Well the high school basketball regular season has come to a close and the local college season is winding down. Basketball will soon give way to baseball and the promo schedules are beginning to come out in earnest. So many good bobblehead options to choose from and I will be putting some miles on the car this year. Might even get up to Binghamton not once but twice. They are doing a Jacob deGrom and a Tim Tebow one. Not surprised about Tebow in the least and I’m surprised they didn’t do it last year. They have to milk him for all he’s worth.
Anyway on the week that was…
Weekly stop at Gift Horse on Monday amongst another snow storm. It started as I got home from the Bears game last night and snowed for most of the day. It turned to freezing rain and then rain the next day. Made for some heavy slush that had to be cleared. It might have all just taken care of itself but I didn’t want to leave it to nature.
Limited sports week. Wednesday was the YAIAA semifinals at Red Lion. First up was Central and New Oxford. New Oxford lost 3 league games and 2 of those were to Central. I guess York High kinda owes Central one eh? Nah, not really. Central jumped out early and then the Ox took over. A Central player missed a peep shot with a few seconds left in the first and a Colonial shot a 3/4 court shot that went in. Central never went away and some poor foul shooting by New Oxford kept them in the game but this was New Oxford’s to win. Despite that Central had a chance to win and tie in the waning moments of the fourth quarter and missed. New Oxford wins 43-41. Apparently this is the New Oxford coach’s first win against Central ever.
Then it was Littlestown and York High. This figured to be much more high scoring and it was. Littlestown has a great record but did not play a challenging schedule and tonight they paid for it. York was too fast and too strong. They opened a 20 point halftime lead turning Littlestown over again and again and again. The second half was on cruise control as Littlestown played them even but never really chipped away at the lead and keeping their starters in the game until the very end. York wins 74-51.
Friday was the YAIAA title game at York College. New Oxford/York High Round 3 for all the marbles. I don’t think anyone expected this one to be a blowout and it wasn’t. York led most of the first half but New Oxford came back and took the lead at the end of the third. But then the fouls started mounting for New Oxford’s best players and their best player picked 3 fouls up in fairly quick succession and fouled out halfway through the fourth quarter on an incredibly dumb foul at midcourt. York held the Ox at arm’s length for the rest of the game but the Colonials did have a shot to tie the game thanks to a York High turnover on the inbounds pass with about 6 seconds to go. The shot was an airball and York High recovered icing the game at the line. York High is the YAIAA Champions 54-50.
Saturday was the regular season finale in the CAC as York College took on Mary Washington. Mary Washington has been a thorn in their side for the past few years. With a win they will share the regular season title and with a loss (and a Christopher Newport win at Penn State Harrisburg) they will finish second. This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half York could not miss from the land of 3 but even despite that Mary Washington hung around, down 10 at half. The second half was the opposite. Mary Washington used an 18-0 run to not only get into the game but to take the lead. They seemed to be able to get into the lane at will but York responded with the 3 ball. Zack Novick and Joey Polczynski hit big 3’s down the stretch to get York back on top. They were never able to put Mary Washington away despite some great defensive plays by Jason Bady and thanks to missed free throws and poor defense from the other players Mary Washington tied it up. But as always the ball was put in Bady’s hands and for whatever reason he was fouled at midcourt sinking both free throws. York wins 76-74 and shares the regular season title with Christopher Newport, who demolished PSU Harrisburg.
I came down with a bit of a cold late in the week. Did not sleep well and I had a constantly running nose. Good times. That precluded any brewery visiting for this weekend since booze and a cold don’t mix too well. That will happen. Shame, I had big plans too. Maybe next week.