Deer Lakes’ Hasley hits 1,000 points on game-winning shot vs. Freeport

By: Michael Love
Monday, January 24, 2022 | 10:10 PM

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Reese Hasley’s 1,000th career point Monday night against rival Freeport was quite dramatic.

The Deer Lakes senior guard delivered a jumper from about the foul line with 6 seconds to go, and the bucket broke a tie and sent the Lancers to a key 39-37 home victory over the Yellowjackets.

“The win was so crucial for us and what we need to do to stay alive for the playoffs,” said Hasley, who needed 15 for 1,000 and finished with that total.

“The fact that we were able to keep battling and come out on top, it is an amazing feeling. To get my 1,000th point, too, I was just excited all around for that and the win.”

Deer Lakes came into the game having lost four of five in Section 1-4A. The Lancers improved to 3-5 in the section and are 5-9 overall. They move into the fourth spot in the section standings.

Freeport suffered its fourth consecutive loss and fell to 3-7 overall and 2-4 in the section.

It was a frenetic final minute of play.

The Yellowjackets held possession and a one-point lead at 36-35 as the clocked ticked under one minute left in regulation.

Deer Lakes put on a full-court press and forced a Freeport turnover. Hasley was fouled, putting her on the line. She sank 1 of 2 to tie the score 36-36 with 21 seconds left.

Freeport’s Melaina DeZort, who finished with a game-best 19 points and 13 rebounds, was fouled by Nikki Fleming seven seconds later. She hit the first free throw and missed the second to give the Yellowjackets the lead 37-36.

On the fight for the rebound after the missed second free throw, Freeport forward Morgan Croney was whistled for a foul. Anna Bokulich hit the first of two free throws for the Lancers with nine seconds on the clock to tie the score 37-37.

Bokulich missed her second free throw, but Lydia Guthrie was right there for the rebound. She found Hasley, who put up the winner and her milestone points.

While the Deer Lakes faithful were in a frenzy, there still was time for Freeport to tie the score or win. But a turnover with one second left sealed the Deer Lakes win.

“The girls fought and battled the whole game. I am so proud of them,” Deer Lakes coach Sam Salih said. “They really wanted this game, and it was so important for us in the section standings. We knew it was going to be a tough game, even with (Freeport coach) Fred (Soilis) not being at the game. Even though we were shaky at times, we made them rush some things and made them a little shaky, too.”

With Soilis not on the bench for Monday’s game, the head coaching duties fell to assistant Mallory Ketterer.

“I told the girls I hope they had fun playing the game, despite the loss, because it was a heck of a game,” she said. “They played as hard and as competitively as I could’ve asked them to. It just stinks that a couple of errors in the final couple of minutes ended up biting us in the butt. The girls need to stay the course, because they’ve been in enough games like this to know that what we’re doing is working and will pay off for us soon. It’s just a matter of putting the good things together as a team for four consecutive quarters.”

In addition to DeZort’s big night on the scoresheet and on the boards, Croney hit a pair of 3-pointers and finished with 10 points.

Fleming tallied nine points to go along with seven rebounds for Deer Lakes.

Freeport built its biggest lead of the game — eight points — at 10-2 with 1:56 left in the first quarter.

But Deer Lakes battled back and took its first lead of the game at 18-16 on a pair of free throws from Layne Looper with 57 seconds to go until halftime.

Freeport’s largest lead of the fourth was five at 34-29 with 5:47 on the clock. The Yellowjackets opened the final quarter on an 8-2 run with a pair of 3-pointers from DeZort and a jumper from Ava Soilis.

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Deer Lakes, Freeport