Nate Bauman spent the offseason often waking up before the sun rose. Various gyms have become his second home, and the Loyalsock guard has put in countless hours of work in preparation for this senior season.
It all came together in spectacular fashion against St. John Neumann on Saturday. In fact, Bauman played strong all night, but a 55-second outburst midway through the third quarter broke things off and paved the way for the first win in men’s basketball history in Loyalsock’s new gym.
Bauman scored nine straight Lancer points during that time, hit a 3-pointer, hit two runners and added an assist. Suddenly the 12-point lead widened to his 21 points, and the Lancers continued to build, defeating their neighborhood rival 77-39.
Bauman scored a game-high 21 points and contributed Loyalsock’s final 13 points in the third quarter as the Lancers opened coach Ron Insinger’s 50th season in impressive fashion.
“Nate has been paying his dues since March of last year until now. There’s probably no one who has spent more time in the gym than he has.” Insinger said. He comes to the Y at 6am and is here every night after school, so everything he gets this year is well earned. ”
“I hit a lot of shots, practiced and lifted. That’s helped me get to where I am now.” Bauman said. “It’s important to work hard and play hard.”
Bauman is one of four starters returning from last year’s team, which advanced to the second round of the Class AAA state tournament. Joining them will be Williamsport transfer Jameel Harden, who had a triple-double in his debut. All five players scored in double figures, moved the ball well and heated up their substitutions.
Bauman’s turn came in the third quarter. Loyalsock built a 30-17 lead at halftime, but Neumann stayed within range until the midway point of the third quarter. Bauman then hit a 3-pointer, scored in the paint, found Gage Patterson for a layup and hit a floater. Loyalsock quickly took a 46-24 lead.
Bauman helped Loyalsock score with 13 points left in the third quarter, and the Lancers led by 26 points entering the final quarter, forcing the mercy rule on Bauman’s reverse layup with five minutes left.
“I had a mismatch and they knew it, so they just kept feeding me the ball and I just kept scoring.” Bauman said. “If we keep moving the ball, keep playing hard and keep passing the ball, good things will happen.”
Each starter performed well and continued to compete all night, with backups like Tyler Gee, Isaiah Jennings, Josh Bomboy and Will Burdett also playing well. The Lancers had 22 assists on 31 field goals, and Harden had a double-double with 14 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists.
Patterson scored 10 of his 15 points in the second half, dished out a game-high six assists and had four steals. Jalen Andrews and Ethan Nagy each scored 10 points and Loyalsock never trailed. The Lancers complemented an efficient offense with a focused defense that forced him into 16 turnovers during his first three quarters.
“We’ve been preaching all preseason about being unselfish. Tonight, they did that almost every time we had the ball.” Insinger said. “It was a good win for us, a good crowd and a great atmosphere. We’ve had a lot of close games with Neumann over the last few years, so we had no idea what was going to happen.”
Neumann expects him to improve significantly as the season progresses. Obviously, Neumann was hoping for a better result on Saturday, but at the same time he had the big picture in mind. The Knights lost their opening game last year and were 6-4 at one point, but won 16 straight games and once again advanced to the district finals.
The Knights have moved up their schedule this season, with another tough game this week against defending District 4 Class AA champion Holy Cross. It’s important now to learn and improve and that’s the goal going forward.
“There’s no better way to learn. That’s what we told them.” Neumann coach Louis Roskowski said:
That’s what these games are about. The important thing for us is to forget about this problem and learn from it. It’s like playing against big teams in college to prepare for conference play. We did it on purpose. I’d rather play against good teams so we can learn what we need to work on. ”
Newman had a big comeback to beat the Lancers a year ago, but couldn’t get the lead below 11 points past halftime until Bauman found the momentum to break the game. There was a flash of what kind of team this team could become. The goal now is to turn that spark into consistent performance.
“They worked hard. They just didn’t execute.” Roskowski said. “Loyalsock played well and outplayed us, but I would rather get a win now than later in the season.
Newman was led by Dighton Thompson with 10 points and Tyrick Moy with 11 rebounds. Messiah Baldwin had nine points with four steals, and Joe Savage had nine points and six rebounds.
Newman (39)
Joe Savage 4 0-0 9, Messiah Baldwin 4 0-0 9, Tyrik Moy 1 1-2 3, Dighton Thompson 4 2-4 10, Rajon Dizard 2 2-2 6, Andrew Walter 1 0 -0 2, Aiden Smith 0 0-0 0. Total 17 5-8 39.
Royal socks (77)
Jalen Andrews 3 3-5 10, Jameel Harden 6 2-4 14, Gage Patterson 6 1-1 15, Nate Bauman 9 2-2 21, Ethan Nagy 5 0-0 10, Tyler Gee 2 1-2 5, Isaiah Jennings 0 0-0 0, Josh Bomboy 1 0-0 2, Will Burdett 0 0-0 0. Total 31 9-14 77.
Neumann 8 9 13 9–39
Loyalsock 19 11 26 21–77
3-point shooting: Neumann 2 (Savage, Baldwin). Loyalsock 4 (Patterson 2, Andrews, Bauman).
Record: Loyalsock 1-0. Neumann 0-1.