Gov. Mifflin falls in season opener
After rallying to tie it, the Mustangs come up empty on their final four possessions in a loss to Cumberland Valley
In ordinary times, Matt Gehris wouldn’t have been able to hear the basketball swishing through the net, not from his spot deep in the right corner, not in a gym full of screaming fans.
These aren’t ordinary times, of course.
Nothing is the same in the coronavirus era.
Gehris’ fourth-quarter 3-pointer normally would elicit screams and cheers, considering it pulled Gov. Mifflin within a point in the final minutes Saturday against visiting Cumberland Valley in a non-league boys basketball game.
Not this time. The Mustangs’ house was mostly empty and eerily silent, even as Mifflin worked its way back from a big deficit in its 46-43, season-opening loss.
“I mean it’s pretty quiet,” said Gehris, a senior guard who sparked the Mustangs’ late rally. “That comeback was really nice. Our JV team was right behind us, just hyping us up the whole time. We don’t really have a student section now so we’re all leaning on each other to keep the energy.”
The Mustangs didn’t lack for energy, though their execution admittedly could have been better down the stretch.
Matt Harley, playing his first game with Mifflin, tied it at 4343 with another big 3 with 2 ½ minutes remaining.
Max Krevsky answered with a 3-pointer to give the Eagles the lead for good, and the Mustangs came up empty on their final four possessions. They had a turnover and three missed shots, the last a rushed 3 from Harley at the buzzer.
“We’ve just got to execute more consistently down the stretch,” said Mustangs coach Kyle Conrad, whose saw his team turn it over five times in the final quarter.
Gehris gave the Mustangs a one-point lead with a buzzerbeater that ended the first quarter; Connor Maryniak’s tip-in at the buzzer sent them into the half up 22-19.
The Eagles broke out in the third quarter as 6-7 senior Ben Drury hit three straight times from inside and Sam Sherry, a 6-9 senior committed to Elon University, knocked down a 3. That tandem produced 23 of CV’s 46 points.
Troy Collard’s 3-pointer put the Mustangs in a 37-28 hole late in the third quarter. They had to scramble after that to get back in it, and they did.
They defended hard in the final quarter, as they usually do, battled the taller Eagles on the boards and made just enough shots to put themselves in position to win.
“The effort was there, you know I’m proud of that,” Conrad said. “It’s obviously a tough loss to take, but I think there are there are definitely some positives we can draw from it. Cumberland Valley is supposed to be one of the better teams in District 3.”
The Eagles won 18 times a year ago and were the No. 6 seed in the District 3 Tournament before falling to Harrisburg in the opening round.
They’re one of the teams people are talking about again this year, along with Central Dauphin, Reading High, Harrisburg, Warwick and defending champ Wilson.
The Mustangs, who return three starters from a team that made it to the district quarterfinals last season, would like to be included in that company.
They figure to get a boost from Harley, a 6-3 junior who transferred from Berks Catholic after setting the Saints’ record for 3-pointers last season. He came off the bench and scored six points Saturday.
Greg Suber led Mifflin with 10 points and Gehris scored nine.
“There’s stuff we’ve got to fix,” said Gehris, “a little bit on the defensive end, and finishing possessions. We had some crucial turnovers that led us down the wrong path. I mean it’s tough (to lose the opener like this).
“But we can look at it from a positive standpoint. You know, that’s one of the better teams in District 3. So, the way we played today, we showed that we can hang with pretty much anybody.”