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GAR’s Nigebo Francis, right, has his dunk blocked by Manheim Central’s Taylor Funk in a PIAA Class 3A first round game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Friday night.

GAR’s Dajon Rush, center, dribbles between Manheim Central’s Taylor Funk, left, and Tony Staffieri in a PIAA Class 3A first round game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Friday night.

GAR’s Seth Callahan, center, passes to teammate Rashaun Jackson between Manheim Central defenders in a PIAA Class 3A first round game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Friday night.

GAR’s Greg Skrepenak Jr., wearing cap, watches in street clothes from the bench as the Grenadiers fall to Manheim Central 35-32 in a PIAA Class 3A first round game at Wyoming Area High School in Exeter on Friday night.

EXETER — From out of nowhere appeared the masked man, aka Nigebo Francis. The 6-foot-8 senior, wearing a protective shield to prevent further damage to his fractured cheek, launched himself above all others.

Then with one motion, he grabbed a rebound with his right hand and dunked it through the hoop, sending the GAR fans into a frenzy.

It was just about the last time Grenadier faithful let out a triumphant roar Friday night at Wyoming Area High School.

Manheim Central recovered from GAR’s second-quarter blitz and held off the Grenadiers down the stretch for a 35-32 victory in a PIAA Class 3A boys basketball first-round game.

The loss ended the season for GAR (21-6), which came into the game as the District 2 second seed. D3 fourth seed Manheim Central (25-4) gets the honor of playing powerful D12 champion Neumann-Goretti (25-2) on Tuesday.

GAR controlled the second quarter, outscoring the Barons 14-4 as 3-point ace Tino Altavilla hit a couple shots from behind the arc for a 21-11 halftime lead. The Grenadiers had eight field goals in the first half. They had just four in the final two quarters.

GAR coach Paul Brown believed the lack of offense — the 32 points were the Grenadiers’ fewest in their last 150 games — was due to the lack of practice. Bad weather limited the team to practices on Monday and Wednesday only, with Wednesday’s coming only after getting special permission from the superintendent.

“This loss is on the Wilkes-Barre Area School District,” Brown said. “To send a team into the state playoffs without allowing them enough practice time. We got in the gym Monday and got into the gym Wednesday this week because of some new policy they came up with six weeks ago.

“For decades, for the history of Wilkes-Barre Area, they always let it up to the discretion of the head coaches whether or not to practice when there’s foul weather. We’ve never had any problems. Have there been times we didn’t practice? Yes because it was bad. They used to leave it up to us.”

Manheim Central was in a similar situation. The Barons practiced only Monday and Wednesday. Both teams looked shaky offensively in the first half, with GAR shooting 8 of 24 and Manheim Central shooting 4 of 20.

Manheim Central, though, found its footing to start the third, going on a 12-0 run to take a 23-21 lead. GAR managed to tie the score twice the rest of the game, the final time 25-25 at 5:33 of the fourth on another Francis rebound dunk.

The deficit grew to 30-25, but GAR managed to cut it to 33-32 with 4.2 seconds left when Seth Callahan ducked under a defender and hit an off-balance outside shot.

“It was close, but it was a two,” Brown said. “There was no question there.”

A pair of free throws by Manheim Central’s Matt Walsh with three ticks remaining and a steal on GAR’s inbound pass sealed the win.

“We came in the locker room and Coach kind of told us they were just punching us in the mouth,” said Walsh, who scored a game-high 13 points. “We knew we had to come out stronger in the second half.”

A better performance included better defense. The Barons lost Altavilla at times in the first half and the sharpshooter hit 3-pointers from his usual area — either corner. Those threes were part of an 11-0 run that gave the Grenadiers a 21-10 lead at 1:18 of the second quarter.

“Defensively, we didn’t think (we played badly) giving up 21 points at half,” Manheim Central coach Chris Sherwood said. “And nine were to (Altavilla) and that’s on our guys. That’s on the scouting report. We know that’s his job. We got in here at half time and basically talked about how we’re going to attack the 2-2-1.”

PIAA Class 3A First Round

Manheim Central 35, GAR 32

MANHEIM CENTRAL (35) — Matt Walsh 1 10-14 13, Tony Staffieri 2 3-5 10, Tanner Brenzie 0 0-0 0, Dan Wiederrecht 1 1-2 3, Tyler Funk 5 0-0 11, Colin Brubaker 0 0-4 0, Blake Reiff 0 0-0 0, Ryan Carlino 0 0-0 0. Totals 9 14-25 35.

GAR (32) — Rashaun Jackson 2 0-0 4, Dajon Rush 0 0-0 0, Seth Callahan 4 2-4 11, Justin Crosby-Smith 0 2-2 2, Tino Altavilla 3 0-0 9, Nigebo Francis 3 0-0 6. Totals 12 4-6 32.

Manheim Central`7`4`12`12`—`35

GAR`7`14`2`9`—`32

Three-point goals –– MC 3 (Walsh, Staffieri, Funk); GAR 4 (Callahan, Altavilla 3).