North Catholic runs away with win over Deer Lakes

By: Dave Mackall
Tuesday, January 14, 2025 | 10:17 PM

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No matter where North Catholic plays basketball, stress is the name of the game.

The Trojans certainly made it stressful for No. 2 Deer Lakes on Tuesday night, turning a tight game early into a commanding 61-46 victory in a Section 1-4A game in Cranberry.

“We mixed some things up a little bit,” North Catholic coach Jim Rocco said. “When you play defensively like that, you can be playing in the middle of the forest. It’s hard for people to see and move. It’s stressful. So I thought we created some stress tonight.”

Jason Fredericks scored 16 points, including three of North Catholic’s eight 3-point shots, and the Trojans, using a smothering defense, handed Deer Lakes its first section loss and ended its five-game winning streak.

The victory moved the Trojans into a three-way tie for first place in the section with Deer Lakes and No. 3 Knoch, a 71-29 winner over Freeport.

Owen Maddalon added 15 points, and Joe Waskiewicz finished with 14 for North Catholic (10-5, 5-1), which has won eight of its past nine games after battling through a tough nonconference schedule.

The Trojans opened the season with losses to Harvest Prep (Ohio), Archbishop Spalding (Md.) and Archbishop Hoban (Ohio) and later split a pair of decisions against two other Ohio-based teams, McNicholas and Mariemont.

They also own victories over PIAA District 1 schools Strath Haven and Hatboro Horsham as well as WPIAL Class 6A Pine-Richland.

“We sort of want to build the brand of North Catholic regionally,” Rocco said. “We want to have great relationships with other great schools, especially Catholic schools. We’re just trying to expose our kids to high-level basketball and give them a great experience.

“In turn, it gives us an opportunity to see what we’re capable of and that we’re capable of more than we (think) are. We may not have won some of those games, but we had stretches where we thought, ‘Hey, we’re OK.’ ”

North Catholic was better than OK against Deer Lakes (13-3, 5-1), outscoring the Lancers, 18-5, in the second quarter to take a 35-22 halftime lead.

“Their press bothered us a little bit, but that’s what they do,” Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher said. “We definitely prepared for it. It’s constant pressure. We knew we were going to make some mistakes. We just had to keep battling through that. Overall, it was more of our turnovers outside of the pressure that really hurt us in the first half. We just didn’t make some great decisions. Their constant pressure, defensively, causes that at times, as well.

“But proud of our effort. They battled.”

Nate Moore led Deer Lakes with 13 points. Collin Rodgers and Luca Mangieri finished with 11 apiece for the Lancers, who entered the second quarter tied with North Catholic at 17-17 before the Trojans pulled away with their big burst.

Deer Lakes got no closer than 10 points late in the fourth quarter.

“They did a good job of executing on their end,” Fletcher said. “They made some big shots. They made more shots than us in the first half and got a little separation. That was really the key. We had to keep trying to claw our way into it.

“Yeah, they made more shots, and they played a better game tonight.”

Tags: Deer Lakes, North Catholic