It was nothing short of a playoff atmosphere Friday night. Nothing came easy for either Lewisburg or Wellsboro at the Montoursville Christmas Classic in Montoursville. Players dove for loose balls at every opportunity, shots were blocked and players fought for every last point.
But with tournament MVP Erich Kline and Sam Allen leading the way, Lewisburg defeated Wellsboro, 43-38, in a hard-fought defensive battle to capture the tournament championship.
With Kline and Allen roaming the paint both on offense and defense, the Green Dragons controlled the tempo of the game and kept the Green Hornets off balance.
Article Photos
Jesse Flannery of Lewisburg, left, tries to keep the ball from Wellsboro’s Matt Reese Friday at Montoursville. View additional photos at cu.sungazette.com.
The duo combined for 30 for the team's 43 total points while cleaning up missed shots, grabbing offensive rebounds to restart possessions and protecting the rim on defense.
"I'm sure they probably led us in rebounds and altered some shots," said Lewisburg head coach John Vaji. "Those guys were huge for us inside. They gave us a presence on offense as well as on the defensive end."
With Kline and Allen protecting the paint, the Green Dragons played aggressive on-ball defense on the perimeter, making it almost impossible for Wellsboro to penetrate into the lane and get easy shots at the basket.
"We average about 22 free throws a game and we didn't do a lot of dribble-penetration," said Wellsboro head coach Todd Outman. "And we don't see a lot of 6-foot-7 guys in our league and once we do get into the paint we don't know how to score against that."
With Wellsboro's gameplan to take Travis Conrad out of the game, Allen stepped up big, scoring 19 points en rout to being named to the All-Tournament team along with Conrad. The Green Hornets held Conrad to just six points, but Allen was devastating in the paint while Wellsboro focused on Conrad.
"Honestly I didn't think Allen would go off like he did with 19," Outman said. "I didn't know he could do what he did tonight. I said if we can take Travis Conrad out of the game we can win and we did that."
And despite the loss, Wellsboro worked relentlessly on defense. And at the head of that defense was Jordan Jackson, who worked tirelessly on both ends of the floor, willing his team closer and closer to victory. But in the end, Jackson's effort wasn't enough, although it was much more impressive than the six points by his name in the boxscore.
"He's fabulous," Outman said. "He's one of the best athletes in my opinion in District 4. He is a super athlete and he plays that way every night and he plays like that in practice. He never tires out."
But just as hard as the Green Hornets worked on defense, the Green Dragons matched them. Lewisburg switched perfectly on the perimeter to cover all shooters while Kline and Allen waited to turn away any attempts at the rim.
"We played extremely hard," Vaji said. "We did a great job defensively but we need to take care of the basketball better. We talked about being disciplined on defense and we knew they liked to penetrate. We didn't give up many penetration baskets."
Lewisburg 43, Wellsboro 38
Wellsboro (38)
Joe Doganiero 3 0-0 8, Jordan Jackson 3 0-2 6, Matt Reese 3 0-0 6, Dylan Prough 3 0-0 7, Mike Pietropola 1 2-2 4, Dawson Prough 0 0-0 0, Kieron Smethers 3 1-1 7. Totals 16 3-5 38.
Lewisburg (43)
Jesse Flannery 0 0-2 0, Travis Conrad 2 0-0 5, Mike Driscoll 3 0-1 6, Erick Kline 4 2-2 11, Sam Allen 8 3-6 19, Nick Costagliola 0 0-0 0, Matt Fedorajka 0 0-0 0. Totals 18 5-11 43.
Wellsboro 6 15 10 7 - 38
Lewisburg 14 10 9 10 - 43
3-Point goals: Wellsboro 3 (Doganiero 2, Prough). Lewisburg 2 (Conrad, Kline)
Records: Lewisburg 7-0; Wellsboro 8-1
Jersey Shore 61, Montoursville 51
Jersey Shore?(61)
Eric Huling 2 2-4 8, Tyler Fulkrod 0 0-0 0, Steven Baer 2 3-4 7, Clay Newton 1 0-0 2, Frankie Stetts 2 1-2 5, Brody Smith 5 7-7 19, Zach Miller 2 1-1 5, Tevin Fulkrod 2 0-0 4, Cody Confair 3 5-6 11, Jeff Dincher 0 0-1 0. Totals 19 19-25 61.
Montoursville (51)
Curtis Miller 0 0-0 0, Jalile Best 4 0-0 10, Pierce Ranck 9 6-11 25, Sean O'Malley 0 0-0 0, Zach Bair 0 1-2 1, Quintin Person 1 4-5 6, Zach Pepperman 3 0-0 7, Connor Moran 0 0-1 0, Quintin Helm 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 11-18 51.
Jersey Shore 14 17 21 9 - 61
Montoursville 10 10 20 11 - 51
3-Point goals: Jersey Shore 4 (Huling 2, Smith 2). Montoursville 4 (Best 2, Ranck, Helm)
All-Tournament team: Brody Smith, Jersey Shore; Pierce Ranck, Montoursville; Jordan Jackson, Wellsboro; Travis Conrad, Lewisburg; Sam Allen, Lewisburg
MVP: Erich Kline
