A strong defensive effort helped the Lancers pull off the upset at their own tournament championship game.

Neshannock (2-0) limited the Lakers (1-1), ranked seventh in the Harrisburg Patriot-News PIAA Class AA boys poll, to eight first-half points en route to the win. The Lancers’ defense allowed the offense to build a 22-8 halftime advantage. Mercyhurst Prep stormed back in the third to trim the deficit to 31-25, but the hosts held on for the victory.

“Your goal is to win the tipoff tournament and we’ll see where this takes us,” Neshannock coach John Corey said. “I have believed for many weeks that this is an extremely hard working group of kids. They have really bought in defensively; we still need some work offensively. Defensively, to hold a team of that caliber to eight first-half points is great. Our guys are really, really playing well defensively. We held Shenango to 38 points on Friday. We’re pretty happy with that.”

Ernie Burkes led all scorers with 19 points for the Lancers and was named tournament MVP. Tyler Haswell had nine points and 10 rebounds. Matt McKinney added nine points. Marcus Giangiuli had two points, seven rebounds and three steals. He was named to the all-tournament team.