TOWAMENCIN – The ball moved to AJ Washington in the left corner and as the final moments of the third quarter passed, the Dock Mennonite senior guard chose – with some slight anxiety – to take a 3-point shot.
“I was a little nervous, I won't lie, I was a little nervous,” Washington said. “But I saw it go in. Made sure I had my form right and it went in.”
Washington’s attempt from beyond the arc went in, concluding a 14-4 Pioneers surge that turned a five-point Halifax lead into a five-point Dock advantage going into the final eight minutes of Saturday afternoon’s PIAA-2A boys basketball first round matchup.
“We generally play pretty well in the third quarter,” Pioneers coach Mike Fergus said. “We score the ball better in the third quarter generally. It’s just a strange thing.”
Washington continued the momentum with a 3-point play 14 seconds into the fourth, as Dock increased its lead to double digits after an Ethan Parr basket put the hosts up 47-36. Halifax reduced the deficit to six with less than two minutes remaining but the District 1 champs held on to progress with a 57-47 win.
“I felt like at halftime, we relaxed a little bit, made some adjustments,” Fergus said. “We kind of got away from the game plan in the first half instead of running set that we thought we could take advantage of. We were kind of just going down and taking a quick shot, missing a layup, we weren’t settled.
“So I thought the second half we were a lot more settled, we were able to get shots for guys where we wanted them to and AJ was the beneficiary of a couple. And then once we started scoring the ball a little bit, we got a little lead then they kind of panicked a little bit.”
Washington scored a game-high 16 points, gathering eight in each half, as Dock Mennonite (24-4) heads to the state second round for the second consecutive season.
The Pioneers face District 12 runner-up Sankofa Freedom – a 65-54 winner over District 11 runner-up Marian Catholic – Wednesday at a site and time to be announced. Dock reached the 2A quarterfinals last year.
“It’s great,” Fergus said. “Our guys expect to win every time they play.”
Parr scored nine of his 15 points in the first quarter while Vaughan Martin added 11 points for the Pioneers, who struggled from the foul line, making just 14 of their 27 free throws. Dock was 9-of-15 at the line in the fourth.
“Just some nights, it’s high school basketball,” Fergus said. “You would think at home, two weeks of practice, we shot a ton of free throws so it’s the moment, it’s whatever so I give us credit for overcoming that and still being able to hang on and win.”
Waid Gainer hit three 3-pointers in leading District 3 runner-up Halifax (23-4) with 15 points. Liam Himmelberger chipped in 10 points.
The Wildcats, making their first PIAA appearance since 2020, had ripped off 19 straight victories before ending the season with back-to-back defeats – Saturday’s loss coming after falling to defending state champ Lancaster Mennonite in the District 3 final Feb. 28.
A Washington transition basket put Dock up 21-12 in the second quarter. However, Halifax responded with a 12-0 run and finished with consecutive 3-pointers from Gainer and Ethan Readinger to put the Wildcats ahead 24-21. A bucket by Dock’s Michael John made it 24-23 at the break.
Halifax extended their lead to five in the third at 30-25 after Readinger scored and drew a foul at 4:19. Then, the Pioneers posted the next six points, with Dock taking a 31-30 lead on a basket by Martin.
“Our kids deserve credit because I felt in the second half, they started doing the things we practiced all week, offensively,” Fergus said.
After Dock missed four straight free throws, Himmelberger scored in transition to put Halifax back up 32-31. But the Pioneers’ Tony Martin made a 3-pointer from the right wing, and two Washington foul shots at 42.1 seconds gave Dock a 36-32 advantage.
“We were mostly focused on defense, really,” Washington said. “Just shutting down everybody, and defense led to offense. So that’s pretty much what happened.”
The Wildcats made it 36-34 with a basket from Riley Barr before Washington hit his corner trey to have Dock leading by five at the end of the third.
Washington increased the margin to 42-36 at 7:46 in the fourth – getting fouled as he hit a jumper in a crowd and then completing the 3-point play.
“I didn’t really think that was going to go in, I’m not going to lie,” Washington said. “I kind of just threw it up there to get the foul. But I saw it bounce in.”
A Gainer turnaround jumper had Halifax within 42-36, but Vaughan Martin connected on a three, while Parr’s basket had the Pioneers up 47-36.
“I thought Ethan Parr played a great game,” Fergus said. “Ethan played well under the radar. Every game, he scores, he rebounds, and he guards.”
Dock led by 11 twice more, the second time at 49-38 after two Parr free throws with 3:42 remaining before a 7-2 burst by the Wildcats – a Himmelberger basket cutting the visitors’ deficit to 51-45 at 1:43.
Parr came close to losing the ball before securing it and driving in for two to make it 53-45. Halifax missed on a three and a putback try – Tony Martin grabbing the rebound on the latter and then hitting two from the line to have Dock ahead by 10 with 1:08 left.
A pair of Vaughan Martin free throws at 19.9 seconds gave the Pioneers their largest lead at 57-45.
In the first quarter, Halifax led 9-5 after a Justin Zahurak basket, but Dock responded with a 13-0 run – Parr contributing seven points, including a 3-point play on a putback, which gave the Pioneers a 13-9 lead with 45.6 seconds. Buckets from Marques Brown and Washington made it 17-9 at the end of the quarter.
A Washington transition basket had Dock leading 21-12 before the Wildcats collected the next 12 points, going up 24-21 on Readinger’s corner three.
Dock Mennonite 57, Halifax 47
Halifax 9 15 10 13 – 47
Dock Mennonite 17 6 16 18 – 57
Halifax: Waid Gainer 3 3 0-0 15; Liam Himmelberger 5 0 0-0 10; Justin Zahurak 3 0 0-0 6; Ethan Readinger 1 1 0-1 5; Gage Sturm 2 0 0-0 4; Mason Enders 0 1 0-2 3; Riley Barr 1 0 0-0 2; Brandon Schell 1 0 0-0 2; Totals 16 5 0-3 43.
Dock Mennonite: AJ Washington scored 16 points by making 5 out of 13 field goals and 3 out of 5 free throws; Ethan Parr scored 15 points by making 5 out of 8 field goals; Vaughan Martin scored 11 points by making 3 out of 6 field goals and 2 out of 6 free throws; Tony Martin scored 9 points by making 1 out of 4 field goals and 4 out of 7 free throws; Michael John scored 4 points by making 2 out of 1 free throw; Marques Brown scored 2 points by making 1 field goal; Totals 57 points by making 17 out of 27 field goals and 14 out of 27 free throws.
