ALTOONA – Coming off a big win just up the road, the Loyalsock Lancers saw their season end on Wednesday night, falling to the Deer Lakes Lancers 67-59 at the Altoona Fieldhouse in the second round of the PIAA State Playoffs. Loyalsock cut a 13-point fourth quarter deficit to one in the closing minutes before Deer Lakes pulled away to earn a spot in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

Loyalsock’s Head Coach Ron Insinger stressed putting together solid minutes this far in the state tournament.

“When you get this far along in the state tournament, you got to put together 32 solid minutes,” said Insinger. “Tonight, we put together about ten solid minutes.”

Deer Lake’s matchup zone defense gave the Lancer’s problems; however, Loyalsock-Township Junior Guard Gage Patterson led all Lancer’s scorers with 20 points while shooting two of three from the charity stripe.

“We lost to a good team,” said Insinger. “They’re a solid team; they can flat-out shoot and play the game.”

Last week, Loyalsock-Township edged out a huge victory over Bishop Guilfoyle, which served as a confidence booster. But despite this loss, Coach Insinger lauded his players’ effort all season.

“We made great strides,” said Insinger. “We only had one senior on the team; we learned a lot of basic basketball over the last three months, and they can build on that.”

Lone Loyalsock senior Alec Kulp did not play in Wednesday’s game.

“He’s a steady player,” said Coach Insinger. “He came off the bench, doesn’t complain, worked hard every day, never misses a practice; he exhibited senior leadership on a daily basis.”

Deer Lake’s Head Coach, Albie Fletcher, credited Loyalsock Township’s effort.

“I thought they showed tremendous courage and grit,” said Fletcher. “They made us work for that victory.

Coach Fletcher also mentioned that Loyalsock Township made Deer Lakes have to use some timeouts before they needed to.

“They did a nice job on switching off of our screens,” said Coach Fletcher. “We had to use some time outs there and settle; there is a lot of things we work on in practice for those moments.”

Loyalsock finishes its season with a record of 16-11. Deer Lakes awaits their next opponent.

LOYALSOCK-TOWNSHIP (59): Andrews: 4, 0-2, 8; Gee: 6, 1-2, 13; Patterson: 9, 2-3, 20; Bauman: 4, 2-2, 11; Jennings: 1, 2-2, 5; Nagy: 1, 0-1, 2.

DEER LAKES (67): Butler: 4, 1-3, 9; Rodgers: 2, 5-5, 10; Litrun: 4, 2-2, 10; Robson: 5, 8-9, 18; Buechel: 1, 0-0, 2; Burk: 1, 0-0, 2; Moore: 1, 1-2, 3; Schaeffer: 2, 0-0, 5; Love: 4, 0-0, 8.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

LOYALSOCK-TOWNSHIP 8 9 14 28 – 59

DEER LAKES 11 15 18 23 – 67

3-point field goals: LOYALSOCK-TOWNSHIP 2 (Bauman: 1; Jennings: 1), DEER LAKES 2 (Rodgers: 1; Schaeffer 1)

Records: LOYALSOCK-TOWNSHIP (13-11), DEER LAKES (19-8).