Crushing loss ends best season
Roman Catholic land KO punch to Deer Lakes
HERSHEY, Pa. — For one quarter, Deer Lakes was in good shape. A definite underdog to West Catholic of Philadelphia, Deer Lakes held a one-point lead.
Then the team nicknamed the Burrs went Burrserk.
Drives. Pull-up jumpers. Offensive rebounds. Steals. Dunks. And an alley-oop slam. West Catholic had them all in the second quarter. It was a whirlwind eight minutes by the Burrs, a power surge that had Deer Lakes staggering.
Deer Lakes couldn’t recover and West Catholic breezed to an 83-55 victory Saturday afternoon in the PIAA Class 3A championship at Giant Center in Hershey.
The mercy rule (running clock) went into effect early in the fourth quarter. It was a rough way to end the best season in school history for Deer Lakes. The Lancers won their first WPIAL title and made a PIAA final for the first time. And there was a lot of pride showing on the court and in the stands late in the West Catholic contest. Down 28 and with less than 30 seconds to go, the large throng of Deer Lakes students started chanting “Let’s go, Lancers!” When the final horn sounded, the students and many Deer Lakes fans that made the four-hour trip to Hershey gave their team a loud ovation.
“Look, I just told my guys that if you think for one minute that I’d rather be in that other locker room with gold medals around my neck, then shame on you because you don’t understand what we accomplished this year,” Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher said. “That sums us up. To the end, we got phenomenal support. [Deer Lakes fans] know what these kids are all about. They gave the effort on that court. To get that back from the student body and the community means everything to me and everything to these kids.”
The bottom line was that West Catholic (20-10), a team from the powerful Philadelphia Catholic League, was just on another level than Deer Lakes, which finished the season 21-9. West Catholic point guard Budd Clark and 6-foot-5 senior forward Zion Stanford were a twoplayer wrecking crew. The silky, smooth Clark made 16 of 18 field goals and scored a team-high 32 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out five assists and had four steals. Stanford, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, added 30, making 11 of 16 shots. Not many times in a state championship have two players scored 30 or more.
But Deer Lakes had two players score 20 or more. Junior guard Billy Schaefer made six 3-pointers and scored 21 points while senior guard Bryce Robson had 20 points, including three 3pointers.
West Catholic’s pressure defense, whether in full court or half court, was just too much for Deer Lakes. The Burrs’ on-the-ball pressure was intense and they made it hard for Deer Lakes to finish off any offensive sets. Deer Lakes turned the ball over 18 times and was outrebounded, 30-17.
“It’s hard when you’ve got two guys like that,” Fletcher said. “They’ve got others who are very good, too. You take away one, another one hits you.”
It’s not that Deer Lakes played badly. The Lancers shot 44% for the game and made 43% (9 of 21) from 3point range. West Catholic just had more of everything.
This was one of many victories over the years by a Philadelphia Catholic League team against a public school team. Catholic schools don’t have geographical boundaries to attract students while public schools have geographic boundaries. Fletcher touched on the private vs. public school issue a little.
“This team and this community is what this should be all about and it is what it’s all about,” Fletcher said of Deer Lakes. “I can put together one heck of a defensive team right now if I can make some phone calls for next year. I’ll say what I have to say. I’m losing a 6-5 guy and I got dudes from Deer Lakes who are back home right and those are my guys. That’s our community and our team and I’m proud of that.
“This is PIAA interscholastic sports. I coach AAU. I know that dynamic and I know what this is.”