HERSHEY, Pa. — There have been a lot of reasons to “Fear the Deer” this postseason, with Deer Lakes ripping off eight consecutive wins to claim its first WPIAL title and advance to the PIAA final for the first time.
Deer Lakes, which brought a large number of fans Saturday to Giant Center, showed no fear early against West Catholic, but looked like a deer in the headlights when the second quarter came around. That quick turnaround fueled by a bevy of turnovers led to Deer Lakes’ historic season ending with a loss.
West Catholic, which hails from the Philadelphia Catholic League, got a masterful performance from its two Division I recruits and a dominant second quarter to roll to an 83-55 mercy-rule win against Deer Lakes in the Class 3A championship.
Deer Lakes (21-9) raced to an 8-1 lead and held a 15-14 advantage after one quarter against West Catholic (20-10), which was also making its finals debut. But for the next eight minutes, Deer Lakes’ dream season turned into a nightmare. The Burrs buried Deer Lakes in the second quarter when they outscored the Lancers, 24-4, to take a 19-point halftime lead. Turnovers were the reason. West Catholic forced seven of them in the quarter, which it turned into 14 points. The Burrs were 10 of 13 shooting in the quarter, while Deer Lakes was just 2 of 6.
“We wanted to come out hot, aggressive, let them know we were here. And we did those things. Super proud of the start,” said Deer Lakes first-year coach Albie Fletcher. “But what a collection of players that is. You can’t make mistakes. You just can’t. And they just capitalized on our mistakes.”
It was typically one of two players capitalizing on Deer Lakes’ miscues, as seniors Budd Clark and Zion Stanford performed like stars with a capital “S” all night long. You can probably count on one hand how many times two teammates each scored 30 or more points in the PIAA championship, but Clark and Stanford did just that. Clark, a 5-foot-10 guard and Coppin State recruit, scored 32 points on 16 of 18 shooting, while Stanford, a 6-5 guard and Temple recruit, added 30 on 11 of 16 shooting. The two combined to score 22 consecutive points at one point for the Burrs, who shot a scorching 61% from the floor overall (33 of 54).
“I mean, they’ve got two kids who are Division I basketball players,” Deer Lakes senior guard Bryce Robson said. “They’re special players. It’s hard when you’ve got two guys like that and they have others who are very good, too. You take away one and the other one hurts you. It’s very tough.”
Junior Billy Schaeffer scored 21 points and Robson had 20 for Deer Lakes, which shot 20 of 46 from the field (43%) and was outrebounded, 30-17, by a much taller team. West Catholic started two players standing 6-5 and had eight players on its roster 6-4 or taller, while Deer Lakes had only one player taller than 6-2.
Deer Lakes, which was outscored, 45-36, in the second half, pulled within 16 points early in the third quarter. But West Catholic quickly countered and eventually forced the mercy rule after Stanford’s layup with 6:37 left in the game pushed the Burrs’ lead to 30 points.
“A lot of credit goes to [Deer Lakes],” West Catholic coach Miguel Bocachica said. “Those dudes play hard. They’re very, very well-coached. So it wasn’t surprising to me when I watched them on film. I knew they would throw a couple punches.
“But for us, we’ve just been there before. We’ve been down in quarters before. We’ve gotten off to slow starts. … I don’t like the slow start, but because we’ve been there before, we were able to just not panic and just eventually pick it up.”
Meanwhile, Deer Lakes was left to pick up the pieces after a disheartening loss. Helping the Lancers’ cause was a fan base that was as boisterous as ever. The Deer Lakes community came out in full force. A large student section stayed engaged throughout despite its team trailing by a sizable margin for most of the last three quarters.
“It’s been special all year long,” Robson said. “Even walking into our hotel last night after dinner, we got a round of applause from a bunch of people in the lobby. They followed us everywhere and I couldn’t ask for anything else. Especially from a senior perspective, it’s been amazing.”
Added Fletcher, “I told them what this group has done for this basketball program. They’ve lit this community on fire. What they have done for future generations of basketball at Deer Lakes, you can’t put it into words.”
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.