North Catholic boys win section crown by beating Deer Lakes

By: Josh Rizzo
Friday, February 7, 2025 | 10:03 PM

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Beating Deer Lakes on the road to wrap up sole possession of the Section 1-4A boys basketball title came from a foundation North Catholic built in early December.

The Trojans lost their first three games, two by 15 or more points. But the lessons North Catholic learned from losing to top schools from Maryland and Ohio prepared them for environments like Friday night at Deer Lakes High School.

The Trojans were calm early, making eight 3-pointers in the first half, and rode the momentum to a 69-60 win. North Catholic has won seven straight and will have one final tune-up against Central Catholic before the playoffs start.

“We’ve already been stressed out,” North Catholic coach Jim Rocco said. “We’ve already been in difficult, challenging situations, and we’ve come through it together. These last couple games, they don’t phase this group. They’ve seen these moments before because of who we played prior.”

North Catholic (15-5 10-1) took control of the game early. Jason Fredericks made a trey with about 3 minutes, 30 seconds left in the opening quarter to put North Catholic ahead 8-6. Fredericks, who finished with a game-high 24 points, followed that up with a layup to stretch the lead to five.

The Trojans went on to make five more 3-pointers in the second quarter to stretch the lead to 37-21 at the half. Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher didn’t think his team could have done much different on defense.

“I didn’t think much. I think we guarded well,” Fletcher said. “They’ve shot lights out. I told my guys I’m proud of their effort. They made shots, plain and simple.”

Jude Rottmann scored 14 points for North Catholic, and Eli Stofko finished with 10. In the first half, the Trojans shot 67 percent (8 of 12) from the perimeter.

“When you share the ball as well as we did,” Rocco said. “It’s the simplest thing in the game. You have to make shots. You have all these offensive coordinators and things like that, but you have to make shots. We share the ball well.”

Deer Lakes didn’t make any outside shots before halftime. The Lancers were 7 of 19 from the field.

After halftime, Deer Lakes (16-5, 9-3) outscored North Catholic and got the lead down eight points late in the fourth quarter. However, the Lancers were in too big of a hole to make a serious run at the lead late.

JT McCue scored 17 points for Deer Lakes, Nate Moore contributed 16 and Collin Rodgers scored 15.

Fletcher said he was happy the Lancers finished with an edge in rebounding.

“I appreciate their response to that and their diligence playing to the end,” Fletcher said.

Tags: Deer Lakes, North Catholic