Furious Cambridge rally stopped short by West Shamokin

Mar. 11—CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS — Facing a 17-point deficit with less than seven minutes to play, the Cambridge Springs Blue Devils went to work.

Led by an opportunistic defense, Cambridge chipped away at the lead and had an opportunity to win or tie the game. With 2.6 seconds remaning, the Blue Devils inbounded the ball under their basket, but the West Shamokin defense held strong.

The Wolves weathered the aggressive rally and held on for a 48-46 win in the first round of the PIAA Class 2A playoffs on Saturday at Cambridge Springs High School.

"I want to tip my cap to Cambridge Springs, their coaching staff, their fans and most importantly their players. I know they're playing shorthanded today and my heart goes out to Troutman, that's an awful time for that," West Shamokin coach Judd McCullough said. "But those guys gave it their all. We were up by I don't know how many, and it shows such a mark of a high character, high effort team, and I wan't to tip my cap to them."

Cambridge Springs senior point guard Tyler Troutman was unable to play after he injured his knee in last week's District 10 championship game. Troutman's ability to score was missed. Early on, the Blue Devils struggled to score against West Shamokin's defense.

On the other end, West Shamokin shot the lights out. All 12 of the team's first quarter points, and the first 15 points overall, came from beyond the arc. Travis Johns had 15 points at halftime, all of which were 3-pointers. West Shamokin's 3-point barrage, combined with Cambridge's offense struggles, resulted in a 27-15 Wolves' lead at the break.

"In the first quarter they changed a lot of things up and we were having trouble keeping up with what defense they ran. I was making some mistakes and it was all on me. I wasn't calling the right play calls and we weren't aggressively attacking either," Cambridge Springs head coach Becky Leandro said. "Those combined things and we were kinda stymied a little bit.

"We knew they were exceptional foul shooters and 3-point shooters. We tried some junk defense in the beginning and that wasn't covering all their shooters so we switched it up."

The third quarter proved to be more of the same. West Shamokin extended its lead to 15 points midway through the quarter before Cambridge's defense ramped up its on-ball pressure in an effort to create turnovers. The pressure worked and Cambridge rattled off a 6-2 run to cut the lead to 11 with 1:46 left in the third.

A technical foul called on Cambridge combined with a 3-pointer from Johns erased the momentum.

But — the momentum returned.

The Blue Devils defense forced several turnovers and ran in transition in the final stanza. With layup after layup, the Devils marched back point-by-point. They cut it to a single-digit deficit with 3:39 left to play. A Daniel Brown 3-pointer with 2:12 on the clock made it a one-possession game for the first time since the opening minutes.

Zeek Carson-Smith made a layup with 33 seconds left. Then, it was chaos.

West Shamokin turned the ball over on its end of the floor, but Cambridge missed a shot, which the Wolves rebounded. West Shamokin attempted a long pass, that was again, turned over, and Cambridge had possession with 10 ticks left. Leandro called a timeout with 2.6 left for the team's final possession.

"The resiliency of this entire team is to be commended, not just today, but every single day," Leandro said. "It seemed like there was one thing after another, but we kept coming back and coming back. I think today that comeback on our floor, our house, they left it all on the line. Leave it all on the court and that's what they did."

West Shamokin was paced by Johns with 20 points. Alex Talmadge and Ezra Osterling added 11 and nine, respectively.

Cambridge had three players in double digits. Carson-Smith led with 13. Parker Schmidt and Owen Riley each scored 10.

"I watched the tape and not only Schmidt, but No. 42, Riley, is an outstanding shooter that we couldn't let get free. They're very multi-dimensional," McCullough said. "Schmidt is a beast, he really is. It took a full-team effort and I have to tip my cap to Ezra Osterling who was the primary guy guarding him. He was physical and he battled and I thought it was one heck of a game."

West Shamokin will play Redbank Valley, the District 9 champion, on Wednesday at Armstrong High School at 7 p.m.

"I believe in those guys and they believe in each other and most importantly they believe in their teammates," McCullough said. "That's where it starts for us. A belief and trust in each other and I think you saw that in many places tonight."

Cambridge Springs' season is over. The Blue Devils finished the year 18-8.

"I told the boys in the locker room, 'No one is irreplaceable, but everyone is hard to replace.' That group of seniors is going to be hard to replace," Leandro said. "The fight we had today is going to last with them throughout a very successful lifetime. To come back after adversity and to fight hard, they will do that all their lives in different things.

"I hope those lessons they learned while playing basketball, I don't hope, I know, I know they will benefit them. They will be successful young men and I can't wait to see what they do."

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West Shamokin (48)

Johns 6 2-2 20, Talmadge 3 2-2 11, Osterling 4 1-2 9, Olinger 2 2-2 6, Barrett 1 0-0 2.

Totals: 16 5-8 48.

Cambridge Springs (46)

Brown 3 0-0 7, Schmidt 2 5-6 10, Mazzadra 3 0-0 6, Carson-Smith 5 2-2 13, Riley 10.

Totals: 15 8-9 46.

West Shamokin 12 15 14 7 — 48

Cambridge Springs 8 7 11 20 — 46

3-point goals: West Shamokin — Johns 6, Talmadge 3; Cambridge Springs — Riley 3, Carson-Smith, Brown, Schmidt.

Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.