Deer Lakes boys make program history with PIAA Class 3A 2nd round win

By: George Guido
Wednesday, March 13, 2019 | 11:01 PM

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Another nail-biter and another win for the Deer Lakes boys basketball team, which continued its historic run Wednesday night.

Deer Lakes won its first PIAA Class 3A second-round game in school history by pulling out a 50-46 decision over Forest Hills before a huge crowd at Armstrong High School.

Senior Jared Colton, who entered the fourth quarter with just two points, scored eight in the final stanza for the Lancers. Brad Perrotte again led the Lancers in scoring with 16 points and hit a trio of key foul shots down the stretch.

The Lancers (18-7) will face Sharon in the quarterfinals Saturday at a site and time to be determined. Deer Lakes lost to the Tigers in their only other state tournament appearance in 1985.

“I knew we had to make the final push because the game was going back-and-forth,” Colton said. “The lead kept changing, and we had to play confident and do our thing.”

Colton missed shots, however, on the first two Lancers possessions in the fourth quarter.

“He was rushing a little bit, forcing it,” Deer Lakes coach Terence Parham said. “I pulled him over, told him to relax, and it will come and he heeded the word.”

With the Rangers ahead 35-31, Colton scored a basket and made the subsequent foul shot. After another Forest Hills four-point advantage, Colton fired in a 3-pointer and later made two foul shots with 21.5 seconds to go to give the Lancers a 49-44 lead.

Adam Cecere had a chance to tie the game with less than a half-minute remaining, but Colton gathered the rebound and was fouled immediately.

Forest Hills, which had won its first PIAA playoff game in 24 years against North Catholic Saturday, concluded its season at 17-10.

“I think we had some shots go in and out, and they hit a couple of shots late,” Rangers coach Dominic Vescovi said. “We had a couple of untimely turnovers that we just couldn’t recover from.”

Josh Schrock lost his dribble in front of the Deer Lakes bench with 36 seconds to go, and Jack Hollibaugh stole the ball at midcourt to give the Lancers possession with 14.7 seconds left.

At that point, Lancers senior Colin Kadlick was charged with a technical foul for taunting, giving Forest Hills new life. Hollibaugh missed two free throws, but Zach Myers canned both of his, and the Rangers had the ball to complete the technical. Myers missed a 3-pointer that would have tied it, but Aris Hasley collected the biggest rebound of his Lancers career.

“He probably could have gotten a better look, but I told the guys after the game I wish I had better answers for you,” Vescovi said. “That’s something I’ve got to grow into as a coach. Players make mistakes during a game, and I think I’m going to reflect on this. That was a play we worked on all season.”

“Somehow, we keep finding ways to make enough plays and get the ‘W,’ ” Parham said. “It’s not always pretty, but I think we were two teams nobody thought would be here at this stage of the year.”

Cecere, like many stellar, multi-sport athletes, looked ready to take over the game in the fourth quarter, scoring eight of his team-leading 15 points and led the Rangers with 12 rebounds.

Cecere is headed to Wake Forest on a baseball scholarship and he passed for more than 7,000 yards during his Rangers football career.

“We won a state playoff game, something we hadn’t done in other years previously,” Cecere said. “We really couldn’t be more thankful for the job coach Vescovi and coach (Justin) Myers did. They ran a tight ship and made us better people.”

Jack Hollibaugh had 12 points for the Lancers, including four in the fourth quarter.

Tags: Deer Lakes