3A Championship Game at
Hershey 2/28/02 LS 45 Sus TWP 43 Just another close game for Coach Dave
Baltzer and the the Pioneers. LS had been winning, barely,
in the districts. The championship game would be no
different. With a nice blend of senior leaders, good guard
play and a young, big shot blocker, LS brought home the gold
by beating the only seeded team left in the 3A brackets.
East Penn - out, Eastern (a team who beat LS early in the
season) out compliments of Lancaster Mennonite, and the .500
four time repeating champ Steel High - OUT! Sus. TWP had to battle its way to get
here too. They "drew" Steel High in the first round and took
them out. They made enough foul shots to beat Lebanon and
survived a close game (OT) from Conrad Weiser. The Indians
were playing without their 6'8" center (reports of a
shoulder injury among other rumors). A slow paced first period ended with LS
on a 6-0 run to take the lead 8-4 after one. Dan Herr did
most of the damage as he collected 6 points. Sus. TWP opened
in a zone as did LS. Both teams tried some full court
pressure in the second period, but it did not favor either
team. Sus. TWP had trouble scoring vs. the Pioneers
assortment of zones. LS would charge out for a 7-9 point
lead and Sus TWP would come back. The theme repeated all
evening long. Dan Herr scored LS's last basket of the half
to take a 25 -19 lead. If it was possible, the third period was
slower, as far as points scored, than the first 2. LS
maintained a four point lead heading into quarter four.
Aaron Boyd hit some jumpers to keep LS up. Sus TWP cut the lead to 2 a few times but
every time LS had an answer. Alex Burbaker hit a jumper,
Herr hits fouls, Dave Pearson scores on a jumper, and
finally Ryan Finger, who handled everything Sus TWP had to
give, stepped to the line and made enough fouls to clinch it
for the Pioneers. Coach Baltzer..."We won by twice as many
as we needed to...They were very active..It starts all over
next week...This is new ground for us...I felt our close
games boosted our confidence in the fourth quarter....This
is a huge reward for all of the hard work we put
in. Whethter it was "fish power" or "Finger"
power or "Welcome to the Jungle" power, LS rose to the top
in 3A in 2002. Congratulations to the 3A champs -
LS Question: Who was the last 3A Boys Champ
out of the LL?
