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Bloomsburg hands Loyalsock first league loss in four years

By Chris Masse 5 min read

Less than 90 seconds remained Saturday night when Ron Insinger started lifting some starters. That has been a norm for 48 seasons at Loyalsock where the Lancers have made winning an art form.

But this was different. This time it was Loyalsock conceding after an opponent thoroughly outplayed it. What started as Loyalsock’s senior night because Bloomsburg’s statement performance.

Adam McGinley scored 23 points, Nasir Heard 17 and Daniel Gusevich added six steals as Bloomsburg controlled the game from the first quarter on and thumped the defending Class AAA state champions, 62-48. Bloomsburg did what no HAC-II team had done since Montoursville in 2018, ending Loyalsockás four-year league winning streak. The Panthers (17-4, 12-3) are the first HAC-II team to win at CI’s Gymnasium since 2016 and ended the 13-game winning streak Loyalsock (18-4, 15-1) brought into its regular-season finale.

“We always want so much to beat a really good team, especially on the road at their home,” McGinley said. “It just brings so much energy that I think we’ll just keep going strong from here.”

Loyalsock captured its sixth straight HAC-II championship two weeks ago and will likely play either Lewisburg or Shamokin in the HAC Tournament semifinals Thursday at Shikellamy. Bloomsburg qualifies as the runner-up and will play the HAC-I champion. The Lancers also will be either the No. 1 or 2 seed in the District 4 playoffs and host a quarterfinal.

Insinger said all-state forward Saraj Ali should be returning this week so the Lancers will be near full-strength as they enter the postseason. Now they to learn from Saturday’s mistakes and try turning a negative into a positive.

“In the big scheme of things it could be a blessing. Hopefully there is a silver lining in this going into playoffs,” Insinger said. “We just have to get organized and get ready.”

Bloomsburg will be back at it Monday as well, heading to Mount Carmel for yet another tough league game. The Panthers revealed not just their talent, but their character against Loyalsock. Less than 24 hours after edging Southern Columbia on the road in overtime, Bloomsburg played with energy and passion, never tiring and holding off every Loyalsock rally after building a 16-point second-quarter lead.

The Panthers efficiently worked the offense, set each other for good shots and wreaked havoc with their up-tempo, aggressive zone defense. Every player did his part and Bloomsburg changed the game’s complexion when it used a 23-4 run that bridged the first two quarters and gave it a 16-point advantage. Loyalsock pulled as close as eight in the third quarter when Nate Bauman scored six quick points, but Bloomsburg responded with a 7-0 flurry and never was seriously threatened again.

“We went to overtime with Southern, so I was saying how mentally tough we had to be to win this game,” Bloomsburg coach Mike O’Shea said. “Coming off an emotional win like that, it’s late night and you get jacked up and then have to come back and play again, so to come up here on Senior Night and play like that says a lot about their mental toughness. We talked about (Friday) being a growth win and this was definitely a growth win.”

“I thought that would work in our favor because they played 37 minutes and going back-to-back is tough but they just beat us in every aspect of the game,” Insinger said. “They outrebounded us, they outshot us, they outhustled us and they won the 50-50s. We played tentative. We played like we were afraid to lose rather than playing to win and that really hurt us.”

McGinley is having an all-state caliber season and scored 33 points Wednesday, including his 1,000th, before adding 26 against Southern. He was a calming influence whenever Bloomsburg rallied and had plenty of help from his teammates. Heard made four steals and grabbed seven rebounds, producing 10 third-quarter points and playing a large role in holding off Loyalsock’s rally. Madden Locke hit a key 3-pointer after Loyalsock had made it an eight-point game and finished with 12 points.

“It took us a while to get there but we’ve been like that for most of the season,” McGinley said. “We have really good chemistry and I think we’ll carry that on moving forward.”

Gusevich ignited the tenacious defense which gave Loyalsock fits all night. A defensive back in football, Gusevich played the safety role well, making six steals. Bloomsburg forced 21 turnovers and never let Loyalsock get settled in after it took a brief 10-7 first-quarter lead.

Loyalsock kept working and mounted a few runs after Bloomsburg built a 30-14 second-quarter lead. The Lancers scored the half’s final six points, closed within 10 and then twice had it down to eight in the third. The big surges Loyalsock has so often used to change games and/or put away opponents, however, never came. Bloomsburg held Loyalsock to 11 or fewer points in three of the four quarters and forced at least four turnovers in each one.

Bloomsburg pushed its lead to 15 entering the fourth quarter and Loyalsock could get no closer than 12 on a Jaiden Ross coast-to-coast drive with three minutes remaining. Brendan Clark scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds but Bloomsburg limited Loyalsock to four fourth-quarter field goals.

“I fully believe me when these guys are playing it crisp and playing their positions the right way we can be really disruptive,” O’Shea said. “We’ve made it difficult for teams when we’re playing at our best to get into a rhythm.”

“They got a lot of easy, set shots and we had to work our tails off to get a good shot,” Insinger said. “Our shots were forced, they were taken with two people in their face and that’s a credit to Bloom because their aggressiveness and energy level was just higher than ours.”

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