Freedom is officially the king of summer basketball

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Freedom finished off an impressive summer basketball season on Friday night with a 44-39 win over Whitehall in the championship game of the Stellar Allentown Varsity Summer Basketball League at Cedar Beach.

Joe Lococo scored 16 points and Jarrod Dilts added eight for the Patriots, who also won the SportsFest tournament championship on July 17 and reached the semis of the Stellar tournament a week earlier before losing to Emmaus.

Freedom was a combined 15-2 in the Stellar/Allentown league regular season and playoff tournament.

The Patriots are coming off an 8-14 season overall, 5-9 in the Lehigh Valley Conference and are clearly one of several LVC teams who figure to be much better than they were in 2010-11.

"We've played well in the summer, but we've never won a championship before and that's why this team is different," said Freedom coach Joe Stellato. "This team is different because they can play in big games and win big games. In other years, we made it to the final four, but we couldn't win the big one. This team is a lot different."

Stellato said the difference is mental as well as physical.

"There's no question we're more talented than we've been," Stellato said. "But they have a sense of confidence about themselves. They know what they are capable of doing. They have bought into our system and what we wanted to do. Earlier in the summer, we weren't playing defense or playing the way we were capable. But all of a sudden, we got into the gym and started working on defense and it made a big difference."

Despite the defeat Whitehall, which handed Freedom one of its two league losses, also showed vast signs of improvement this summer, finishing 13-4 in league play.

The Zephs were 10-12 overall, 6-8 last season, but look like a team that could challenge for the LVC North title next season along with Parkland.

Nick Melosky and Scott Frey, two expected starters, were both away and didn't play in the finals.

"The last three games we started just one guy who started last year," Zephyrs coach Jeff Jones said. "Obviously, I'm pretty happy with what we did this summer. We worked out really, really hard for a 12-week segment in the weight room and with a jumping program. There's a couple of guys who made huge strides. Physically, we're much better. We're much stronger inside team now."

Jones said rising senior Chris Moran has been "unbelievable this summer ... he's going to surprise people next year."

Moran led all scorers with 18 points, but was limited to just one field goal in the first half when Freedom moved out to a 23-15 lead.


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