CHAMBERSBURG — Nobody saw THIS coming.
In their wildest dreams, the Chambersburg boys basketball players may have envisioned a good win over a quality team in Central Bucks East on Saturday evening at CASHS Field House in a first-round PIAA Class 6A Tournament contest.
J.J. Kelly
But what actually happened was that the Trojans played their best game of the season, did all the little things well, and absolutely blew out the Patriots, 72-41 — their largest margin of victory of this season. A crowd of nearly 1,500 were entertained right from the get-go.
"We wanted to come out and take care of business … we knew it'll be our last home game," Chambersburg sophomore Colton Cornwell said.
Chambersburg (20-6) will now face District 11 champion Parkland (22-5), which put a 65-35 hurting on Plymouth-Whitemarsh in the first round. The site and time will be released Sunday.
Let us count the ways the Trojans took care of business Friday:
— Star player J.J. Kelly was a star. Indeed. He scored a career-high 40 points, and was basically unstoppable. He mixed in four 3-pointers with four dunks among his 17 field goals.
— Chambersburg shot 51% from the field (31-for-61).
— The Trojans totally dominated the boards, even though CB East had the reputation of being a good rebounding team. Chambersburg had five putback buckets and the rebounding fed a sometimes dazzling transition game.
— Getting off to a quick start was important. How about a 15-0 run to start the game, a 22-3 lead after one quarter and a 27-3 advantage early in the second? The lead swelled to as many as 34 points in the second half.
— The man-to-man defense never let the Patriots breathe. CB East missed its first 9 shots and did not score for the first 6:20 of the game, or for the first 3:18 of the third period.
"We contested their shots really well," sophomore forward Landon Buhrman said. "I think the defense did an amazing job."
Cornwell said, "We knew they could shoot, so we had to contest their shots, hold them to one shot, rebound and get up the floor."
Trojan coach Shawn Shreffler said, "We put a lot of time into watching film on them. (Assistant) coach (Quinn) Oyler and (assistant) Ethan (Shreffler) prepared our scout team and I think those guys did a great job of running their offense and gave us a great look at it.
"We contested their shots well, controlled the boards and what we got off those rebounds is what we try to do — rebound and then play offense off of that."
The early part of the game showed exactly what was to come. Jermere Jones scored inside, Cornwell sank two free throws and finished a fast break, then Buhrman scored on another break. Kelly hit a three and a tough layup and fed Jones for a basket on a fast break to make it 15-0.
Buhrman said, "We were confident with that lead — we weren't going to let it go. When they called their first timeout, we felt pretty good."
After Justin DiRoberto scored CB East's first points on a three, the Trojans scored the next 12 (jumper by Kelly, 3-pointer by Cornwell, a fast break from Stan Lozius, a rebound by Jones and a three by Kelly to put the lead at 27-5.
Shreffler said, "When you get a big lead, you have to continue to be aggressive — you can't take your foot off the gas. I think we did a great job of that, and then using up some clock in the fourth quarter."
In addition to his 40 points, Kelly played a fine defensive game against CB East's top player, Jake Cumminskey. He was held well under his average with 12 points, 7 of which came in the fourth period.
"J.J. did a really good job of focusing on shutting down their No. 1 player," Shreffler said. "He took that seriously, and his defense flowed right into his offense."
NOTES: Jones and Cornwell each tallied 9 points … For the Patriots, Cumminskey and Tyler Dandrea each had 12 … Chambersburg now has a 6-19 record in PIAA playoff games … The other wins were last year over Plymouth-Whitemarsh, 1997 over North Penn, 1996 over Coatesville, 1988 over Conestoga and 1954 over Williamsport.
Chambersburg 72, Central Bucks East 41
CB EAST
Jake Cumminskey 5 1-1 12, Dhruv Mukund 2 0-0 5, Tyler Dandrea 4 3-3 12, Miles Demby 0 0-0 0, Bryce Lolus 0 2-3 2, Justin DiRoberto 2 0-0 5, Nolan Behm 2 1-2 5. Totals 15 7-9 41.
CHAMBERSBURG
Ari Snyder 1 0-0 2, Grayson Kegerreis 0 0-0 0, Aden Swatsburg 0 0-0 0, Eli McDonald 0 0-0 0, Stan Lozius 2 0-0 4, Ben Etter 0 0-0 0, Colton Cornwell 3 2-2 9, J.J. Kelly 17 2-2 40, Landon Buhrman 3 0-0 6, Dylan Banda 1 0-0 2, Jermere Jones 4 1-2 9. Totals 31 5-6 72.
Central Bucks East 3 18 7 13 — 41
Chambersburg 22 23 14 13 — 72
3-point shots — CBE 4 (Cumminskey, Mukund, Dandrea, DiRoberto); Chbg 5 (Kelly 4, Cornwell). Shooting — CBE 15-32 (35%); Chbg 31-51 (51%). Turnovers — CBE 11; Chbg 7.
