The stakes of Friday night's Section One showdown between McCaskey and Penn Manor were lost on no one in Lancaster.
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Both teams entered at 8-3, tied for second place in the section. The winner would leave with the ability to control its league playoff fate over the season's final two weeks. The loser would be on the outside looking in at the playoff race. And Friday, McCaskey (10-8 overall) stepped up and earned a 91-84 win to take control of second place in Section One.
"It's a dogfight and we knew that anybody that loses, has a slim-and-none chance to make the league playoffs," McCaskey head coach Steve Powell said. "That's what we're playing for. Winning for us was crucial."
"We needed this win," Comets head coach Charlie Detz said. "We still have the goal of getting in the league playoffs and making some noise there but we made it difficult for ourselves. We have zero room for error … the rest of the year, we need to get help."
The difference Friday was a six-minute stretch at the start of the second half, in which McCaskey forced Penn Manor (12-6) into turnovers and picked up easy buckets on the offensive end. Behind six points from sophomore Calvert Gantz and five points each from junior Taj Hammond and senior Amos Clay, the Tornado led by 12 with 0:36 left in the quarter.
McCaskey outscored the Comets 26-17 in the third quarter and led 58-48 heading to the fourth.
"They were tougher than us those first six minutes of the third quarter," Detz said. "They were more aggressive, they got loose balls, they got offensive rebounds. Those things we pride ourselves on not doing and not giving up, we did."
Penn Manor started to chip away at the Tornado lead and trailed by eight with 2:30 to play after Patrick Welsh and Jon Brooks each hit a 3-pointer and a Marc Summy layup. After a McCaskey turnover, Summy was fouled and hit a pair of free throws, reducing the McCaskey lead to six. Keith Eshleman knocked down a three with 2:02 to go, pulling the Comets within 80-77.
After Diante Cherry and Tyler Martin each went 1-for-2 at the line to push the lead back to five, Welsh hit a layup to cut it to three and Eshleman swiped a long inbound pass and found Welsh for an easy layup to cut it to 82-81. McCaskey held on by hitting 7-of-8 free throws over the final minute.
Welsh finished with a game-high 36 points, 14 in the fourth quarter, for the Comets while Jon Brooks added 15.
"We were what, down 18 points in the third quarter and we cut it to one with a minute left," Detz said. "It was a heck of a comeback and the guys were making plays for us. We have some positives (to take away) but this time of the year, there are no moral wins."
On the other side, Powell was happy to see his team respond to the adversity of watching its lead shrink.
"I told them they hadn't done anything to discourage me, other than the fact that we weren't getting any breaks," Powell said. "We had to make our own breaks and they did, they made the fouls when they had to in the last two minutes."
Cherry and Taj Hammond had a team-high 17 points for McCaskey while Amos Clay had 16 and Calvert Gantz 14.
