Thomas sat, it was senior guard Jayden Statum who caught fire for the Hounds’ in the first half. Statum knocked down three first half three pointers in route to a 17 point performance in the opening 16 minutes. Statum also recorded 4 first half assist on his way to having a hand in 11 of the 13 first half field goals for Shippensburg. “ Jayden had a really good practice last night, he seemed to have some extra bounce,” voiced Staver.

As the Greyhounds took the court in the second half, they got Thomas back and he started to find his groove. Thomas ran off 7 third quarter points and Shippensburg maintained a 44-37 lead after three quarters. 

It was in the fourth quarter that Shippensburg went cold. “They played great defense,” said Staver when talking about the Falcons. Shot after shot rimmed out, but Shippensburg hung around with some strong defense of their own. With 31 seconds left the Greyhounds field goal drought had reached over 7 minutes before they had to foul to get the ball back. The plan worked as Lower Dauphin missed a free throw and Thomas tracked down the rebound. Some twenty seconds later, Trey Kater found Thomas standing alone on the right wing and Thomas buried a three pointer to tie the game at 49. 

Shippensburg called timeout before Lower Dauphin inbounded to ensure they set their defense for the final play.  As Shippensburg applied full court pressure on the inbounds pass, Anthony Smith jumped in the passing lane to record a steal. He then found Kater, who alertly dropped a pass off for Thomas who was streaking to the rim. Thomas banked in the short shot and the Greyhounds had stormed back to take the lead. “ JT has made some big shots for us in his career, but none bigger than those two tonight,” commented Staver.

Lower Dauphin had one last chance to draw up their final play with 4 seconds remaining. As the Lower Dauphin guard attempted to turn the corner and dribble up court versus the Greyhound full court press he lost the ball out of bounds and Shippensburg had completed the miraculous comeback. “Our kids came through against all odds late,” said Staver. 

With the win, Shippensburg advances to the district semifinals for the second straight season. They will travel to West York Monday night to face the 24-2 Bulldogs. West York punched it’s ticket to Monday by defeating Exeter Township 57-50 on Thursday night. Monday’s game is slated for a 7:00 PM tipoff and can be found on www.midpennbroadcasting.com

Shippensburg 51 Lower Dauphin 49

Shippensburg 

Statum 8 1-4 20, Kater 3 0-0 7, Thomas 5 2-4 15, Smith 4 1-2 9. Totals 20 4-10 51. 

Lower Dauphin

Fortney 2 0-2 5, Landis 6 3-5 16, Waters 1 4-4 6, Rosati 5 0-0 13, Hofsass 1 0-0 3, DeFrank 3 0-0 6. Totals: 18 7-11 49. 

Three Point Shots- Shippensburg 4. (Kater, Statum 3) Lower Dauphin 6 (Fortney, Landis, Rosati 3, Hofsass)

Shippensburg- 16  14  14  7—– 51

Lower Dauphin 15 10 12 10—–49