Even after building a 13-point lead midway through the third quarter, Loyalsock knew that a team as good and as experienced as Montoursville was going to make a few runs and it was going to be up to a young Lancer squad to weather the storm.

Weather the storm they did.

Brayden Cioffi and Saoj Jones, both of whom had career-highs in points, hit big shot after big shot in the second half, as Loyalsock held off a furious comeback attempt by Montoursville to avenge a prior loss, 57-50.

“When we came into halftime, we said this team is very good, and they are going to make runs. It’s how we respond to those runs that will define us tonight. And actually, we let them play through those runs more than we would have two or three weeks ago. We didn’t call timeouts,” Loyalsock coach Ryan Cioffi said. “We were confident those runs were going to come, and then we were going to counterpunch back. I could not be more proud of these kids. There’s so much work that goes into a win like tonight, and those kids worked really hard.”

Loyalsock played excellent basketball all night, but were at their best during the final four minutes of the second quarter and first four of the third quarter. The Lancers turned a game that was tied at 19 with just under three minutes left in the first half into a 13-point lead with 4:41 left in the third quarter.

And they built that lead off of their defense. The Lancers forced plenty of turnovers on Monday night and were adept at turning them into easy buckets at the other end. And when the offense had to play in the half court, they worked for good shots, something they needed to improve on quickly after a shaky offensive performance in a loss to Warrior Run last week.

“We ran through the offense and executed. We got open shots, knocked them down, and ran off turnovers. We got a lot off the turnovers, a lot of fast-break layups, which is the easiest way to score points in basketball games,” said Brayden Cioffi, who scored a career-high 24 points. “So you look for the good shots, not the forced shots, get the shots from the offense, and it comes a little easier.”

After halftime, Loyalsock extended that league playing through Saoj Jones. The senior forward showed off excellent range, and hit one of his three triples to put the Lancers up 30-21 in the early parts of the third quarter. And, after the Warriors quickly trimmed the deficit to eight after Loyalsock went up 36-23, Jones hit a stepback three in the right corner to quickly put them back up eleven as Jones had fifteen of a career-high 17 points.

“He shoots the ‘no, no, yeah, yeah’ ones sometimes. But we’re confident in his shot. At the end of every practice, we end practice by making 100 3s,” coach Cioffi said. “So we know when we come into a game, we’re shooting threes. And when you look at our shot chart, it doesn’t lie. We shoot a lot of shots from the perimeter.”

Montoursville wouldn’t go away quietly. The Warriors scored the first five points of the final frame to cut the lead to six with just over six minutes remaining. But Jones answered with another three once again to put Loyalsock back up nine.

The Warriors wouldn’t be deterred, as a Cam Cintron jumper got the lead down to five with just under five minutes remaining. But Jones was there once again, as he scored four in a row to cap off a 6-0 run to put Loyalsock up 52-41. Montoursville kept rallying, but never truly threatened in the final few minutes of the contest due to clutch foul shooting by the Lancers.

Every time the Warriors got close, Loyalsock simply had an answer.

“That’s the difference. Can you withstand the run, or do you fall to the run? They had a good run in the second quarter. I think it was a close game or a tie game, and they put a little run on us, maybe seven-nothing or something like that,” Montoursville coach Mike Mussina said. “Those things happen in a basketball game, but you have to be able to get back up and still do what you want to do and not really worry about those things. It’s tough to do. I mean, you’re high school kids, and momentum is a big shift sometimes. And when they got momentum, they ran with it.”

Loyalsock 57, Montoursville 50

LOYALSOCK (57)

Saoj Jones 7 0-0 17, Ronnie Emery 0 0-0 0, Isaac Blackwell 2 0-0 5, Jahlil Coates 2 2-6 6, Brecken Gusick 2 0-0 4, Ethan Boyer 0 1-2 1, Brayden Cioffi 8 5-5 24 Totals: 21 8-13 57

MONTOURSVILLE (50)

Cam Cintron 5 1-2 12, Jay Houseknecht 3 0-0 7, Isaac Erlandson 1 0-0 2, Shea Ulmer 5 0-0 11, Elijah Eck 2 0-0 4, Kingston Fisher 6 2-9 14 Totals: 22 3-11 50

Loyalsock 12 15 16 14 -57

Montoursville 13 9 11 18 -50

3-point goals: Loyalsock 7 (Jones 3, Cioffi 3, Blackwell 1), Montoursville 3 (Cintron 1, Houseknecht 1, Ulmer 1).