CUMBERLAND — Traeh Grassi’s name may not appear in the box score, but his hustle produced Allegany’s biggest play of the night.
Allegany, leading 53-50 with 16.9 seconds left, nearly left the door open for Fort Hill with a miss at the foul line. Grassi, a reserve forward, dove to the floor between a pair of Sentinels to secure the rebound, and the Campers called a timeout to retain possession.
Chris Manherz went 2 for 2 at the charity stripe to ice the game, the final of his game-high 32 points, allowing second-ranked Allegany to fend off fourth-ranked Fort Hill, 56-50, on Friday.
“Traeh went two games in the Christmas tournament without getting in, and I kept telling him, ‘Your number’s going to be called,'” Allegany head coach Brandon Reed. “That’s the great part about this team. You never know whose number is going to be called.
“For him to dive on the floor like that in a moment when we needed it most, hats off to him.”
Allegany snapped a three-game losing streak to Fort Hill and improved to 7-2 overall, 2-1 in the Western Maryland Athletic Conference and 1-0 in the Cumberland City League.
Fort Hill fell to 5-3 (1-1 WestMAC, 0-1 City).
Manherz had his number called most often, scoring 18 of his points in the first half to help the Campers to 14-12 and 27-18 leads after the first two quarters.
Allegany led 40-33 going into the fourth, where Manherz tallied nine points to bring the Campers home.
Cole Ricker joined him in double figures with 10 points, and Landon Holliday added seven. The Campers made eight 3-pointers, led by Manherz’s four and Ricker’s two.
Fort Hill was paced by a double-double performance by Liam Hamilton who had 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Jameson Powell-Morris chipped in 11, and Neek Taylor scored nine.
Allegany led by as much as 11 points early in the third quarter before Fort Hill responded with an 11-0 run to sew things up at 29 with 4:09 left in the period.
The Campers responded with a 10-2 run, capped by a Manherz 3-pointer, and they held the lead the rest of the way.
“I thought we just got outplayed in every aspect of the game,” said Fort Hill head coach Thad Burner, who coached Reed during his playing days. “Allegany’s intensity and their desire to win was much greater than ours. We left a lot out there today.”
Allegany nearly led wire-to-wire. Powell-Morris sunk a midrange jumper on Fort Hill’s first possession for a 2-0 edge just 17 seconds into the action.
Fort Hill’s lead lasted just 22 seconds. Holliday sunk a triple on the other end, and Allegany never trailed again.
Allegany made its first four shots during a 10-1 run, but points were hard to come by for both teams for much of the night.
The Campers deployed a matchup zone in the second quarter, and Fort Hill couldn’t find an answer. The Sentinels didn’t make their first bucket of the period until the 3:53 mark, a putback by Landyn Green.
Fort Hill, which was held to six points in the second quarter, finished with 21 turnovers and was just 2 for 20 from beyond the arc.
“We’ve got to start playing with a better level of confidence,” Burner said. “This game was bigger than we were today. We didn’t make plays in the moments that you need to make plays, and that was all night.
“We’re not a very good basketball team. We don’t shoot the ball well and we’ve got to figure out a way to quit turning the ball over.”
Both teams also struggled from the free-throw line. Allegany was just 8 for 17 at the range, and Fort Hill made 6 of 14.
The usually-reliable Manherz missed five free throws in a row in the second half, but when Allegany needed him to make a pair in crunch time, the senior guard calmly delivered.
“I never had any doubt in my mind that he was going to knock him down,” Reed said. “He knew it. We were talking about how we were going to set up our defense off the make. We just trust that … he’s going to deliver when it matters most, and he did tonight.”
Fort Hill showed resiliency in the fourth quarter, clawing back from a nine-point deficit to cut Allegany’s lead to 52-50 with a minute left after a bucket by Hamilton.
The Campers followed with an ill-advised quick shot, but Manherz came up with a steal, and Holliday split a pair at the line — the latter secured by Grassi to all but secure the victory.
Fort Hill heads to Morgantown Christian on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Allegany continues its difficult area stretch.
After wins over Frankfort and Fort Hill this week, the Campers host Mountain Ridge on Tuesday at 7 p.m. before a shot at revenge against Southern at home on Friday night.
“We’ve had this stretch circled,” Reed said. “This group is always trying to find something to rally around and build off of. … We’re only halfway through, but we’ve got two tough ones that are going to matter for the playoffs.
“We need to make sure that we come back Tuesday and don’t have a letdown because Mountain Ridge is a good team.”