CHAMBERSBURG — Chambersburg had to battle hard just to be tied with State College at halftime.
Then the Trojans went into a different gear in the third quarter, outscoring the Little Lions 22-7, and cruised to a 61-43 Mid Penn Commonwealth victory Thursday night at CASHS Field House.
Josh Rudy
“It was a little different today because we were off school, and we didn’t play with any juice right away,” Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said. “We started to play harder in the second quarter to be tied with them at the half, and then in the third quarter we raised it to a different level.”
State College (5-4, 2-3 MPC) had a fine start and held leads of 11-4 and 15-9. The Little Lions’ Reed Melvin was doing a decent job of denying J.J. Kelly and SC bettered the Trojans (7-2, 4-1 MPC) on the boards.
Chambersburg used a 1-3-1 trapping half-court defense in the second — with Josh Rudy being a pest at the top of the D — to get things turned around. State College did make all 5 of its field goal attempts in the period, but the trap limited good looks and caused 5 turnovers.
Shreffler said, “Josh did a really good job in the 1-3-1. Their No. 10 (Melvin) has a really good 3-point shot and Josh limited him, and then was really active on top of that 1-3-1 trap.”
Two consecutive steals by Rudy led to a pair of baskets and Kelly sank a pair of 3-pointers, the second right after Colton Cornwell hit one to get the Trojans back to even.
In the third period, Chambersburg took off right away, using a 15-2 run to claim a 39-26 advantage. Kelly hit two free throws and a put-back, then dumped a pass off to Cornwell for a layup from the top of his jump when the defenders all thought he was going to shoot. Kelly had 11 of the 15 points and Cornwell had the other 4.
“J.J. was a little more assertive in the second half, but we did a better job of getting him the ball in good places, too,” Shreffler said. “They were sitting in the paint and we did a good job of passing it out of that.”
The fourth-quarter highlight came on another pass to Cornwell for a layup. Landon Buhrman was nearly tied up in the paint inside the foul line and had two defenders in front of him. So he rose up and gave Cornwell a no-look, over-the-head pass.
Kelly ended up with 30 points to match his season-high and Cornwell had 16. Melvin led the Little Lions with 12 points.
Chambersburg 61, State College 43
STATE COLLEGE
Ty Salazer 1 0-0 2, Nick Carr 3 0-0 8, Michael Powell 2 0-0 6, Manny Elliott 2 0-0 4, Reed Melvin 5 0-0 12, Charlie Yartz 3 0-2 6, Deondre Sheffey 1 0-0 2, Carter Wright 0 0-2 0, Brady Wager 1 1-2 3. Totals 18 106 43.
CHAMBERSBURG
Aedan Walker 0 0-0 0, Josh Rudy 3 0-0 6, Ayden Silvestre 0 0-0 0, Eli McDonald 1 0-0 3, Ben Etter 0 0-0 0, Colton Cornwell 6 2-2 16, J.J. Kelly 9 3-3 30, Cooper Stockslager 0 0-0 0, Paolo Ayibotele 1 0-0 2, Landon Buhrman 1 2-2 4, Tyrell Hawkins 0 0-0 0. Totals 24 7-7 61.
State College 11 13 7 12 — 43
Chambersburg 9 15 22 15 — 61
3-point shots — SC 6 (Carr 2, Melvin 2, Powell 2); Chbg 6 (Kelly 3, Cornwell 2, McDonald). Shooting — SC 18-42 (42.8%); Chbg 24-47 (51%). Turnovers — SC 15; Chbg 9.