Got into the swing of things quickly this week. Made my weekly stop at Gift Horse and then headed up to York High for their first round District game against Gettysburg. I am sure that York has played Gettysburg at some point in the past but I can’t remember any time recently. It didn’t help that they were almost always a class below York and in a different conference until recently.
The game was close for about 3 minutes and then York went on something like a 15-0 run and the game could have been called there. York was bigger, faster and stronger, which is no surprise. I don’t think Gettysburg was prepared anyway for this as they were overmatched in every way and it could have been worse as York blew 4 dunks. The mercy rule started midway through the fourth quarter and while the Warriors made up a few points against York’s reserves this was a lopsided win with York winning 85-50. The big shocker of the night was that Garden Spot beat New Oxford at New Oxford! How the heck did that happen? Must have been suffering the post-championship losing blues.
Tuesday brought St. Mary’s to York College for the CAC quarterfinals. York won both of the games against them this year by a combined 6 points so this was not expected to be a laugher in any way. In fact top to bottom the league was very competitive this year, except for Southern Virginia. Amazing that Christopher Newport won the coin toss yet again to get the #1 seed and gets to play Southern Virginia. What luck once again (the same thing happened last year)! To win York will have to win tonight and then Mary Washington is potentially looming. Should they win that it means a trip down to Newport News rather than the other way around. That is a long trip, I’ve driven it several times. Of course on the positive side York has finally moved into the Receiving Votes category in the Top 25.
Both teams struggled to get going in this one. York’s didn’t even score for the first 3 minutes of the game. Fortunately St. Mary’s was little better and once York got going they got going. The difference in this was defense, York played defense tonight (either that or St. Mary’s was not interested) and they opened up a 12 point lead at half. The second half was more of the same as York stretched the lead to over 30 before putting in the 3rd team to play the rest of the game out. York wins 76-47 setting up a meeting with Mary Washington in the semis.
Wednesday was a yucky day. Snow and sleet and freezing rain. Yuck. At least we didn’t get the 5-8 inches of snow that weather.com predicted. Maybe it was four inches. I was out shoveling when the snow stopped and it was a nice heavy snow since the freezing rain had started. I didn’t realize that I was soaking wet until I finished up.
Thursday brought Northeastern to York High for the District quarterfinals. Northeastern won 39-32 over West York in what was surely a thrilling game to watch. Thursday also brought Mary Washington to York College for the CAC semifinals. What to do, what to do? I went to York High and was hoping that the game would be over with enough time to take in a small bit of the college game. Northeastern kept it close for a half but the Bobcats just didn’t have enough oomph to keep up in the second half. Outside of a brief run that sort of got them back in the game they didn’t show much spark in the 2nd half. York opened a 6 point halftime lead into 20+ and kept the pressure up wearing Northeastern out. York wins 80-57. I got in the car just as York College was finishing off their game, beating Mary Washington 69-62. They will play at Christopher Newport on Saturday for the conference championship. York will take on Muhlenberg in the District semis on Monday.
Nothing to do on Friday. I do miss the triple headers at the Giant Center for district basketball that would have been tonight and tomorrow. It almost always coincided with a Hershey Bears game on Saturday too so it just made for a nice way to pass a day and of course the Bears are home against Rockford. But Hershey apparently booked a concert for next week forcing the last championships out of Hershey and to Reading and making the District committee very unhappy. Of course Hershey will get more money out of that but it is a negative PR hit, not that that seems to matter to them. So after work I had a Happy Hour beer at Wyndridge Farms since it is right down the road from where I work and had a nice relaxing dinner at home with my two little buddies.
York College dropped the CAC championship at Christopher Newport 78-56. The 3 ball did not fall and they have lived and died by the three all year. They paid for it with this game. I will say York has far exceeded my expectations this year. So, would they get an at large pick in the NCAA Tournament? They’ll have to wait until Monday afternoon to find out. They are apparently optimistic but that does not mean that they will get in. There aren’t a lot of at large spots in Division 3. They did beat 3 ranked teams (Johns Hopkins, Salisbury and CNU), though two were not ranked for long (Hopkins and Salisbury). They also got clobbered by one ranked team (Swarthmore) and by another that was ranked briefly (Scranton), not including Saturday’s loss to ranked CNU. Two league losses, both on the road shouldn’t hurt them too much, considering that one was to CNU and they have been ranked all year. We’ll see, I don’t know how their resume stacks up against other at large opponents.