Chambersburg’s Landon Buhrman, left, drives on Lucas Ream of Carlisle during the Trojans’ 66-46 win over the Herd in a District 3 Class 6A first-round playoff game Tuesday at CASHS Field House (photo by Liam Kirkpatrick).

CHAMBERSBURG — He didn’t score a point.

He admitted he is not in peak shape — “I was dying out there a couple of times.”

Stanley Lozius

But the return to the lineup of Chambersburg’s point guard, Stanley Lozius, seemed to give the crowd and his teammates a lift and they responded with a 66-46 win over Carlisle in a District 3 Class 6A first-round boys basketball playoff game Tuesday night at CASHS Field House.

The No. 4 seed Trojans (18-4) will host No. 5 Wilson (21-5) in a district quarterfinal game Friday night at 7 p.m. The win also guaranteed a top-8 finish, which means Chambersburg has already qualified for the PIAA State Tournament. It’ll be the fourth consecutive season for the Trojans in the state tournament, believed to be the first time that’s ever happened in program history.

Lozius started the first 6 games of the season at point guard, but missed the next 15 games while he was dealing with a health issue. He had a hard time getting the necessary permission to play again.

“It took a really long time,” Lozius said, “with a lot of tests and appointments. I wasn’t allowed to practice or work out until last Wednesday. So it feels really good to be back with the team and being in front of the crowd — it’s just amazing to be back.”

Chambersburg coach Shawn Shreffler said, “He gave us a big lift just being out there again. He had to keep hanging in there for two months and we didn’t know for sure if he’d be back at all. Our training staff did a nice job. It was pretty neat when his name was called (for the starting lineup).”

In their three meetings this season, the Trojans have held the Thundering Herd to 43, 46 and 46 points. In this game, Carlisle was outscored 31-17 in the first half, but made an 11-4 run to start the third period and pulled within 7, at 35-28. At that point, Shreffler called a time out.

“I just told them they needed to get tougher,” Shreffler said.

The Herd was playing very physical defense and the officials — consistently — were letting them play. Chambersburg had 5 turnovers in the first four minutes of the quarter to help fuel the Herd’s comeback.

But in the final 3:30 of the period, the Trojans went on a 9-0 run. J.J. Kelly scored on a put-back and a turnaround baseline jumper, Colton Cornwell banged in his fourth 3-pointer of the night (he was 4-for-4 from long range) and Landon Buhrman converted a nice drive.

Suddenly, it was 44-28, and the Herd never got closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

Shreffler said, “Carlisle has some really good pieces, and has decent size and toughness. We had already beaten them twice, so you know they’d come in with motivation.

“They really mixed it up on defense, but we had some really good practices leading up to this game, and I thought our guys made some nice adjustments during the game.”

Only four players scored for Chambersburg, but that was not a factor. Kelly posted 26 points, including three dunks, the last two of which were special — an under-over finish on a fast break and a windmill jammer in which he seemed to take off at the foul line — and added two blocks.

Cornwell, switching from point to shooting guard, tallied 17 and Buhrman, battling 6-foot-8 Tyler Royal all night on offense, put in 16 hard-earned points underneath. Eli McDonald added 7 points.

Parker Smith led Carlisle with 16 points, but he was held well under his scoring average (24.6) in all three games vs. Chambersburg.

NOTES: Carlisle finished 13-9, with 3 of those defeats coming at the hands of the Trojans … Wilson, which fell 50-37 to Chambersburg in December, beat Cedar Crest 50-41 in the first round … The Trojans are still hoping to get back another starting guard, Josh Rudy, who has missed the last 4 game with sickness.

Chambersburg 66, Carlisle 46
CARLISLE
Mikel Hakim 1 0-0 2, Parker Smith 6 2-3 16, Luke Fischer 4 2-2 11, Lucas Ream 2 1-4 7, Masyn McMeekin 1 2-4 5, Tyler Royal 1 1-2 3, Julien Mastrangelo 0 0-0 0, Devin Lyons 1 0-0 2. Totals 15 8-15 46.
CHAMBERSBURG
Aedan Walker 0 0-0 0, Ayden Sylvestre 0 0-0 0, Eli McDonald 3 0-0 7, Stanley Lozius 0 0-0 0, Ben Etter 0 0-0 0, Colton Cornwell 5 3-4 17, J.J. Kelly 11 4-5 26, Cooper Stockslager 0 0-0 0, Paolo Ayibotele 0 0-0 0, Landon Buhrman 6 4-6 16, Tyrell Hawkins 0 0-0 0. Totals 25 11-15 66.
Carlisle                         12       5     11     18     —     46
Chambersburg           17     14     13     22     —     66
3-point shots — Car 6 (Smith 2, Ream 2, Fischer, McMeekin); Chbg 5 (Cornwell 4, McDonald). Shooting — Car 15-37 (40.5%); Chbg 25-40 (62.5%). Turnovers — Car 14; Chbg 14.