OAKLAND — The only thing predictable about this high school basketball season has been its unpredictability.
It reached a new height Monday in Oakland when Allegany avenged a pair of double-digit losses to Southern with a surprise blowout upset.
Chris Manherz poured in 34 points to eclipse 1,000 for his career, the smaller Campers won the rebounding battle by 10, and third-seeded Allegany used a 22-3 run in the middle quarters to blast No. 2 Southern, 59-35, in the Class 1A West Region I semifinals on Monday at Ram Arena.
“Incredible win,” Allegany head coach Brandon Reed. “The kids believed every step of the way. We were ready for this game, and we didn’t think it’d be the worst thing that they might overlook us after seeing that Clear Spring score. It was just a total team effort.”
Allegany (14-8) lost the matchups with Southern (15-9) during the season 60-47 at home on Jan. 2 and 65-46 in Oakland two weeks later.
It was fresh off an ugly 54-44 victory over Clear Spring in the regional quarterfinals on Friday, a game in which the Campers missed their first 19 attempts from the field.
Manherz was the lone Allegany player in double figures Monday, though Owen Rice, Cole Ricker and Landon Holliday all hit clutch 3-pointers in the second half. Ricker finished with nine points, and Rice and Holliday scored five each.
Graham Harvey’s 17 points led Southern, and Braden Lucas was second on the team with five.
Allegany dominated the second period 15-3 to turn a 15-12 advantage after a quarter into a comfortable 30-15 halftime margin.
Allegany then scored the first seven points of the second half for a 37-15 lead — its largest until the final tally.
The Campers played a 2-3 zone, a risky proposition against a Southern team that averages nearly seven 3-pointers a game, but the Rams couldn’t buy a basket.
After Harvey hit a pair of free throws with 36.9 seconds left in the first quarter, Southern didn’t score for seven minutes until Alec Van Scheetz sunk a 3-pointer with 2:37 remaining in the second period.
That kicked off a 6:21 scoring drought that ended with a Harvey runner at the 4:16 mark of the third quarter.
In the 13 minutes and 21 seconds that followed Harvey’s free throws late in the first period, Southern managed just five points.
“We shot very poorly,” Southern head coach Hunter Broadwater said. “Our effort at times was not the greatest, and that that led to what we had tonight. When we started missing shots, we were hoping to get fouled and didn’t get the calls.
“I’m not disagreeing with any of the referees calls because I thought if we just go strong and make it, we don’t have to worry about the officiating.”
Harvey caught fire in the third quarter with nine points, and he tallied 12 after halftime.
Sean Eiswert, who gave the Rams good minutes off the bench, was the only other Southern player to make a field goal in the second half, hitting a 3-pointer in the third quarter.
Allegany added a wrinkle to its 2-3 zone, which resembled a 1-1-3 at times.
“I normally play the back in our 2-3, I had to move up to the front,” Manherz said. “It was a little bit more running for me. I was a little gassed to say the least, but we got the dub. That’s all we needed.”
Rebounding was an Achilles’ heel for Allegany throughout the year, and Southern is among the area’s tallest squads with four starters listed at 6-foot-3 or taller.
However, Allegany held its own on the boards and finished with a 35-25 edge. It held an 18-9 margin after halftime.
“It’s a little different in playoff basketball when if you don’t get that rebound, your career might be over,” Reed said. “You don’t have to go to practice tomorrow, you get to, and that’s what the kids wanted: To get to go to practice tomorrow.”
Holliday garnered a game-high 12 rebounds, Sebastian Stewart had seven, and Chase Deremer tallied six.
Southern pulled to within 48-35 with 4:44 to play — the closest it had been since the first half — but Ricker answered with a back-breaking 3-pointer, and it was followed by a Manherz old-fashioned 3-point play moments later.
The only box left to check was Manherz’s milestone.
The senior guard entered the day needing 33 points for 1,000, and he scored his 33rd and 34th with a floater with 1:54 remaining.
“I couldn’t do it without my teammates,” he said. “Feels wonderful. We had a great game. Coming into the game, I was a little nervous, but I had the mindset that we just had to get the win. We did, and we’re on to the next round.”
Allegany moves into the region final where it will host No. 4 Mountain Ridge (13-9), a 49-45 winner at Fort Hill in the other semifinal, on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The Campers are searching for their first region title since 2017. Mountain Ridge is aiming for the program’s first in school history.
Southern’s disappointing end marred an otherwise solid campaign.
The Rams finished second in the Western Maryland Athletic Conference with a 6-2 record, swept Allegany, Keyser and Mountain Ridge and scored wins over Petersburg and Frankfort.
“Thought we had a really successful season,” Broadwater said. “This group of seniors put in a lot of work together. Jacob (Brown), Braden (Lucas) and Alec (Van Scheetz) didn’t miss a workout, and it shows. They carried us for majority of the year.”