The LL League Playoffs are only a couple weeks away and a number of spots have yet to be decided. While Hempfield is comfortable ahead for the 1st in Section 1, the battle for 2nd has certainly become interesting. McCaskey, Cedar Crest and Penn Manor are separated by 1 game apiece, they all have a realistic change of grabbing the final position. Penn Manor in particular has made a nice push from their early season struggles to get back in the race and Devin Figueroa has chipped in nicely. The Junior spoke with Stephin McCloskey to talk about his team’s resurgence, college plans and how they plan to contain Hempfield below:

Stephin McCloskey: Y’all have been on a tear recently, winning 6 of your last 8. What’s been behind that? The spark seemingly came out of nowhere.

Devin Figueroa - The spark, it’s just from everyone playing as a team what needed to be fixed and to work on it. It really just came to no finger pointing and staying together.

SM: . Your next game is against a tough opponent in Hempfield. What’s your personal and team game plan going into that game?

DF - My personal plan is containing Hempfield’s Guards especially Peña, and not letting them make easy plays and disrupt the flow of their offense. Our team plan is sticking to what we did. Also learning from what we did wrong, which is the good thing about playing them twice. As a team we feel good about our chances, and we just have to play together, and we’ll will no doubt get the win.

SM: Playoffs are right around the corner what needs to get done for the Comets to make a statement?

DF - Starting off we really needed the Cedar Crest win, unfortunately we didn’t get that, but we’re not letting that loss determining our season. But for playoffs we have no other option to win every game left. Since we weren’t able to come home with the win, it comes down to hoping that winning the next three games gets the job done.

SM: Have you been reached out to by any colleges going into your senior year? If not, do you plan on walking on? I highly doubt you’ll have to that though. You’re a great guard.

DF - I just started learning the college process; I plan on reaching out to schools after the season. The goal is to play hard and earn a scholarship. But after this season I still have a lot to learn and improve on by being a team player. I’m dedicating this offseason on improving my guard skills and any holes in my game.

Penn Manor will need to regroup for their matchup Friday with Hempfield if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.