Big second quarter leads Freeport past Deer Lakes

By: HSSN Staff
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 | 1:13 PM

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Freeport used a strong second quarter to end a five-game winning streak for Deer Lakes on Tuesday night.

The Yellowjackets held the Lancers scoreless for more than 6 minutes en route to a 53-41 victory in Section 1-4A play at Freeport Middle School.

Freeport (8-5, 5-1) outscored Deer Lakes (6-6, 3-3) by a 17-4 margin in the pivotal second period.

Twins Madeline and Samantha Clark led four Yellowjackets in double figures with 14 points each.

“We're playing really nice press defense, which leads to the pressure that causes mistakes,” Freeport coach Fred Soilis said. “It gets us the ball back in our hands and allows us to score. In the second quarter, we stuck it to them, and that was the difference.”

Freeport had a 9-7 lead after one quarter.

“I thought the start of the game was where we needed to be, then we got into a lull at the end of the first quarter, and it carried into the entirety of the second quarter,” Lancers coach Dave Petruska said. “It kind of shot ourselves in the foot. We're down by 15 at the half, and it was hard to keep the momentum going and keep the girls staying positive with each other.”

Sidney Shemanski and Madeline Clark each hit a 3-pointer as part of the 12-0 Freeport surge that ended with Anna Solomon's steal and basket. Deer Lakes committed 12 turnovers in the second quarter and fell behind, 26-11, at the intermission.

“I challenged the girls at halftime, and they stepped up to it,” Petruska said. “I would have like to have seen our open opportunities executed a bit more than we did tonight. We missed a lot of layups that would have kept our momentum going.”

Deer Lakes had a 10-0 surge of its own to cut the Freeport lead to 30-21 but Asti Brestnesky's only basket of the game off a steal put Freeport up by double digits for good.

“We let them back in it in the third quarter, but we brought it back to where it needed to be,” Soilis said. “I was proud of my team. We try to average 10 points a quarter and score at least 50 points, which we did.”

Shemanski's 3-pointer midway through the fourth quarter gave the Yellowjackets their biggest lead, 47-25.

Shemanski finished with 12 points and 11 rebounds, and Jenna Manke had 10 points and nine rebounds.

Solomon led the Lancers with 14 points and Julia Hollibaugh had 12, including 6 of 6 from the free-throw line.

Deer Lakes didn't shoot a free throw until there was 5:12 left in the game.

Freeport committed just six turnovers and were charged with two team fouls in the first half.

The Yellowjackets postponed Wednesday's game against Armstrong to avoid playing four consecutive nights what with Thursday's regularly-scheduled game at Valley.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Freeport