Chambersburg’s Stanley Lozius (5) is fouled by Kyler Sucheski of Central Dauphin while taking a shot on Tuesday night. CD won the battle of unbeatens, 60-55. Photo by Liam Kirkpatrick.
CHAMBERSBURG — The game was as close as expected for three quarters, with Central Dauphin and Chambersburg — neither team had tasted defeat this year — locked in a 46-46 tie.
But the Rams scored the first 8 points of the fourth period, 7 by Wayne Fletcher II, and the closest the Trojans could get was to within 3 points twice. That enabled CD to earn a 60-55 Mid Penn Commonwealth win in CASHS Field House on Tuesday night.
“They are just a very good basketball team, and they’re a little better than us right now,” Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said. “They have a lot of weapons. We’ve had some good battles with them the last few years and we’ve looked bad at times. I’m proud of our guys tonight for keeping it close.”
Fletcher hit his only 3-pointer of the game to open the fourth quarter, then after a foul shot by Shakur Starling, made back-to-back jump shots near the lane to bump his team’s lead to 54-46.
“Landon Buhrman did a really nice job guarding Fletcher,” Shreffler said, “even though he’s really not feeling well at all.”
The Trojans (4-1, 2-1 MPC) then caused several turnovers, and converted on a three from Colton Cornwell and three baskets by J.J. Kelly (26 points), on two putbacks and a drive.
Unfortunately for Chambersburg, in the middle of that attempted comeback, CD’s Kyler Sucheski drained a trey from the left corner that pretty much sealed the Trojans’ fate.
“That one really hurt,” Shreffler said.
The Trojans held a lead only twice in the first period and once in the third (34-33). A bucket by Kelly at the end of the third tied the game at 46.
Shreffler said, “I thought we did a good job of taking away their transition game — on film you can see how good they’ve been doing that. We also took care of the basketball well (only 9 turnovers) and getting some shots from our sets.
“We have some good pieces and I think we’ll continue to get better. We played another tough team that, right now, is a little better than us.”
NOTES: Cornwell scored 12 points for the Trojans … Starling (12) and Jelani Easter (10) also reached double figures for the Rams (6-0, 3-0 MPC) … CD made 55% of its shots from the floor.
Central Dauphin 60, Chambersburg 55
CENTRAL DAUPHIN
Jelani Easter 3 4-5 10, Wayne Fletcher II 6 1-2 14, Kyler Sucheski 2 2-2 8, Jaxon Davenport 0 0-0 0, Khalid Roberts 2 0-0 5, Shakur Starling 5 2-4 12, Richard Chase 2 4-5 8, Adonis Rodriguez 0 0-0 0. Totals 20 13-18 60.
CHAMBERSBURG
Josh Rudy 1 0-2 2, Ayden Silvestre 0 0-0 0, Eli McDonald 0 0-0 0, Stanley Lozius 1 3-5 5, Ben Etter 1 1-2 4, Colton Cornwell 3 4-5 12, J.J. Kelly 9 8-8 26, Landon Buhrman 3 0-0 6. Totals 18 16-22 55.
Central Dauphin 14 17 12 14 — 60
Chambersburg 12 18 16 9 — 55
3-point shots — CD 4 (Sucheski 2, Fletcher, Roberts); Chbg 3 (Cornwell 2, Etter). Shooting — CD 20-46 (55.5%); Chbg 18-43 (41.8%). Turnovers — CD 11; Chbg 9.