Anyone who has ever played basketball has heard it from a coach maybe a thousand times: You have to make your foul shots.
For Deer Lakes, it was tough sledding from the charity stripe as the team went 2 of 14 through three quarters, but the Lancers were able to make them when it counted to come away with a 46-37 win over Hickory in the PIAA Class 4A second round at New Castle.
In the fourth quarter, the Lancers were nearly perfect, hitting 12 of 14.
“It’s been funny because on this four-year run we’ve had, we’ve really struggled with free throws, but we’ve been lights out and heads and tails above where we had been,” said Lancers coach Albert Fletcher. “But in the playoffs, we’re shooting like 50 percent. But when it comes to crunch time, somehow, someway, these guys find a way to make them.”
Collin Rodgers made 5 of 6 free throws in the fourth quarter and made 6 of 8 in the game, leading the Lancers with 18 points. Luca Mangieri and Breydan McCoy each made a pair of free throws.
The start of the game wasn’t the cleanest for Deer Lakes as it committed five turnovers in the first quarter.
“You don’t know a lot about these teams when you get this far into the playoffs, so you tend to have a little bit of the jitters, and it takes a few minutes to get a feel for a game and how you might compete with a team’” said Rodgers.
But the Lancers were able to right themselves and get into the flow and only committed five turnovers the rest of the way.
Hickory committed four turnovers in the first quarter and after Deer Lakes went to a full-court press, the Hornets gave the ball away six times in the second quarter.
Offensively, the Lancers got the majority of their points playing in the half court as Evan Moore scored half of his team’s eight points.
After being reined in in their transition game throughout the first quarter, the Lancers were able to score some points on the run in the second, opening the quarter on a 6-2 surge.
Rodgers was able to go the length of the court after Hickory missed a bucket and scored a layup on a nice spin move to the hoop. He later nailed a wide open 3-pointer in transition.
He then found Moore running the floor, assisting on four more points for the 6-foot-3 forward.
Moore finished the night with 17 points.
Deer Lakes held District 10 third-place finisher Hickory to 14 first-half points and held an 18-14 advantage at halftime.
Coming out in the third quarter, the Lancers kept the Hornets on their toes with a zone defense.
“We decided early on that we wanted to pressure them, mix it up defensively based on their personnel, try and slow them down,” said Fletcher. “It’s not easy going from man one possession to zone the next. Our guys did a fantastic job.”
Offensively, Deer Lakes came out in the third on a 7-2 run.
All year, the team has played with the mentality that they’re down 10 points to open each quarter, which explains how efficiently they score to open each frame.
“It fuels the defense,” said Fletcher. “You tend to get a little lackadaisical when you get up and things are going OK and then you make a mistake and get down. I think since they’ve gone to that mentality and understood that if you rebound and defend, you can beat anybody.”
Deer Lakes finished with a slight advantage in rebounds, 21-20.
But Hickory wasn’t going to go away quietly and as Deer Lakes couldn’t hit anything from the foul line in the third quarter, Hornets forward Trevor Borowicz went to the line five times and made half of his 10 shots and added a 3-pointer to cut Deer Lakes’ lead to 28-24 at the end of three.
Borowicz led Hickory with 14 points and Kyler Slevin added another 11.
Moore sat out the majority of the third with three fouls, but before he left the court, he was a part of a huge five-point swing for the Lancers.
After making a layup and missing the foul shot, Deer Lakes jumped on the rebound and the ball made its way to Rodgers, who buried his second 3 of the night.
The Hornets continued to fight back in the fourth, getting within two points and nearly tying the game with a minute and half left.
Holding on to a 37-35 lead, Rodgers brought the ball to midcourt on an inbounds play and looked to get the ball over to Mangieri when Hickory’s Chris Mele made a steal and had an easy layup, but the ball rolled around the rim and out.
“Turnovers happen throughout the game, and they pressured us and created a turnover, but I think that was God looking out for me,” said Rodgers.
McCoy rebounded the ball for the Lancers, was fouled and made both his foul shots, and the Lancers went on their run of made free throws to seal the victory.
“I fully expected a battle,” said Fletcher. “Hickory’s a tough team, one of the hardest teams to prepare for. They’re very diverse in what they do defensively. I didn’t get a lot of sleep this week, but hats off to them.”
Deer Lakes advances to face City League champion Obama Academy in the quarterfinals Friday night.