A-K Valley high school basketball notebook: Deer Lakes girls break through

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, February 1, 2018 | 10:54 PM

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Deer Lakes exorcised some of its demons from its girls basketball rivalry with Burrell last season. But one white whale still remained for the Lancers.

Until this week, no current player had won in Burrell's gym. Neither had coach Dave Petruska, even going back to his time as an assistant.

That drought ended Monday, when Deer Lakes held off Burrell's late rally for a 40-36 victory, securing its first road win at Burrell since 2012.

“This is the first time I can safely say that I have won or my team has won as a coach here,” Petruska said. “I'm proud of them tonight.”

The length of the losing skid — four games — might not look like much, but it was exacerbated by Burrell's dominance in those games. The Bucs won the four contests by an average of 28.5 points.

Even last season, when Deer Lakes ended its seven-game overall losing streak to Burrell by winning in the final seconds at home, the Lancers lost by 38 in Burrell's gym.

“We've had this stipulation or this air of we don't play well here,” Petruska said. “I'm really proud that we came into a school that we have not won in in my entire coaching career here and took care of it.”

Now Deer Lakes owns a three-game winning streak in the series against Burrell … but more importantly, the Lancers (7-10, 4-5) hold a 1 ¹⁄₂-game edge over the Bucs (5-11, 3-7) in the section standings with the tiebreaker fully in hand.

“I think the aspect of the six years not winning here, we couldn't lose another game,” junior Victoria Keibler said. “I think we would have been devastated. We really needed this win.”

Playoff update

With the WPIAL basketball season winding down, several Alle-Kiski Valley teams already have punched their playoff tickets. Others have work to do.

Boys clinchings include Fox Chapel in Class 6A, Highlands in 5A, Valley in 4A, Burrell in 3A and Leechburg in 2A. Freeport and Deer Lakes can clinch their spots with another win or a Derry loss.

Girls clinchings entering Thursday included Freeport in Class 4A, Apollo-Ridge in 3A, Leechburg in 2A and St. Joseph in A. Deer Lakes, Burrell and Highlands remained alive in 4A, as did Kiski Area and Plum in 5A and Riverview in 2A.

Plenty in reserve

Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski pointed to health as one of the biggest factors in the Golden Rams' recent 10-game winning streak.

Another related reason? Their bench.

Highlands' reserves keyed a 55-46 win at Armstrong last week, accounting for 25 points. That came on the heels of an 87-68 victory over Franklin Regional in which Romello Freeman scored 14 points off the bench.

Freeman, slowed earlier this season by injuries, found a role as Highlands' most dangerous non-starter. He ranks fourth on the team with 10.2 points per game and had a team-high 16 against Armstrong.

“I feel like I have six starters,” Stoczynski said. “I don't know how many teams can bring someone off the bench and get better. He has really taken to that role, and he's been tremendous.

Korry Myers, who hit three 3-pointers against Armstrong, scored 12 points against Greensburg Salem earlier this season. And Danny Thimons provides valuable minutes as a backup post player to Johnny Crise and Shawn Erceg.

Won for the road

Freeport is becoming Indiana's chief competitor in Section 1-4A boys basketball, as the Yellowjackets dealt the first-place Little Indians their first section loss last week. Similarly, Freeport gave Indiana its only section defeat last season as well.

The Yellowjackets also ended Indiana's nine-game home winning streak with last week's 76-62 victory in which four players scored in double figures.

Apollo mission

What a difference a year makes.

After a promising 2016-17 season ended with 10 consecutive losses and no playoff berth, Apollo-Ridge is flipping the script during this stretch run.

The Vikings (10-7, 6-4) entered Thursday's game at Steel Valley on a five-game winning streak that lifted them into second place in Section 3-3A and into a WPIAL playoff berth.

Included in the run were section victories over Steel Valley, Shady Side Academy, Seton LaSalle and Avonworth sandwiched around a nonsection win over St. Joseph.

Although Maddy Moore and Megan Ost provided scoring, Apollo-Ridge's defense really stood out in the five wins. The Vikings held their opponents to 40.6 points per game in those games.

Doug Gulasy is a Tribune-Review staff writer.

Tags: Apollo-Ridge, Deer Lakes, Freeport, Highlands