L-S hosted the opening round of the District Three 5A championships Tuesday, February 22. No. 10 seed York Suburban (13-10) opened the scoring with a trey but the No. 7 Pioneers, with a 20-0 run, pushed the lead to 20-3 with 6:08 left in the half. The Trojans, despite knocking down six second half triples, never threatened as L-S cruised to a 54-33 win

"They missed a lot of shots, but we defended well, and we finished well," said head coach Tony Fink.

Katie Ranck poured in a season-high 21 points, 12 in the second half. Maggie Visniski added a double-double, netting 12 points and grabbing 12 boards. Kiersten Hostetter scored all nine of her points in the first half while Ella Horst added eight after the break. Kelsey McTaggart and Maggie Swarr came off the bench with two points each.

BOYS' BASKETBALL

After winning the L-L League crown on Friday, February 19, the Pioneers had two days to prepare for No. 16 Mechanicsburg. Despite a gutsy performance by the visitors, L-S maintained its unblemished season with a hard-fought 70-60 win.

"They were not a typical No. 16 seed," said head coach Ed Berryman. "I knew they would be a challenge, especially their 1,000-point scorer, Lukas Rhodes (27 points). We didn't slow him down."

Down 5-0 early, L-S rallied to lead 14-8 at the end of the first. Mechanicsburg closed the gap with a 21-19 second frame, leaving the hosts with a 33-29 advantage at the break. They opened the second half with a 7-0 run and the Wildcats never got closer than eight.

Ty Burton netted 24 and Ben Wert chipped in with 17. Luka Vranich (9pts), Isaiah Parido (8pts, 6 rebounds), and Chase Smucker (4pts) also reached the scoring column.

Luke Hines started for Berkeley Wagner, still nursing an ankle injury, and also scored eight points.

Just prior to districts and for just the second time in school history, L-S rose to the top of the Lancaster-Lebanon League. With a dramatic come-from-behind victory, L-S topped Hempfield 50-47 on a Burton three-pointer with 2.4 seconds left in the League Championships at Manheim Townships.

While Burton (18 points) hit that final shot, his only shot in the fourth quarter, a lot of blue-collar work got the Pioneers to that point. Trailing at the half, 27-23, for just the second time this season, L-S got threes from Wagner (9 pts) and Wert (5 pts), the second cutting the lead to 32-31 with 3:50 left. Five points from Burton and Parido's buzzer beater put L-S in front 38-34 heading into the final frame.

Vranich (8 pts., 6 rebounds) ignited the fourth quarter with two straight traditional three-point plays that gave the 'home' team its biggest lead of the night, 44-36. Another Parido (8 pts) triple kept it at eight before Hempfield, hitting two treys, tied the game at 47-47 with 1:54.

L-S missed a good look at a three-ball giving Hempfield possession. The patient Knights eventually had a reverse layup with 22 seconds left blocked by Parido, setting the stage for Burton's heroics.

"We called timeout and setup an inbounds play that wasn't there and we just adjusted," said Berryman. "We knew it would be a tough game. It's always a tough game against Hempfield. But the guys just go about business as usual. They remained calm and they communicated."

Lampeter's last victory over the Knights came in 2018 with a semifinal victory at Penn Manor. L-S was led by #15, Ryan Smith, who died last March after a 19-month battle against Leukemia. L-S won the League crown that year and this year the team wears a circular patch with the No. 15 on their jerseys in memory of Smith.

L-S got off to a slow start in Friday's game, missing a handful of shots but stayed in front 12-7 on back-to-back treys from Parido and Burton.

"Both teams were missing shots," said Berryman. "I think both teams were nervous. There was a lot of action by the student sections going on behind those backboards."

Hempfield tied the game at 17-17 and again at 19 before taking the lead on an 8-4 run.

"At halftime I told them I wasn't happy that Hempfield's #30 was diving on the floor, and we had three guys standing around," said Berryman. "That if we wanted to win the game, we needed to get the 50-50 balls."

Message understood. L-S wound up outscoring the Knights 27-20 in the second half to secure the crown.

WRESTLING

With 21 seconds remaining in the third-place bout against Central Dauphin's Dallas Schorr, Riley Bonholtzer scored two points on a reversal to earn a 5-3 victory and a trip to the Regional Tournament at Spring Grove High School.

Bonholtzer was Lampeter's highest place winner at the District Three 3A Section 2 wrestling tournament held at Hempfield on Saturday, Feb. 19. Joel Bitler (172) and Liam Feister (189) both finished in fifth place and Connor Erb (113) was sixth.

Bonholtzer (120) opened with a quarterfinals fall over Palmyra's Stephan Stine but suffered a 4-2 semifinals loss to Solanco's Weston Bare, the eventual second place finisher. Bare's takedown in the first period proved to be the difference as both wrestlers scored two points each in the third period.

In the consolation semis, Bonholtzer posted a 7-2 decision over E-town's Austin Reitmeyer, setting him up against Schorr for the bronze.

Bitler's tournament began with a 1:26 fall over E-town's Ian Brosey. In the quarterfinals, Bitler scored a 9-2 decision over Jace Jones of Palmyra to get to the semifinals opposite Township's Kevin Olavarria. The eventual champ hung a 15-2 loss on Bitler. Wrestling back in the consi-semis, Bitler lost 3-2 against Solanco's Blaine Plastino on a third period escape. He came back and finished fifth with a second win over Jones, this time 12-2.

Feister, like Bitler, opened with a 1:14 fall and then ran into eventual champ Dylan Bard, of Hempfield, and suffered a 3-1 loss. Clinging to a 2-1 lead, Bard escaped with 34 seconds left to seal Feister's fate.

Wrestling back, Feister earned a 4-0 decision over Township's Jason Tu before suffering a 5-3 2tb loss over CD's Eli Poyer. Feister earned a forfeit win over Central's Rocco Daugherty to place.

Erb lost twice to Central's Braxton Keiffer. The first was a 3-0 result in the quarterfinals and the second was 5-2 in a battle for fifth place. In between, Erb won by forfeit, pinned McCaskey's Hezekiah Molina-Hadgu and suffered a 13-0 major in the consi-semis against third place finisher Travis Clawson (PM).

BOWLING

Katie Pope, Ethan Snyder and Nick Burkowski all competed in the L-L League individual championships but did not advance past the six qualifying rounds. Pope rolled a six game 704 (117.3 avg per game), Snyder finished with an 896 (149.3 avg) and Burkowski settled for a 954 (159 avg).

"They were a little disappointed that they all rolled below their average for the year," said head coach John Achille.