WAYNESBORO – The Waynesboro Area Senior High School varsity boys’ basketball team did everything but win the game against Northern York on Tuesday, Jan. 13 in their Mid-Penn Colonial Division game.
The Indians fell behind 19-4 after the first quarter, and then they roared back to lead 49-47 in the final seconds. But 6-foot-3 junior Luke Lehman made a three-point field goal with under 10 seconds left in the contest, and Waynesboro’s last-second attempt at a winning shot did not materialize as Northern eked out a 50-49 win.
The game appeared to be headed for a Northern blowout of the Tribe, who lost to the Polar Bears on Dec. 10 by the score of 50-39. After Northern raced out to a 15-point lead and Waynesboro didn’t have an answer for the Bears’ fast-paced offense, it looked like the outcome could have been much more lopsided.
Jaiden Giovannetti started the game with a three-pointer. Peyton Fawber and Lehman made second-chance shots, and all of a sudden it was 7-0 before spectators could get settled in the bleachers.
Waynesboro kept pushing, trying to stem the tide to keep the Polar Bears from running the Indians out of their own gym. Ryan Jenkins put the home team on the scoreboard, and then Carter Hough made a bucket to reduce the deficit to 7-4.
That was a band-aid, as Northern went on a 12-0 run to end the first quarter.
Nobody could have predicted that the Indians would have made a game of it, but they did.
“We tried to instill in them that they’re not going to make up 15 points in two minutes, so don’t go out there and start chucking the ball all over the place and playing faster than you need to. Just keep chipping away at it and see what happens,” said Waynesboro head coach Tom Hoffman, now in his 26th season in that position.”I’m really proud of the guys.”
With good reasons.
Despite trailing by double digits, Waynesboro played a spirited game and inched closer and closer. Dominic Goodworth sank a three-pointer to start the second quarter. Rayshawn Frazer-Hewitt followed with a put-back shot and then added a basket to make it 19-11.
Every time Waynesboro saw light at the end of the tunnel, the Polar Bears put up points to make Waynesboro feel as though the game was one step up and two steps back. Fawber answered at the other end to extend the lead back to double figures, 21-11. However, the Tribe responded with a three-pointer by Frazer-Hewitt, and Christian Munday fed Goodworth with a nice pass and two more points to make the score 21-16.
It was back and forth, and then one step up and two steps back as Northern pulled away a bit to up the lead to 30-19 after a bucket by Lehman. Goodworth made a baseline runner, and Frazer-Hewitt scored to make it a 30-23 score at halftime.
The second half was quite different from the first half in that Waynesboro didn’t have to expend extra energy to close the gap. Hough made a pair of three throws and then drained a three-pointer to cut the Northern lead to 30-28.
The Indians could smell a lead, but, once again, the Polar Bears said, “Not so fast.” Brycen George and Giovannetti made baskets to make it 34-28. A Hough trifecta was followed by a free throw by Giovannetti, and a field goal by Lehman, making the score 37-31 – a lot better than a 15-point differential but frustrating nonetheless, because for all Waynesboro was concerned, a six point lead might as well have been a 16-point lead since the Tribe just couldn’t cross the bridge to a tie or a lead of its own.
Hough was Johnny-on-the-spot again, draining a two-pointer to make it 37-33 after three quarters. Then, in the fourth period, crunch time, Goodworth made two free throws to cut the margin to 37-35. A couple minutes later, Goodworth made a field goal to tie the game. Goodworth stole the ball and went coast-to-coast and made a layup.
Northern regained the lead, and Waynesboro tied it again at 41. The Polar Bears answered again to lead 43-41. On Waynesboro’s possession, Goodworth swished a three-pointer to give the Indians their first lead, 44-43.
Hough stole the ball away from Northern, and at the other end, he dished off to Nate Nystrom for a layup and a 46-43 lead.
Northern scored the next four points to take a 47-46 lead before Goodworth drained his dramatic trey. Then, with time running out, Lehman received a pass and made the game-winning shot.
“We just said, ‘one possession at a time,’ and we had to stack some stops,” Hoffman said. “That’s the key, because we know we’re not going to make every shot when we come down the floor. Defensively, that’s something we can control. Rebounding is something we can control. Northern made eight offensive rebounds in the first quarter. They were on pace to make 32 offensive rebounds. Not acceptable.”
Waynesboro (4-8) will be on the road for the next three games, starting on Wednesday against South Western. The Indians take on West Perry on Friday and Greencastle-Antrim on Tuesday.
Photos by Toya McCleary:
