Deer Lakes girls basketball team dominates East Allegheny

By: HSSN Staff
Saturday, February 2, 2019 | 11:03 PM

Owners of a ninth WPIAL playoff berth in the last 10 seasons, Deer Lakes is hoping for a strong finish to the regular season.

Coach Dave Petruska’s team took that first step with a convincing 52-30 victory over East Allegheny on Saturday afternoon at home.

Deer Lakes (14-4, 9-3) held the Wildcats (12-6, 7-5) to single digits in all four quarters and forced nine East Allegheny turnovers in the first.

“I told my girls just now that if we play defense the rest of the way out, we become very hard to beat,” Petruska said. “Today, the biggest thing I saw was that our defense played as one. It wasn’t just five individuals taking care of their jobs. It was all five working together as just one.”

Deer Lakes jumped out to a 9-1 lead as the Wildcats had trouble getting on track.

“Turnovers early, turnovers late, turnovers the whole time,” East Allegheny coach Mike Osiecki said. “We’re lacking leadership, that’s our problem.”

Senior Anna Solomon canned two of her four 3-point field goals in the early minutes of play.

She finished with 22 points.

“To establish a lead early was something we hoped we could do,” Petruska said. “That was very important because I know the type of team we are and the type of team they are, and I know they’re very athletic.”

East Allegheny started making headway, cutting the Lancers lead to 20-15 at the 3-minute mark of the second quarter. But the Lancers scored the final 10 points of the half for a 30-15 advantage.

Deer Lakes increased its lead to 19 by the end of the third period as freshman Reese Hasley and Solomon connected on 3-point shots to put their team ahead 41-22.

It was more of the same in the fourth period as Solomon hit another 3-pointer to put the Lancers up 46-26 with 4:30 to go. Petruska cleared his bench soon after that.

East Allegheny remains alive, however, for a WPIAL playoff berth after making the finals last season before losing to Bishop Canevin. The Wildcats also lost in the state semifinals to Bishop Canevin.

East Allegheny needs one more win or a Derry loss to secure a playoff spot. That could happen if Deer Lakes wins at Derry Monday. The Wildcats swept the season series from Derry.

“All along, with our (graduation) losses from last year, it was going to be a more challenging season,” Osiecki said. “A playoff berth is what we’re striving for. Anything better’s gravy. We just want to get to the playoffs. We’re experienced, but inexperienced with some of our players. We’re a tough team when we’re on, but we weren’t on today.”

Amaia Johnson, the WPIAL’s third-leading scorer at 22.6 points per game, was held to 14 before fouling out with 2:30 to go. Abby Henderson collected 13 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Hasley added 13 points for the Lancers, and Julia Hollibaugh grabbed 12 rebounds.

George Guido is a freelance writer.

Tags: Deer Lakes, East Allegheny