CUMBERLAND — For the second straight year, top-seeded Fort Hill (18-4) hosts No. 2 Allegany (20-4) for the Class 1A West Region I championship on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
In the region semifinals on Thursday, the Sentinels took care of business beating fourth-seeded Mountain Ridge, 64-49, and the Campers avenged an earlier defeat thrashing third-seeded Southern, 72-47.
“It’s the playoffs, you’re gonna play those types of games,” Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner said. “They’ve got (20) wins, we’ve got 18 wins. I think both teams will be prepared. Whoever rebounds and makes the most shots will win.”
“We split the first two games,” Allegany head coach Tedd Eirich said. “I know most people are going to have their opinion on it. I know if our kids continue to play like they’re playing, I feel good about their chances. I’m sure Fort Hill feels good about their chances, too.”
Earlier matchups
The city rivals split a pair of regular-season matchups, with each side winning at home.
Fort Hill handed Allegany its first loss of the season after a 9-0 start with a 68-64 triumph in South Cumberland on Jan. 12.
The Campers led that game 40-31 with 4:34 left in the third quarter before Fort Hill responded with a 12-1 burst. Following some back-and-forth play in the fourth, the Sentinels took control with an 8-2 run that gave them a 58-51 lead with 3:44 remaining.
The difference was Fort Hill’s ability to turn steals — it had 16 — into transition points. Steven Spencer led the Sentinels with 14 points, and Zach Michael paced Alco with 22.
Allegany avenged the loss on Feb. 9 atop Haystack Mountain with a 73-61 win.
The Campers, who never trailed, saw leads of 18, 14 and 11 cut to single digits, but they didn’t falter, finishing strong before a sold-out crowd of more than 900 fans.
That victory is part of 10 wins in Allegany’s last 11 games, the lone misstep a 77-62 loss to Smithsburg in its final regular-season game.
Fort Hill struggled in the half-court against the Campers’ physical man-to-man defense and 33-23 edge on the boards.
The South Cumberland squad wasn’t able to turn Allegany turnovers into transition points. The Campers had 14 turnovers, but just four of them resulted in Fort Hill steals. Most giveaways were of the dead ball variety.
Michael dominated down low with a 22-point, 13-rebound double-double. Dylan Shaffer added 15 and six boards.
Gamil Daniels and Deshaun Brown paced Fort Hill with 13 points each in the defeat.
Players to watch
Brown enters Tuesday night as one of the area’s leading scorers and the highest scorer in the Western Maryland Athletic Conference, of which the Sentinels were the champions with a 7-1 record. Allegany was the conference runner-up with a 6-2 mark.
Brown averages 19.3 points a game and has 39 3-pointers, an average of 1.8 a game. Carney also averages double-figures scoring at 10.6 points a game, followed by Spencer (7.5), Jabril Daniels (7.3), Landon Sensabaugh (7.2) and Liam Hamilton (6.7).
Michael and Isaiah Fields make up the area’s only tandem of 17-point-per-game scorers. Michael averages 17.2 points and Fields scores 17 a game.
Shaffer is third on Alco with a 12.1 scoring average, followed by Dae Dae Smith at 8.9 points per game.
Allegany averages 67.8 points per game as a team and allows 49.3, compared to Fort Hill’s 68.8 points for and 50.0 against.
Fort Hill has made 134 3-pointers, an average of 6.1 per game, and Allegany has sunk 72 (3.0 average).
The Sentinels also have the edge at the free-throw line, making 273 of 430 (63.5%). The Campers have made 280 of 465 (60.2%).
Of shooters with at least 30 attempts, Michael leads Allegany on the foul line, where he’s converted 70 of 109 tries (64.2%).
Fort Hill’s leaders at the charity stripe are Brown (76-103, 73.8%), Carney (53-78, 68.0%), Spencer (38-56, 67.9%) and Gamil Daniels (28-42, 66.7%). Sensabaugh has made 22 of 27 in limited attempts (81.5%).
Regional history
At the same stage last season, Fort Hill, led by Area Player of the Year Mikey Allen, defeated Allegany, 66-51, for the Sentinels’ first region title since 2008. The Sentinels advanced to the Final Four, where its season ended at the hands of Edmondson.
Allegany is in search of its first trip to the state tournament since 2017 when the Campers defeated Boonsboro, 66-51. Eirich’s Campers, paced by the likes of Sean Rhodes, Jaden Jessie and Justin Copman, won 17 straight before falling to Edmondson in the Class 1A state semifinal.
State Tournament Implications
The final eight teams are seeded after regional play, and, if Fort Hill wins Tuesday, the Sentinels are guaranteed a home game in the state quarterfinals.
Fort Hill currently has the fifth-highest winning percentage of the remaining 16 teams, but two of the higher-ranked teams are in Class 1A East Region II and one will be eliminated by the other Tuesday (Cambridge-South Dorchester, 19-1; Snow Hill, 17-3).
Allegany, with a 16-4 regular-season record, will need some luck to get a first-round home game.
There are two other 16-4 teams in Lake Clifton (North II) and Loch Raven (South I) who are currently tied for the No. 6 position in the classification.
If Allegany wins, it will have to win one or more coin flips for the No. 4 seed and a home game — assuming there aren’t other upsets.
After Cambridge-South Dorchester, the other top remaining teams are Edmondson (18-2), Smithsburg (17-3) and Snow Hill (17-3) — which are followed by Fort Hill (16-3) and the three-way tie between Allegany, Lake Clifton and Loch Raven.