LEHMAN TWP. – Eric Berley made sure Dallas got off to a fast start in defense of its Black and Blue Rivalry Trophy Tuesday night at Lake-Lehman.
Berley scored his team’s first eight points and Dallas never trailed on the way to a 62-40 non-league, boys basketball victory.
“Eric’s a scorer,” Dallas coach Mark Belenski said. “He worked on his game. He worked on his defense and I like what he’s doing right now.”
Berley made the game’s first shot, a 3-pointer from the right corner. He added another 3-pointer from the top of the key just 2:15 into the game and made it 8-2 on a layup after Dylan Schuster’s steal and long lead pass.
“It felt great, but I couldn’t have done it without my team,” said Berley, who led the Mountaineers with 17 points. “They got me open looks.
“It’s just a team game.”
Lake-Lehman stayed within 10-8 on a 3-pointer by Max Paczewski with 58 seconds left in the quarter, but Dallas then broke away for good.
Sam Nocito had five points and five other Mountaineers scored as Dallas ran off the next 18 points for a 28-8 lead. The Mountaineers held the Black Knights scoreless for more than eight minutes, until the final minute of the half.
Ethan Adams hit four free throws to end the half and Paczewski scored the first four points of the second half to cut the Dallas lead to 28-16, but Lake-Lehman never got any closer.
Berley led an accurate shooting night by Dallas, which hit half of its 3-point attempts (7-for-14) and more than half its total shots from the floor (21-for-40). The junior guard went 3-for-5 on 3-pointers and made his other three shots.
“This is something special for me,” Berley said. “One of my first varsity starts, having a good night, just having fun.”
Jack Farrell added 12 points for the Mountaineers (2-0).
Paczewski, a sophomore point guard, led Lake-Lehman (0-2) with 22 points. C.J. Cercone scored 11 points and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds.
Nocito had a game-high four assists for Dallas to go along with five points. Schuster led the Mountaineers in rebounds with six. Justin Finarelli made three steals.
The Mountaineers got 26 points from their bench, including seven by freshman Austin Finarelli and six by Logan Evanosky.
Adams came off the Lake-Lehman bench to go 6-for-6 from the line and lead the Black Knights in assists with three.