JEFFREY REINHART jreinhart@LNPnews.com
Wow, with a headline like that, why wouldn’t you want to read this post?
Analicia Evans looked up at Hempfield coach Lenny Groft as he placed a gold medal around her neck.
She smiled, gave a little fist pump – which is quickly becoming her trademark – and proudly held up Slippy the Penguin.
Who?
Hempfield’s unofficial team mascot, of course.
His name is Slippy, and he’s a stuffed animal who belongs to Groft’s sons, Austin and Drew – who happen to be Hempfield’s biggest fans, by the way.
The Black Knights’ players have been carrying Slippy around all week – he’s become somewhat of a good-luck charm — and they proudly displayed him after wins on Monday against Lampeter-Strasburg and Wednesday against Lancaster Catholic.
I can vouch for Wednesday; I had to track down senior Steph Graver for a quick interview on her way to the bus, and she had Slippy tucked safely under her arm.
She just looked at me, giggled and shook her head.
After Hempfield held off hard-charging Lancaster Mennonite 46-42 to win its second Lancaster-Lebanon League championship in the last four years Friday night at jam-packed Manheim Township High School, Evans – who shredded the Blazers with 16 first-half points and was a monster on the glass – made sure everyone got a good look at Slippy.
“He’s the team’s good-luck charm,” Evans said. “We’ve been winning ever since we got him.”
Three games in a row – the latter in the league title game.
Evans didn’t need any good-luck charms Friday. The 5-11 forward came out flying against Mennonite, crashing the boards with authority, scoring in traffic, and getting to the foul line while getting the Blazers in a heap of foul trouble.
Evans, who earned a full athletic scholarship to play basketball for Pitt-Johnstown, scored 10 first-quarter points, helping Hempfield take a 17-6 lead. And her 3-pointer on the Knights’ first trip of the second quarter made it 20-6, and Hempfield looked unbeatable.
Later in the second, Evans followed up her own miss and it was 22-11. And Hempfield’s student section was roaring.
She made her first five shots and finished the game 6-for-10 from the floor, matched her career-high with 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Evans also converted three conventional three-point plays, and her fist pump got more exaggerated with every one.
It was one of those games you dream about.
“She killed us,” Mennonite coach Sherri Gorman said of Evans. “She was a tough matchup for us all night. She was determined. She was focused. And to her credit, she got us in foul trouble.”
Sophomore Erin LaVenice, Mennonite’s top reserve, got her first varsity start Friday because Katelyn Kreider missed practice on Thursday. LaVenice, who is 6-0, had little luck with Evans, drawing two early fouls and spending most of the first half on the bench.
Then Mary Poole, a 5-11 forward, marked Evans. She didn’t have much luck either, picking up her third foul before the half, and she started the second half on the bench.
Evans went 8-for-10 at the line, including 5-for-6 in the first half, when LaVenice and Poole battled foul woes and the Blazers were forced to go with a smaller lineup – and Evans feasted.
“Analicia was physical underneath and we couldn’t match her,” said Mennonite junior Katelyn Vanderhoff, who guarded Evans in the second half, and had a little bit more success, holding her to five points after the break.
“She hurt us a lot,” Vanderhoff said. “She especially hurt us in the first half, when she helped them on that big run in the first quarter.”
Evans’ motivation – other than stepping it up for Slippy?
“I played kinda bad (in the league semifinal) against Catholic, so I wanted to come out here and play hard and show everyone that I can play and score like I usually do,” said Evans, who scored 10 points against Catholic – four below her average.
“You know when you’re hot,” she said. “You keep shooting when you’re hot. When you get confidence like that, you feel pretty much like you can make anything.”
Evans certainly didn’t miss many shots against Mennonite.
“She’s the heart of our team,” Hempfield senior Allison Markow said. “She motivates everyone. When we see her playing like that on the floor, everyone wants to play like that. We see what she’s doing, and we want to play like her.”
Evans certainly motivated the troops Friday. The more she scored, the peppier the Knights’ got. The more she crashed the boards, the more energized everyone around her got.
“Analicia has a little mean streak in her,” Groft said. “She plays with fire. And then she starts making baskets and gets that little fist-pump going … that’s what makes us go.”
“There’s no question that Analicia is a player,” Groft added. “A player like her only comes around every so often.”
“She’s awesome,” Hempfield senior Samantha Holker said of her teammate. “She always gets us pumped up. Like tonight. We tried to get her the ball because she was dominating.
“She makes us who we are.”
That would be L-L League champs – with Slippy the Penguin along for the wild ride.
