By Ron Poniewasz Jr.
New Castle News

A strong second quarter propelled the Neshannock High boys basketball team to victory Saturday night.

The Lancers took advantage of Wilmington's foul trouble to score 21 second-quarter points, erasing a tie en route to a 69-58 nonsection home win.

The Greyhounds' second-leading scorer — Spencer DeMedal — was in foul trouble and sat most of the quarter. DeMedal came in averaging 16 points a game and still netted a team-best 21 points, including nine in the fourth quarter.

Neshannock (11-4) outscored Wilmington 21-12 in the second stanza after the squads battled to a 8-8 deadlock after one canto.

"Defensively, that helps a lot," Neshannock coach John Corey said of DeMedal's absence because of foul trouble. "Spencer is a tremendous player; he's just so athletic.

"He affects the game in so many ways. He's great in transition, scoring and passing. He's a strong kid. Not having him on the floor helped us."

Turnovers played a factor as well. Wilmington (6-8) turned the ball over 28 times, compared to just eight for Neshannock.

"The first time we lost by 22 (72-50) to Neshannock. This was a different game," Greyhounds coach Mike Jeckavitch said. "We were down by six or 10 the whole game. But we couldn't get over that hump.

"Neshannock will captitalize when you turn the ball over. When you lose the turnover battle by 20 and only lose by 11 it just magnifies the turnovers. The second quarter was our worst quarter."

Corey noted the familiarity of the teams regarding the second meeting.

"We had a good scout for them," he said. "We felt comfortable with applying pressure to certain guys and forcing guys to go certain ways."

Ethan Moose paced all scorers with 22 points for Neshannock and Jake Rylott recorded 14. Moose scored eight of his points in the second stanza, adding seven boards and four steals as well. Brandon Scheidemantle supplied 10 markers.

Jason Swope supplied seven markers and six caroms for the victors, while Frank Fraschetti tallied five assists to go with his pair of points.

"Moose was consistent throughout," Corey said. "I thought he played very well."

DeMedal added 11 rebounds, five assists and three blocks for the Greyhounds. Jacob Harvey followed with 15 markers, while Jimmy Powers provided 13 tallies and four assists. Jared Berlin snared five rebounds with three blocks for the visitors, while Bryson Verrelli pulled down six boards.

"I thought Harvey played one of his better games. Hopefully that will continue for us down the stretch," Jeckavitch said.