York
- Nov 27, 2019
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 13, 2020
York Panthers (7-3, 3-1) vs. McPherson Bulldogs (5-3, 2-2)
Tuesday, November 26 @ 5:00 PM
York, NE
Freeman Center
THE SCHOOL
York College is a private college in York, Nebraska that is affiliated with the churches of Christ. It has an enrollment of 405 students and an endowment between 10 and 15 million dollars. York College was founded in 1890, but only became a four-year school in 1994.
The Panthers compete in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) in Division 2 of the NAIA. Last week, I mentioned that the NAIA will merge its two divisions starting next academic year. The biggest difference moving forward is probably the number of scholarships schools can offer. Right now, D1 programs can offer eleven scholarships and D2 programs can offer six, but moving forward, all NAIA basketball teams will be able to offer eight scholarships per school. Whether this will truly level the playing field is up for debate. Additionally, D1 and D2 each have a 32-team postseason tournament to decide the champion. Next year, they are planning on instituting one 64-team tournament, basically combining the two current iterations.
McPherson College is located in McPherson, Kansas. The Bulldogs also compete in the KCAC. In my Peru State write-up, I expressed my surprise that they play twenty-four conference games per season. That must be more common than I thought, as KCAC teams play the same amount. As expected, most schools in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference are located in Kansas (or Kansas City). York and Oklahoma Wesleyan are the only two who are not.
THE TOWN
I almost didn't go this game. There were warnings of a snowstorm all week, and York College is far enough out of the way that a lot of snow could be a real hindrance, especially for an 8:00 game. On Tuesday afternoon, I actually left work a few hours early in anticipation of worsening weather. However, when I got home, the forecast looked less dire and I noticed York had rescheduled their game to 5:00. I decided to try for it.
After leaving Lincoln, I drove west on I-80 for about 40 miles. The weather was fine, with nothing more than a light rain accompanying me. York is not an easy stop along the interstate, however, and the smaller roads I took to get north had some ice. It had clearly snowed along this stretch earlier in the day. At one point, Google Maps wanted me to turn left onto a road called "Road 13." Road 13 would have taken me right to the gym, but not only had Road 13 not been plowed, it didn't look like anyone had driven on it all day. This meant that the snow looked a little too thick for my car and I took a detour through Highway 34.
Unfortunately, Freeman Center is on the far-northeast side of York College, so I didn't get to see very much of their campus (though I did see quite a bit of Waco, Nebraska along my detour; it seemed friendly). The center is surrounded by houses on three sides which makes it feel more like a community center than a college's arena. The layout of Freeman Center is odd. You go up stairs to enter the building, but once you get in, you have to go back downstairs to get to the court. And the concessions aren't in the main area at the front where you think they are, they're actually behind the home bleachers, back up the stairs. It was a little disorienting, but it was cozy.
THE GAME
I was able to park on the street just outside the building, so that was cool. And because of the change in game time, admission was free - also cool. I navigated the intricacies of Freeman Center and sat close to center court. As you can see in the picture above, it is not a big place. Maximum capacity is likely somewhere near 500. I estimate there to be about 100 people at the game. I think the threat of bad weather and weird start time kept a lot of people from coming, especially students. A gentleman behind me remarked that there weren't as many students as there usually are, and I assume many were still finishing class at tip-off. Overall, there were about 20 there who I thought were students.
The McPherson women's basketball team sat in the section directly to my left. Most of the schools I'll go to generally play a men's and women's doubleheader, and the McPherson women had just finished a 79-61 win. They were probably the biggest fans of anyone there. They cheered when the Bulldogs did well, argued with the referees, and stayed engaged the whole game (except for the one player closest to me who spent the entire time writing a paper). At a small college like McPherson, the men's and women's basketball teams share facilities, game days, and - most importantly - a bus on the 3+ hour ride from Kansas. The two squads have to get to know each other pretty well, and it was cool to see them cheer for their friends.
The only group who matched their fan intensity was a family (a man and woman in their early-50s and their middle school-aged son) who came in for the second half and sat two rows in front of me. I don't know if one of them worked at the college or what, but they somehow seemed to personally know every player on York's team. Every play, the guy would call on players by name to tell them what they did well (or poorly). Each fan base has their most passionate fans, and I became acquainted with York's on Tuesday night.
For the Peru State game, I found it strange that they had so many out-of state players, including a couple of international guys. York didn't have any foreign-born students, but of their seventeen basketball players, only one was from Nebraska (and he was from Bellevue, about two hours away). The other sixteen stretched from Florida to California and from New Hampshire to Washington. I don't know how tiny York College gets players from such distant places, but they do.
The game started just after 5 PM, but York must not have gotten the message. McPherson went on a blazing 12-2 run in the first 2:15. York basketball does not have a PA announcer so it was tough to keep up with which players were scoring, but it seemed like a full team effort by the Bulldogs. About four minutes in, the power went out. I was beginning to think I'd made a huge mistake by going to this game, but luckily it came back on after just a few seconds. The rest of the first half saw both teams go on runs that didn't get them anywhere. York kept getting their deficit down to one possession, but McPherson always answered to get the lead back to double digits.The biggest difference in the first half was that the Panthers couldn't finish at the rim and the Bulldogs make every shot from down low. Finally, York made a couple baskets in the last minute and a buzzer-beating 3 cut the halftime score to 40-36, McPherson.
There was no halftime entertainment, but someone's baby took the opportunity to walk all over the court for most of intermission. This was a good substitute.
A hot Panther squad took the court to start the second half. They got their first lead at the 18:30 mark on a layup that made it 43-42, York. For the next eight minutes, the teams traded baskets. At 14:45, the game was tied at 51 and at 12:30, they tied it again at 58. The game got a little chippy and McPherson's #3, Josh Rivers, became the most fun player to watch. He was the fastest guy on either team, weighed 145 pounds, had almost no muscle mass, and kept trying to instigate stuff. The man sitting in front of me hated him. Anyway, McPherson took a 62-58 lead with 10 minutes left and they never looked back. At the 5:00 mark, York trailed by 6 and they were playing good defense, but three straight turnovers all but ended their hopes. They went on one last run with under two minutes remaining to cut McPherson's lead to 81-76, but the Bulldogs made almost all of their free throws down the stretch and they walked away with an 88-78 win. York was a more athletic, taller, and longer team than McPherson, but the Bulldogs played smart, fundamentally-sound basketball the whole game. In the NAIA, that matters.
Final: McPherson 88, York 78
Upon walking out of Freeman Center at a few minutes before 7 PM, this was the world I encountered:
About two inches of snow dropped while I was at the game. This made for a long drive back, but I made it home safely.
Next up: Midland University
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