Not even a career-high 34 points by Brandon Marinelli could save Neshannock from a dreadful first quarter.

Summit Academy held Neshannock to just a single first-quarter point in its WPIAL Section 2-AA victory. The deficit grew to 31-13 at halftime, and while Marinelli’s sharp shooting made it close, the Lancers couldn’t fully recover.

“We came out and weren’t ready to play,” Lancers coach John Corey said. “The only point we scored in the quarter was 56 seconds into the game, so we went seven minutes, four seconds without scoring another point. A lot of things were very uncharacteristic for us tonight. I was a little bit disappointed in that a lot of guys were missing shots, and it completely took them out of the game.”

Marinelli was the exception. He scored 11 of the Lancers’ 12 points in the second quarter, and 16 of their 18 in the third. He also grabbed seven rebounds. Yet, the next highest scorer, John Sansone, had just eight points. The Lancers (1-1 section, 3-1 overall) cut the lead to four at one point in the fourth quarter, but that’s as close as they would come.

“It was a completely different environment, and it was our first road game,” Corey said. “The atmosphere there is different than what we’re used to seeing. A lot of things we talked about before the game — taking the crowd out of it, taking the atmosphere out of it, playing our game — just didn’t happen.”

Summit Academy (1-1, 2-4) had three players score in double figures, led by Arley Townsend and Derek Banks, who each tallied 11.