Deer Lakes girls lose to Shady Side Academy, fall into 2nd-place tie in section

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, January 14, 2019 | 10:51 PM

Previous Next

Previous Next

Deer Lakes girls basketball coach Dave Petruska felt his team was as ready as possible to battle for first place in Section 3-3A on Monday night.

But Shady Side Academy built a double-digit lead by the end of the first quarter. Deer Lakes tried to rally, but Shady Side didn’t fade and went on to complete a 55-36 victory.

The Lady Indians, No. 3 in the latest Trib HSSN Class 3A rankings, improved to 11-1 overall and 7-0 in the section, and Deer Lakes dipped to 9-3 and fell into a second-place tie with Carlynton at 5-2.

“I think we let the tension and hype of the game really get to us early,” Petruska said. “Deer Lakes basketball — from what we’ve been working on the last couple of games and off of what we’ve accomplished over the entire season — has been about discipline, understanding situations and knowing when we need to run plays and when we need to take chances. That is something we didn’t do early on. We were rushing a lot of things, and we found ourselves in a hole.”

The teams played even through the first half of the first quarter. Abby Buechel and Anna Solomon hit 3-pointers as the score was tied 6-6 at the 4-minute, 22-second mark. Deer Lakes struggled from the field over the rest of the quarter, and Shady Side took advantage.

Controlling the boards with their height advantage and using a balanced scoring attack, the Lady Indians went on a 12-0 run to lead 18-6 after eight minutes.

“Deer Lakes is one of the most solid teams we’ve played to date, and they all can really shoot the ball,” Shady Side Academy coach Amy Szlachetka said. “We were concerned with that, but we knew we had to eliminate their seconds shots.

“I think, too, they were trying to stop our transition game, so they were shooting and heading down the floor. I would like to say it was our boxing out, but them trying to keep us from running kind of gave us an advantage on the boards.”

Ariana Goitz converted a layup in the first minute of the second quarter to extend the advantage to 14 before Cameron Simurda came off the bench for Deer Lakes and hit a 3-pointer to end a seven-minute scoring drought.

Simurda’s three kick-started a 9-2 Lancers run as they closed the gap to 23-15 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the half.

“We could’ve easily said, ‘We’re done’ after Shady Side built that early lead, but we kept playing hard,” Petruska said. “Even in the last minute, they were trying to do whatever they could to get one last possession. It was nice to see that even down 20, my team is still going to fight.”

Catherine Jewart responded to Deer Lakes’ run with a 3-pointer, and Shady Side went on to build its lead to 30-17 as the teams headed to the break.

“We know Deer Lakes very well, and we knew they weren’t going to quit,” Szlachetka said. “They kept coming after us until that final buzzer no matter the score.”

Deer Lakes was within 12 at the midpoint of the third quarter, but it could get no closer the rest of the game.

Jewart and Nyla Rozier scored 15 points each and added nine and eight rebounds, respectively, to lead the Lady Indians. Ariana Goitz added 12 points and seven boards.

“Our girls were really up for this game,” Szlachetka said. “This was a big one for us. We have to go there in a couple weeks, and we know it will be a battle.”

Shady Side will visit Deer Lakes on Feb. 7.

Solomon and Victoria Keibler tallied eight points each to lead Deer Lakes. Seven of the Lancers’ 13 field goals came from 3-point range.

“I was excited about this game because we were given a good opportunity in a playoff atmosphere,” Petruska said. “That is something we have to continue to prepare ourselves for moving forward. We have to get refocused and get back at it. We still have to play at Derry, and we play Carlynton and Shady Side again, too. We want to build on these games.”

Michael Love is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Michael at 412-388-5825, mlove@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MLove_Trib.

Tags: Deer Lakes