Seals can't solve Loyalsock defense

Feb. 16—SUNBURY — It's not the way Selinsgrove wanted to head into the Districts 4/6 Class 5A subregional boys basketball tournament.

Back-to-back losses — to Danville in the regular-season finale Monday, then Thursday night to Loyalsock, 53-40, in the Heartland Athletic Conference tournament semifinals — have the Seals reeling a bit heading into next week's playoffs as the top seed.

However, Selinsgrove knows it won't see a better defensive team than the Lancers. Maybe similar, but not better than the Seals saw Thursday in Lockcuff Memorial Gymnasium.

"It's hard to find that perspective right after a loss, but it's definitely true. We're believing that these games are preparing us for the postseason," Selinsgrove coach Justin Keiser said. "We're going to use it as fuel moving forward."

Selinsgrove (15-7) will tentatively host rival Shikellamy (12-10) next week in districts. The other district semifinal would send Central Mountain to Hollidaysburg. The championship game is set for Feb. 24 at Mount Aloysius College, near Altoona. District 6 will release the final schedule Sunday.

The Lancers led by five points (24-19) at halftime of Thursday's game, but they were able to score some easy, third-quarter buckets off turnovers. Meanwhile, the Seals were mired in a 3-of-12 slump in the quarter.

Loyalsock scored the first six points of the third for an 11-point advantage. Gavin Bastian converted back-to-back drives to trim the deficit to seven before a 9-2 Lancers spurt capped by a Jaylen Andrews layup to start the fourth quarter made it 37-25.

Selinsgrove's Ries Naugle caught fire in the fourth after taking just two shots in the third. He had 13 fourth-quarter points, and the Seals pulled within nine. They couldn't come up with enough defensive stops to get back into the game.

Loyalsock (22-1), the top seed for the District 4 Class 3A playoffs, will face Danville, a 54-53 winner over Shamokin in the other HAC semifinal, at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Lockcuff Memorial Gymnasium.

Selinsgrove had two early leads (at 2-0 and 4-3) and the game was close for most of the first half, but the Seals had trouble with the Lancers' defense. Xaivier Jackson hit a 3-pointer for the Seals to draw them within one at 15-14 to start the second quarter, but Selinsgrove went the next five minutes without a point.

The Seals' defense was able to keep pace until an Andrews layup bumped the lead to five at the half.

"You have to give the credit to them. They are a strong, athletic, defensive team," Keiser said. "They can switch a lot of screens. We wanted to take advantage of getting a big on Ries, and getting the ball into the post to Luke (Piecuch) against a guard, but we unfortunately we weren't able to take advantage of it."

Andrews came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points for Loyalsock, while Gage Patterson added 16. Jamaire Harden, who harassed Naugle full-court, added seven points, four steals and three assists off the bench. Harden, who will play football at Lehigh University, will play his final high school basketball game today. He's ineligible for the district playoffs due to his transfer from Williamsport.

Naugle scored a game-high 22 points for the Seals, while Bastian finished with eight.

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HEARTLAND ATHLETIC CONFERENCE

BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

SEMIFINAL

at Lockcuff Memorial Gymnasium, Shikellamy H.S.

LOYALSOCK 53, SELINSGROVE 40

Selinsgrove (15-7) 40

Xaivier Jackson 3 0-0 7; Ries Naugle 8 3-3 22; Jace Diehl 1 0-1 2; Gavin Bastian 4 0-0 8; Griffin Parker 0 1-2 1. Totals 16 4-6 40.

3-point goals: Naugle 3, Jackson.

Did not score: Mason Richter, Noah Walter.

Loyalsock (22-1) 53

Gage Patterson 6 4-5 16; Ethan Nagy 4 1-2 9; Nate Bauman 1 1-2 4; Jaylen Andrews 7 3-4 17; Jamaire Harden 3 1-1 7. Totals 21 10-14 53.

3-point goals: Bauman.

Did not score: Tyler Gee, Isiah Jennings.

Score by quarters

Selinsgrove;10;9;6;15 — 40

Loyalsock;14;10;13;16 — 53