Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – Trailing by two after the first quarter, Eisenhower held Youngsville scoreless in the second on its way to a 69-44 win and a share of the Region 3 title.
Rewatch the game:
The Knights (18-4 overall, 10-2 Region 3) finish the regular season in a 3-way tie atop Region 3 with Cambridge Springs and Saegertown.
“It feels great,” Eisenhower’s Austin Hanson said of the region title. “It helps our confidence going into the playoffs knowing that we’ve got the Region 3 title under our belt.”
See Hanson’s full Cole Orthodontic Associates player interview:
Youngsville (8-14, 3-9) scored the first points of the game, but the Knights answered with an 11-0 run to take an 11-2 lead. The Eagles responded by scoring six straight to cut the lead to three with 2:30 to play in the first.
Carson Chase hit a 3-pointer with a minute to play to put Youngsville back in front, 17-16. Gavin Lindemuth’s bucket gave Eisenhower an 18-17 advantage, but Rylan Benton knocked down a three, the sixth of the quarter for the Eagles, with 15 seconds left to give Youngsville a 20-18 lead after one.
As hot as the Eagles were offensively in the first quarter, they turned ice-cold in the second and failed to score a point in the frame. The Knights, meanwhile, poured in another 18 points to take a 36-20 lead into the locker room.
“Just (had) to identify shooters and where they were at,” Hanson said of the second-quarter strategy. “They hit like five or six threes in the first quarter. We knew that that’s what they were going to have to do to beat us. They weren’t going to able to go into the paint of drives and hit layups on us, we’re just too big.”
Hanson caught fire in the third quarter when he scored 12 of his game-high 24 points, to help the Knights extend their lead to 59-27 heading to the fourth quarter.
Chase had a team-high 19 points for Youngsville on the strength of five 3-pointers. Benton was also in double figures with 10 points.
Kris Bunk added 12 points for the Knights who got balanced secondary scoring with seven points from Casey Seymour and six each for Kyler Black, Mayson Wonderling, Derek Guiher, and Lindemuth.
