DALLAS TWP. — Nathan Schlichter spotted a positive in the dominant display the Dallas Mountaineers put on against his Lake-Lehman boys basketball team in Tuesday night’s Black and Blue Rivalry Trophy Game.
Schlichter acknowledged how strong Dallas looks early this season, including in the 66-29 rout, and pointed to the Mountaineers’ level of play as something to which the Black Knights should aspire.
“The Dallas team is obviously very good,” Schlichter said. “That’s where we hope to be in two or three years. Those guys have played together since I’ve been coaching at Lehman.
“I feel like we have good, young talent and we want to be playing like that in a couple years. Give credit to Dallas.”
Dallas started four seniors while another sat with injury and four more came in off the bench.
Lake-Lehman started four underclassmen, including a freshman and sophomore and brought two more sophomores in as the only reserves it used.
The Mountaineers used big advantages on the boards in the ability to administer pressure and handle it, if needed, to overwhelm the Black Knights through extended stretches of the game.
“We turned up the pressure in the second half,” Dallas coach Mark Belenski said. “That’s what got it done for us.”
While rotating 16 players throughout that time, Dallas held Lake-Lehman to one field goal for the final 18:20 and just six total points in the second half.
“I was happy with the way the guys played,” said Belenski, whose team had won its opener three days earlier, 65-53, over Boys Latin High School from Philadelphia.
Alex Charlton had a game-high 13 points, along with four assists and two blocked shots.
Brody Strickland stepped in for Joey Parsons, who had 29 points in the opener, but suffered an ankle injury minutes before the end of Monday’s practice.
“We’re hoping it’s a 10-day deal,” Belenski said. “It swelled up pretty good.
“He’ll be back.”
Strickland filled in by going 4-for-4 in the first quarter to score nine of his 11 points while getting the Mountaineers out to a 20-9 lead.
“He really did a nice job,” Belenski said. “We were able to punch it down early to him. He gave us a nice presence inside.”
Nick Kocher scored nine points and blocked two shots.
Jack Farrell came off the bench to hit his first three shots, including one as part of a three-point play, while quickly adding seven points.
Point guard Jay Bittner led the defense and transition with five steals and five assists to go along with his six points.
Bittner, a four-year starter on teams that have improved from 4-19 to 8-15 to 12-12 and now 2-0, met with Lake-Lehman freshman starting point guard Max Paczewski following the game to offer encouragement.
“All our young guys, we’re just going to focus on getting a lot of playing time and experience,” Schichter said. “They’re obviously going to have their rough moments here.”
Paczewski led the way for the Black Knights with nine points in the first half when they were staying within 36-23. He kept his composure while the team was committing 24 turnovers against Dallas pressure.
“Max does a good job of leading the team and being vocal,” Schlichter said. “He can score, too. We’re hoping this is going to be a huge learning experience.
Junior C.J. Cercone, Lake-Lehman’s only player with more than 15 minutes of previous varsity experience, also scored nine points and was the game’s leading rebounder with 11.
“We’ve talked to C.J. a lot,” Schlichter said. “That’s his main focus for us, that he rebounds. He’s getting offensive rebounds for us.
“Defensive rebounds killed us tonight. They were getting way too many second-chance points.”
Luke DelGaudio had six rebounds off the bench for Dallas, which had a 32-31 rebounding lead, including 14-7 on the offensive end.
Dylan Schuster added six points and two steals as the Mountaineers got steals from eight players.
“We’re headed in the right direction,” Belenski said, “but we’ve got tons of work to do.
“Don’t let anybody fool you.”
