Deer Lakes boys extend winning streak, defeat Burrell

By: Andrew John
Friday, December 20, 2024 | 10:15 PM

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Last season, two familiar foes met in the WPIAL Class 3A final where Deer Lakes captured its second WPIAL title in a row with a win over Burrell. Burrell had a chance to avenge the season sweep that included the loss in the WPIAL finals when the two schools squared off Friday night at Deer Lakes.

Burrell sent an early message it was ready to play and had the score tied up to end the first quarter. However, Deer Lakes’ strong second quarter propelled the Lancers to a 72-52 win in Section 1-4A action.

Deer Lakes (7-1, 3-0) was led once again by senior Nathaniel Moore, who finished with a game-high 27 points. Three others reached double figures.

Junior Collin Rodgers finished with 15 points, and senior JT McCue and junior Luca Mangieri finished with 12 points each in the win.

Deer Lakes extended its win streak to five games.

The Bucs (3-4, 1-2) found themselves down by seven with three minutes remaining in the game. However, the Lancers scored 13 straight points to put the game out of reach.

Moore scored six of his 11 fourth-quarter points in the final three minutes of the game.

“That’s one thing we preached to our guys. We like to play fast and get up and down the floor. We hope our conditioning for four quarters is going to win us games. I think it showed tonight. We were able to close out down the stretch and execute,” Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher said.

“It’s a testament to the kids because in a tight game it could go either way but they stuck with the game plan and kept pushing and kept going, and it turned out in our favor.”

Burrell dropped its second game in a row after a 58-37 loss to Knoch on Tuesday.

The Bucs were led by senior Tucker Bitar, who finished with 26 points, including three 3-pointers in the second half.

Bitar kept the Bucs close in the first quarter when he scored 10 points using his mid-range game.

Burrell took a 20-19 lead in the first few minutes of the second quarter off a junior DJ Cosentino corner 3. However, the Lancers went on to score the next 12 points to open up a double-digit lead and take a 37-27 lead into halftime.

After a quiet second quarter, Bitar started to heat up again when he scored 11 points in the third. The Bucs cut the lead to 48-41 at the end of of the quarter.

“He’s a very good basketball player. He gives us fits. He does a really nice job running the team. Tonight, he did a nice job shooting the ball at times especially early with hitting his mid-range jumpers on us,” Fletcher said.

Throughout the game, both sides were frustrated by the officiating, even leading to a technical foul on Bitar. It was his fourth foul and forced him to sit on the bench for a stretch in the final quarter.

Burrell was 4 for 6 from the line, and the Lancers were 15 for 21.

“(Deer Lakes) hustled after the ball. They switched up defenses. I’m really proud of how our guys played with adversity. We had no calls go our way, but we were still in the game with three minutes to go in the game,” Burrell coach Mike Fantuzzo said.

Burrell turns the page quickly as it faces Derry tomorrow in the WCCA Showcase at Hempfield at 11:15 a.m. Deer Lakes gets a few days off before traveling to Class 5A Plum on Dec. 23.

Tags: Burrell, Deer Lakes