For the fourth year in a row, Hershey’s Giant Center beckons for Linville Hill Christian’s boys basketball team.
The Warriors advanced to the District Three Class 2A championship game with a 61-30 romp over Greenwood in a semifinal at Lancaster Country Christian School.
Linville (24-2) will go for its fourth straight district title on the big stage on Wednesday at 2:45 p.m. against York Catholic, which held off Delone Catholic 54-47 in an all-York County semifinal Thursday.
Although a Class 1A school by enrollment, Linville is competing in 2A for the first time this year due to the PIAA success formula. Despite that, a run similar to the last two, in which Linville reached the state semifinals, seems plausible.
And then, coach Mike Schatzmann said, “I can turn this program over to somebody else and let them have some fun with it.”
That means what it sounds like: Schatzmann said he’s stepping down at the end of the year, although his senior-heavy club gave no reason Thursday to believe that’s imminent. The win also clinched a PIAA berth.
Linville features overplaying man-to-man defense.
“Watching (Greenwood) on film, from what I could gather, they don’t like being pressured,” Schatzmann said.
So it was that Schatzmann exhorted his guys throughout to pick the Wildcats up higher, deny everything, don’t let up. Turn them over, get the ball and go.
“We are not a ball team unless we run,” he said during one timeout. “Pass and run, pass and run …”
Seemed to work.
In the first half, fourth-seeded Greenwood (17-6) had more turnovers, 11, than shots at the basket, 10. Top-seeded Linville shot 11-of-21 (52%) and weathered mild foul trouble — leading scorer Giovanni Sejuste picked up his second personal in the second quarter — to lead comfortably at the half, 27-13.
With the Warriors getting to the rim so easily, Greenwood tried a zone defense late in the first quarter. When the Wildcats started the second quarter in the zone, Schatzmann opted to hold the ball — literally stand on the perimeter and hold it — which his club did for 2:40.
Greenwood didn’t budge, so Linville finally ran a set play for an open corner 3-pointer by Derian Petersheim, which he nailed to run the score to 21-10
Five straight empty possessions followed for the Wildcats, and soon it was 27-10. Linville attempted only three 3-pointers in the half because it got to the rim so easily and often.
The suspense was about over.
Linville got big games from Stephen Smucker, who scored 15, as well as Drew Tibbins (14), Sejuste (13 in only about a half) and Petersheim (10).
Smucker and Sejuste were All-State selections last year.
Tibbins, a Garden Spot transfer, has been a difference-maker as a true play-making point guard and show-runner.
“He’s come a long way,” Schatzmann said. “That was one weakness we had — not having a true point guard. He can handle the ball, and he can see the floor.”
The Warriors are all-in. They play 11 months a year. The time that matters most is here, and no matter what, these last days will fly by fast.
“These guys want to play,” Schatzmann said. “They’re basketball Joneses, and that’s half my battle.”
Interview with Linville Hill's Stephen Smucker & Derian Petersheim at L-L Basketball Media Day
