Deer Lakes has been playing with a “masked man” the past few weeks.
Senior Nate Moore has worn a clear plastic mask on his face the past six games after undergoing nasal surgery to repair the broken nose he sustained in a Dec. 20 game against Burrell.
“We joked that he should be wearing a Batman mask or something cooler,” Deer Lakes coach Albie Fletcher said.
Moore is no superhero, but his super play is playing a large part in the Lancers’ push for a third consecutive WPIAL title.
A 6-foot-4 forward, Moore has taken a big leap in his second year as a starter. Moore leads Deer Lakes (12-3 overall, 5-1 in Class 4A Section 1) in scoring and rebounding, as he averages 22.5 points and 13.5 rebounds per game. He averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds last season.
“This year I have to score more,” said Moore, who missed the first month of his junior season with a hip injury. “Last year I was more of a true big. This year I’m still a big, but I get out in space more and drive to the hoop a little more.”
Moore played alongside 6-3 Wayne Love on last season’s squad that earned the school a second consecutive WPIAL Class 3A title (the Lancers have since moved up to Class 4A). Moore grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds in the championship. But with Love now playing football at Lock Haven, Moore is by far the tallest player on the team. The next tallest is 6-1.
“I think last year with Nathaniel and Wayne Love, they were both good inside presences,” Fletcher said. “This year he really shoulders the load inside. We’re not very big outside of him. Obviously, he’s been our go-to, and we run a lot more of the offense through him, both to score and to pass. He’s an excellent passer and distributes the ball well.”
At Deer Lakes, it turns out that the more Moores, the better. Nate’s brother, Evan, is a 5-11 sophomore guard who has moved into the Deer Lakes starting lineup this season. The younger Moore is averaging 7 points per game. Nate said the two are starting on the same team for the first time since they played for their father many years ago.
“It’s pretty cool,” Nate Moore said. “Last year he didn’t play at all. To go from not playing to starting is pretty good. There’s a little bit of chemistry because we’ve been playing together for so long.”
The older Moore is an outstanding athlete who picked up his first Division II offers in two sports two days apart last week. He received a basketball offer from Pitt-Johnstown on Jan. 9 and a football offer from Clarion on Jan. 11. Moore plays wide receiver and defensive back in football and also owns seven Division III offers in that sport.
“All the coaches ask me what I’m going to do, and I have no idea,” said Moore, a strong student who has a 3.5 GPA. “I’m still thinking about it. I like both sports.”
As for the nose, Moore said it is doing a lot better. He’ll be able to shed the mask soon, too.
“It’s not that bad,” Moore said with a laugh, “but when I sweat it kind of annoys me.”
A ‘Beatle’ stars for Riverside
You likely won’t find a ton of kids these days who are big fans of the Beatles, but you’ll find even fewer who are actually named after one.
A teen who is both just so happens to lead Riverside in scoring this season.
McCartney Plassmeyer is a 6-2 junior guard and two-year starter who has scored a team-best 16.1 points per game for a Riverside team that is 7-8 overall and 2-4 in Class 3A Section 1.
As you might expect, Plassmeyer, who was born two months premature, was named after legendary Beatles member Paul McCartney.
“I was supposed to be born two months later, and they didn’t have a name for me yet,” Plassmeyer explained. “My dad was in the car listening to the Beatles on the radio. He called my mom up and told her they had to name me McCartney.”
While Plassmeyer said his grandpap is the biggest Beatles fan he knows, he’s also a fan of the band himself, his favorite songs being “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday.”
Plassmeyer played the guitar when he was younger but admits he’s not much of a singer. Those talents were apparently reserved for his older sister, Grace, an aspiring actress/singer who attends Nazareth University in New York.
“She took all of the singing talent,” Plassmeyer said. “She’s not the sporty type, and I didn’t need it.”
You look familiar
Mikey Keyes and a few of his Nazareth Prep basketball teammates helped the Cornell football team reach the WPIAL Class 1A quarterfinals this past season. Nazareth Prep does not have a football team, so students who wish to play that sport do so through a cooperative agreement with Cornell.
Both schools do have basketball teams, however. They met on the court for the first time last Friday, which meant that teammates in one sport went against each other in another.
“It was very fun,” Keyes said. “We knew that was going to happen coming into the season when we got to be in 1A again.”
This game wasn’t much of one, though, with Nazareth Prep rolling to a 70-13 home win in a Class 1A Section 1 matchup. Nazareth Prep, which played in Class 2A the past two seasons, is one of the top teams in Class 1A this season.
Keyes and fellow senior guard Khylil Johnson both started for Nazareth Prep, with Johnson accounting for 13 points. Both were all-conference players on the Cornell football team. Keyes said that most of Cornell’s basketball players also play football, so there were a lot of familiar faces.
As for trash talking, well, Keyes said there wasn’t much of that, mainly because it was such a blowout. Nazareth Prep didn’t give up a point in the second quarter and led, 46-6, at halftime.
“They couldn’t really talk because the game got bad quickly,” Keyes said, “But it was fun playing against my football teammates.”
Carmichael nearing 2K
The WPIAL’s leading scorer is 44 points away from 2,000 for his career. You might think it will take two games for him to do it, but if Avonworth’s Rowan Carmichael matches his performance from Tuesday, he will actually reach the milestone in his very next game.
Carmichael will shoot for 2,000 when Avonworth (11-2) travels to Bishop Canevin (7-7) for a non-section game Friday. If he comes up short there, his next opportunity will come Jan. 24 against Hopewell. A senior guard, Carmichael increased his career total to 1,956 on Tuesday after pouring in 44 points in a big 57-53 win at Beaver. That was three points off of his career high of 47 points he poured in against Union last season.
Carmichael is averaging 35.7 points per game on the season and will become the first Avonworth player to reach 2,000 career points. Carmichael became the school’s all-time leading scorer last season. Mark Evans holds the school single-game scoring record. He scored 54 points in a game in 1985.
Brad is a sports writer at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Email him at beverett@unionprogress.com.