Deer Lakes preps for playoffs with win over Valley

By: Dave Mackall
Tuesday, February 6, 2024 | 10:13 PM

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Deer Lakes held a 20-point lead over Valley when Wayne Love Jr. stopped in his tracks under the Lancers’ basket.

Trailing the fast break, Valley’s Keyziyah Clay was anticipating a shot by Love, who instead held the ball while Clay went up for a block before landing on top of Love’s head and shoulders and somersaulting over him onto the floor.

Neither player was injured in what amounted to a scary yet comical sight.

It was that kind of a night for top-ranked Deer Lakes, which bounced back Tuesday from a tough overtime loss to Highlands and rolled to an 81-62 Section 3-3A victory at Valley behind Love’s 24 points.

It wasn’t a pretty show for Deer Lakes (17-3, 11-0) in what, at times, resembled a playground game, but coach Albie Fletcher found enough positives to come away with some feeling of contentment.

“We ran a lot of stuff tonight, offensively and defensively, just trying to clean things up,” he said. “Trying to get sharper in a lot of areas. We did in some, not so much in others. I wasn’t happy with the glass tonight. We didn’t take care of the rebounding very well at all, so that’s something we definitely have to refocus on.”

The Lancers held their own Saturday in a 70-65 nonconference overtime loss at home to Highlands.

“We dominated the glass against a team that had bigger size,” Fletcher said. “But you’ve got to be consistent this time of year. Tonight we were just OK.”

Four others scored in double figures for Deer Lakes, led by Billy Shaeffer’s 17 points. The others were Nathaniel Moore (16), Collin Rodgers (12) and J.T. McCue (10).

Clay paced Valley (5-14, 3-8) with 15 points. Jake Staraniec and Dom Dunkel added 10 apiece for the Vikings, who trailed by as many as 29 points (72-43) early in the fourth quarter before both teams substituted down the stretch.

With one regular-season game remaining for his team Friday at home against Shady Side Academy, Fletcher said he’s confident the Lancers are on the right track as the WPIAL playoffs approach.

“It was tough one Saturday (against Highlands), but it was a great basketball game. It could’ve gone either way,” Fletcher said. “I was proud of our effort. That’s a very good basketball team. That’s a 4A playoff team. They’re very talented. We didn’t make enough plays to win at the end, but we played extremely well.”

Still, Fletcher is looking for that complete game — or one that comes close.

“We’re in a good spot,” he said. “We’re healthy. We’ve been battling that all year, but for the past few games, we’ve been healthy. That’s huge. It helps in a lot of areas — practice-wise, depth, obviously.

“We’re still waiting to play that really, really solid four quarters. We’ve had some fantastic quarters, but we’re not all the way there yet.”

Fletcher said he’s hoping to see something resembling that when the Lancers return home looking for a season sweep of second-place Shady Side Academy.

Deer Lakes struggled to stay organized against Valley’s helter-skelter style, Fletcher said.

“We want to run all the time, but we were not organized tonight,” he said. “You can learn something every game. We were able to go in transition, because they were willing to run with us. We got a little chaotic at times.

“There was too much freelancing. Before you knew it, a couple of bad turnovers and some questionable shots … We put that on film and someone may try to do the same to us in the playoffs. We’ve got to hone that up.”

Tags: Deer Lakes, Valley