Griffins' D sends Warriors to silver medal

Mar. 1—MONTOURSVILLE — The locker room at Montoursville High School was still eerily silent almost 20 minutes after the medal ceremony for the District 4 Class A championship on Wednesday night.

The Northumberland Christian boys still going through the motions of cleaning up after one of its most dissappointing performances of the season.

"We would penatrate to the rim, and the ball would just drop off. There are days like that," Northumberland Christian coach Jeremiah Bennett said. "It's just stings a little bit more when its the district final, but it's not atypical for the game of basketball."

With the bounces going their way, and some suffocating man-to-man defense sprinkled in, No. 2-seed Sullivan County limited the Warriors to a season-low in points as the Griffins won their first District 4 Class A boys title in 11 years with a 52-41 victory over Northumberland Christian.

"It's supposed to sting, and it's supposed to hurt, but it happens," Bennett said.

The Griffins, which allowed 62 points to the Warriors in a regular-season loss on Jan. 9, allowed eight early points and three field goals to the Warriors, but it would take Northumberland Christian team almost 20 minutes of game time to net another three field goals.

"It was a completely different game plan. We had work to take away one player on Saturday (North Penn-Liberty's Derek Litzelman), but that's not Northumberland Christian's team at all," Sullivan County coach Glenn Vaughn, who is take the Griffins to the state playoffs for the 11th time in 14 seasons, said. "They are so good. I thought we played really good man-to-man defense for three quarters."

Sullivan County (17-8) advances to play LaAcadamia Charter (12-11), the District 3 fourth-place team. Northumberland Christian (18-5) will face District 2-11 subregional runner-up. That championship game is Saturday between Notre Dame-East Stroudsburg and Forest City High School. Both Sullivan County and Northumberland Christian should host PIAA playoff games on March. 10.

Northumberland Christian led 8-4 after two Henry McElroy foul shots with 4:54 left in the first quarter, but the Warriors would limited to six made foul shots over the next 10 minutes of play. Sullivan County ended the first quarter with eight straight points, and when Derrick Finnegan converted on a drive to open the second quarter the Griffins had a six-point advantage.

Sullivan County led by 20-12 when the Warriors finally hit a field goal on Luke Snyder's bucket inside with 2:48 left in the first half. When Sam Garvin drove to score late in the second quarter, Northumberland Christian had the lead cut to four headed to halftime, and looked to have righted the ship.

However, Maddix Bahr beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to push the lead back to seven, and that was the story of the rest of the game for the Warriors. Any little ray of hope was quickly snuffed out by the Griffins.

After taking the seven-point halftime lead, Sullivan County would push its lead to 13 at 31-18 before Northumberland Christian scored with 1:57 left in the third quarter. The Warriors would get the lead to nine with 55.8 seconds left in the third, but the Griffins calmly ran the final 50 seconds off the clock of the third, and Riley King knocked down a 3-pointer to send the Griffins to the fourth quarter up by 12.

"It was a mental battle more than anything, but that's the game of basketball, and it happens," Bennett said. "From our perspective, we understand that God is in control, and we go play as hard as we can to the best of our abilities, and have fun. If our best isn't enough that night, we try to process that, learn from it, and move forward."

The Warriors just never solved Sullivan County's two guards — Riley King and Ben Carpenter. Northumberland Christian made one last run, getting within 42-35 with 3:38 left in the game, but Carpenter got the bucket twice for three-point plays — he missed the foul shots — and the Warriors never got closer.

King and Carpenter combined for 34 of the Griffins 52 points, and shot 15 foul shots between them as they got the bucket at will against the Warriors.

Snyder was the only player in double figures for Northumberland Christian with 17 points.

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DISTRICT 4 CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

at Montoursville H.S.

SULLIVAN COUNTY 52, NORTHUMBERLAND CHRSTIAN 41

Sullivan County (17-8) 52

Maddox Bahr 2 0-0 5; Trey Higley 4 0-0 8; Riley King 4 7-8 16; Ben Carpenter 7 4-7 18; Derrick Finnegan 2 0-1 4; Landon Baldwin 0 1-3 1. Totals 19 12-29 52.

3-point goals: Bahr, Parker.

Did not score: Conner Smithkors.

Northumberland Christian (18-5) 41

Conner Bennett 1 2-2 4; Luke Snyder 8 1-4 17; Cole Knauss 3 0-0 6; Henry McElroy 2 2-4 6; Alec Phillips 1 2-2 4; Sam Garvin 1 2-2 4. Totals 16 9-14 41.

3-point goals: none.

Did not score: Josh King.

Score by quarters

Sullivan County;12;13;9;18 — 52

Northumberland Chr.;8;10;4;19 — 41