Central York boys' basketball beats Upper St. Clair, reaches state semifinals for first time

Central York boys’ basketball is a state semifinalist for the first time ever.

The Panthers defeated Upper St. Clair, 71-60, in the PIAA Class 6A quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Altoona Area High School. They extended their exhilarating playoff run to unprecedented heights and set up a regional rematch in the season’s final week.

Central York jumped on the Pittsburgh-area District 7 champions early, leading 18-8 after the first quarter and 34-18 at intermission. USC’s Panthers made multiple runs in the second half, but the York-Adams League champs withstood every push and slammed home an exclamation point at the finish.

Up next for Central (27-3) will be a rematch with reigning state champion Reading at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Warwick High School. The Panthers beat a young Red Knights team 90-73 at home on Dec. 5 in their first game of the season. Tuesday's winner will reach the state final on Saturday, March 23, at the Giant Center in Hershey.

“I just can’t put into words how proud I am of the kids,” Central York head coach Jeff Hoke said.

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Junior guard Ben Natal piled up a game-high 19 points, while sophomore Ryan Brown added 17 in a breakout performance. Ben Rill, a 6-foot-8 junior who surpassed 1,000 career points early on, finished with 16 on Saturday. Senior Greg Guidinger scored 11 points, highlighted by a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer that gave Central York its largest lead of the day.

Upper St. Clair (22-6) had four players reach double figures, led by 6-9 junior Tyler Robbins’ 16. Peja Strobl nailed four 3-pointers and finished with 14; Brett Meinhert chipped in 12; and Christian Ito scored 10. But Central York’s stellar execution of its game plan prevented USC from ever playing from ahead.

“We pressured the ball, which we did a great job of,” Hoke said. “I think we took them out of rhythm — I don’t think they’ve seen pressure like we have, and that really made a difference early.”

Central York briefly led 18-6 in the opening quarter and maintained a double-digit advantage for most of the second period. After Guidinger’s buzzer-beating triple off an inbounds pass from sophomore Brooklyn Nace (the Panthers’ quarterback in football) gave Central a 34-18 halftime lead, though, Upper St. Clair scored six straight points to start the second half and trimmed the margin to 35-26 with 6:25 left in the third period. Central, though, kept USC at a distance and took a 45-35 advantage into the fourth.

Both Panther offenses were frantic and efficient early in the final frame, but Central York remained comfortably in front until USC made its most serious push around the two-minute mark. A 3-point play and a layup off a wayward inbounds pass slashed Central’s lead to 62-57. Natal — who injured his hip in practice on Thursday and was a game-time decision — quickly responded with a layup, and Central broke USC’s press multiple times down the stretch to seal the deal. Guidinger split two pairs of free throws and Saxton Suchanic threw down a dagger of a slam dunk in the final seconds.

“I always tell them, even at the end of the game, you beat pressure by applying pressure. So when we break (the press), we’ve got to score,” Hoke said. “It was really getting the ball to the middle, and it was Ben Natal and Greg dishing to Ben Rill or finishing … that finished it off.”

Central York had won three PIAA playoff games in its history prior to this month, reaching the Class 3A quarterfinals in 1984 (when there were four classifications) and pulling off a 6A first-round upset in 2020. Hoke took over after Kevin Schieler’s resignation that spring; Guidinger, now the Panthers’ all-time leading scorer, was a freshman on Hoke’s first team at Central.

Rill returned to his home school district in 2022 after playing at Westtown, a prep school in West Chester, as a freshman. He’s now the third member of this Panthers team with 1,000 career points, although that number includes his production at Westtown. The 6-foot-7 Guidinger reached the milestone during last year’s district playoffs, while Natal hit the mark on Feb. 8 against Red Lion.

Rill entered Saturday at 999 points and cleared the threshold with his first field goal. There was little fanfare in the moment, as the left-hander didn’t want Hoke to burn an early timeout to stop the game. Instead, he put his head down and delivered a signature performance on both ends of the floor against the 6-9 Robbins in a battle of NCAA Division I prospects. It was the kind of moment Rill dreamed of when he returned to Central two years ago.

“People don’t realize how unselfish Ben Rill is,” Hoke said. “He comes over (during games) and tells me, ‘Hey, we’ve gotta get the ball to Greg,’ or, ‘I can hit Ben Natal on a back door.’ He never comes over and says, ‘I can score on this play’ — it’s always about someone else scoring, and that’s what’s really, really cool about him getting 1,000 and being that way.”

The Panthers have officially gone farther in the state playoffs than they did in the District 3 bracket, when they were the top seed and tournament favorite. Red Lion spoiled Central’s chance at its first district title with a 66-65 quarterfinal upset on Feb. 23, leaving the Panthers “shell-shocked” as they left their home floor. Knowing a deep run at states was still attainable, Central’s players found a new gear and made it happen.

“These kids are finally realizing that it isn’t a cliche that hard work pays off — it does,” Hoke said. “I don’t think our team worked to their fullest potential, effort-wise, every day at practice until the Red Lion loss. … That really hit home with them.”

The run began with a pair of district consolation wins that secured a more plausible path through the state bracket. Even then, though, Central York needed a 69-60 road victory on March 9 over District 1 runner-up Garnet Valley to keep the dream alive. The Panthers then took care of business in their rematch against Red Lion, securing a 70-54 win Wednesday in Dallastown. Hoke admits he was worried about a letdown after that triumph, but those fears were quickly vanquished on Saturday. 

And now Central York is one win away from playing in the Giant Center after all.

York-Adams League weekend scoreboard for March 15-16