2A Finals
Feb 27, 2009
Giant Center, Hershey

Trinity 60 Pequea Valley 42

Pequea Valley was the new kid on the block. Trinity has been here before (9 AA champioships coming in and 10 going out). The PV Braves were the 6th seed coming into the tournament. Trinity was number one. Trinity lost in its conference final- Midd Penn. PV did not qualify for the LL. On paper it appeared that PV would have to play the perfect game to upset the highly ranked Trinity Shamrocks. The Braves would do what they could, but in the end, it was the talented Rocks owning the trophy, and the neophytes taking home the silver.

PV would try to control the tempo from the offensive end. The Braves ran the flex offense- looking for good shots along the way. Strangely enough, Trinity was also running a variation of the flex. Both teams were in man-to-man defense to start the game. Trinity would run out to a quick 7-3 leading to a quick timeout by Coach Mike Shatzmann. Kyle Neff, 6’3” center for the Braves, scored 5 points in a row for the Braves to cut the lead, and then a drive by Matt Shatzmann at the end of the quarter tied it at 10 a piece after one. The Red and White fan base for the Braves was going crazy.

The second quarter was another slow affair. Trinity took a 12-10 lead with 6:20 showing on the clock. PV would take the lead at 13-12 on a lay-up by Zach Neff with 3:00 left. Trinity would get a run going. 5’11” sn guard, Matt Donahue would score 10 points in a row (three balls, lay-ups, fouls) to, in essence, take control of the game. Trinity was up, 22-15 at the half.

The tempo increased in the third period. Trinity would put together a few mini runs but neither team could pull away. Trinity’s big guy, Eric Kindler, would hit some threes to loosen up the def. In fact, Trinity went deep 5 times in the period to hold serve at 44-32.

Donahue would dominate the early part of the 4th period as he hit a three, followed by 2 jumpers to put the Rocks out in front 51-32 early in the fourth. To PV’s credit, they kept battling. Matt Shatzmann would score 6 in a row, one off a dunk, to cut the lead to 53-38. Trinity called a timeout, settled the troops, put the delay game in effect and ran out the clock. Both teams subbed in the final minutes as the game was not in doubt.

Stats, unofficial of course

Rebounds
PV15 Trinity 27

Turnovers
PV 11 Trinity 7

Blocks
PV 2 Trinity 3

Points

PV

Matt Shatzmann 16
Kyle Neff 11
Dylan Carney 11

Trinity
Matt Donahue 25
Steve Bruening 21

Quotables..Mike Shatzmann sn, PV..”I think their guard play was better than ours..Our offense was bit slow in developing tonight..My hats off to Trinity…We gave up some wide open threes ..our strength is our transition. Trinity took that away from us…#11 got hot..We knew he was a good shooter but he was hot tonight. ..Trinity is a lot deeper than we are…We’ve had a great run. No one expected us to be here.”

LLHoops.com player of the game.. Matt Donahue of Trinity..Hot, hot, hot ..6 three balls in the game. Killer buckets at key times in the game.

LLHoops.com unsung hero..PV’s Kyle Neff. Playing on a bad leg, the forward/center battled inside vs. the taller Trinity players and made some nice up and under moves.

Sidelines…It’s neat to see a new team and its fired up fans at the Giant Center…PV posed for picts AFTER the loss in front of its fans. Really neat to see…Mike Shatzmann sn will be retiring from PV coaching at the end of PV’s season. He is a classy guy and will be missed next season on the LL hardwoods.…The Braves should play close to home this weekend as the number 2 seed from D3…Thanks to Bob Wildisin for keeping stats…Question..If a shot ball bounces once and goes in at the end of the half does it count?..answer ..depends. If the clock went off, no..If there was time on the clock the answer is yes! Thanks to Bob Newbury for interpretation on that one!

~Dell Jackson