CUMBERLAND — No. 1 Allegany didn’t play its best game, but did enough to defeat Eastern Tech 64-46 on Thursday in the Bill Bowers Christmas Classic.
“Playing two games in 24 hours is tough,” Allegany head coach Tedd Eirich said. “Both teams had to do it. I thought we came out a little bit rusty, a little bit slow. I give a lot of credit to Eastern Tech. They came out and fought the whole game, it’s in their mentality.”
It was close for most of the first quarter, remaining a two-possession or less game for over seven minutes.
“South Hagerstown’s a team that was super fast last night,” Eirich said. ‘These guys are just as quick. It should’ve been something we were used to from the night before.”
That changed during a sequence that took about 30 seconds. It started with a scoop and score layup by Blake Powell off an Isaiah Fields assist to put the Campers (7-0) up 16-10 with 1:15 left.
Fields finished with 11 points, five assists and a steal.
On Allegany’s next possession, Fields found Zach Michael for a layup to go up eight points.
Michael led all scorers with 17 points, scoring eight in the first quarter and seven in the third quarter.
Dylan Shaffer hit a put back at the buzzer to give the Campers a 20-10 lead.
“We were running the offense, not trying to go helter-skelter,” Eirich said. “Just run around and go one on one. You gotta run a offense and make people play defense.”
Shaffer scored 14 points and was Allegany’s second-leading scorer.
Neither team shot well in the opening minutes. Similar to Wednesday’s game against Fort Hill, the Mavericks (6-3) controlled the tempo early.
“We came off the big win last night,” Eirich said. “No matter what you preach your kids, sometimes they tune you out. I thought they thought it was gonna be easy tonight. I knew it wasn’t gonna be easy, so we had to figure out the tempo a little bit.
The Campers maintained a double-digit lead the entire second quarter. However, Allegany committed several turnovers.
Leading 27-12 after a Michael layup off a Powell assist with 5:04 remaining, the Campers had a sequence that included three turnovers.
“When we get in games like this, we’re gonna have to have our guards slow things down,” Eirich said. “Gets your heads up, we gotta find open men and we’re not real good at that right now.”
Allegany had back-to-back possessions end with a throw away pass and another bad pass resulting in the offensive player stepping out of bounds trying to catch it.
A few seconds later, Powell recorded a steal, but Matt Foley of Eastern Tech recorded a steal on the other end.
The Campers committed five turnovers in the quarter, but led 36-19 at halftime.
“I think this tournament helped us,” Eirich said. “We got to play against people faster than us, they were double teaming us, they were doing things that make us speed our game up. I think it’s gonna be beneficial down the road.”
Allegany shot 15 of 35 from the field in the first half, shooting 43%.
Eastern Tech struggled after the first few minutes, ending the half with a 22% shooting percentage.
The Mavericks scored 16 points in the third quarter but allowed 17.
The Campers led 53-35 after three quarters. Each team scored 11 points in the fourth quarter.
Allegany continued to struggle with turnovers, committing 11 in the second half.
Dae Dae Smith scored 13 points with three assists. Powell only scored three points, but added seven assists and a steal.
“They both go rebound, they both have assists, have steals,” Eirich said. “They’re two peas in a pod that are gonna give you 110% every day.”
Foley led the Mavericks with 11 points, adding five assists and two steals.
Jericho Wondeye scored 10 points with two steals. Prabhnoor Singh had nine points and four steals.
The Campers didn’t play at its best in either game of the Bill Bowers Christmas Classic, but won both games.
Shaffer hit a layup in the final seconds to defeat Class 3A foe South Hagerstown 69-67 on Wednesday.
“Last night, the final seven seconds encapsulate everything that goes on,” Eirich said. “Dylan missed two foul shots, Zach got the rebound in the middle of four people. Isaiah got the ball, made a heck of a pass to Dylan. Instead of Dylan pouting he missed the two foul shots, he hits the game winner. The resiliency that we’ve had is a good character builder for us.”
The Campers host Northern on Tuesday at 7 p.m.