Third-quarter run leads Deer Lakes girls past Burrell

By: HSSN Staff
Monday, December 10, 2018 | 10:57 PM

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With 30 seconds elapsed in the third quarter of Monday’s nonsection girls basketball game between Deer Lakes and Burrell, the visiting Lancers held just a two-point lead.

Bucs senior Kaylen Sharrow had just converted a layup off of a turnover to cut her team’s four-point halftime deficit in half.

But Deer Lakes turned up the defensive pressure and converted on the offensive end. In just over three minutes, the Lancers went on a 14-2 run to take control.

All five starters scored at least eight points for Deer Lakes in its 54-38 victory.

“Everyone worked together as one and put in all the effort,” said freshman guard Reese Hasley, who, along with senior Anna Solomon, led the Lancers with 12 points.

“I’m sure there were a lot of assists off that, too. Everybody is contributing. That is great to see.”

Deer Lakes, which won its own tip-off tournament over the weekend, improved to 3-0 on the young season.

Seniors Abby Buechel and Julia Hollibaugh each scored nine points, while senior Victoria Keibler added eight.

“That’s the way it’s been all three games so far,” Lancers coach Dave Petruska said. “The balanced scoring has been really nice to see. At times tonight, on a couple of possessions, we were being a little too unselfish. We were looking to make an extra pass that wasn’t there. But I would rather see that than being selfish or not making a pass we should have.”

The third-quarter run put Deer Lakes ahead 37-23, and it went into the fourth quarter with a 47-28 advantage.

Burrell, with three freshman in the starting lineup, used its defense to stay in the game by halftime despite committing 20 turnovers over the first two quarters.

Freshman Ally Fisher hit a trio of 3-pointers in the first half and totalled five for the game to finish with 15 points. Sharrow also scored 15 points to go along with eight rebounds.

“We played a pretty good first half of basketball, even though we had all of those turnovers,” Burrell coach Joel Ceraso said. “If we eliminate the way we came out in the third quarter, throwing the ball away like we did, maybe we stay in the game a little longer. If we stay in the confines of what we call, things can work. Deer Lakes is an experienced team, and they can make you pay for your mistakes.”

Solomon scored 10 of her 12 points in the first half. She tallied eight in the first quarter, and a jumper with 38 seconds left until halftime gave Deer Lakes a 23-19 lead which it took into the break.

“We’ll enjoy this win tonight, but we’ll be right back at it tomorrow,” Petruska said. “We have some things to work on, but these three wins are a good foundation heading into section play.”

Deer Lakes begins its Section 3-3A slate Thursday at South Allegheny.

Burrell, now 1-2 overall, opens Section 1-4A play Thursday at Apollo-Ridge.

“We are continuing to grow the program, and we hope to see improvement over these next couple of games,” Ceraso said. “By early January, we want to see that we are playing better basketball than we did in early December.”

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: Burrell, Deer Lakes