The Whitehall boys basketball team’s first loss of the season can be attributed to stops.

As in, not getting enough of them.

That was especially true late against Stroudsburg when they were outscored in the fourth quarter 18-13, led by the relentless force of Dyony Bueno who imposed his will down low, scoring 18 second-half points to lead the Mounties to a 68-63 conference win over the Zephs.

In fact, Bueno was one of the main reasons Whitehall fell from the ranks of the unbeaten as his fingerprints were all over the Mounties win, finishing with 29 points to lead all scorers. If he wasn’t scoring buckets or grabbing rebounds, he was drawing fouls, helping his team to their second Eastern Pennsylvania Conference win.

Even with Bueno’s career game, Whitehall made it a one possession game after Kayden Walsberger sank a three to cut the Mounties lead with 45 seconds left.

But in the end, it was their inability to keep the Mounties off the boards and out of the paint that led to their first loss of the season.

Head coach Jeff Jones has always stressed that their defense has to remain a constant because their offense will come and go. Friday night’s loss was a prime example of that.

“We didn’t get enough defensive stops,” said Jones. “We didn’t get defensive rebounds. When they get second and third opportunities, it’s going to be tough.

“You can only score so many points. We have to play better defense. It’s something we keep emphasizing.”

Jones knows his young team will get better as the season progresses, especially on the defensive end.

“With the young team we have, there’s going to be growing pains,” said Jones. “Our playbook has been limited. We haven’t put nearly the amount of stuff in that we normally have at this point of the season. We try to keep it simple for these guys. We want them to get good at a couple of things and we are good at a couple of things. There are still some things they’re a little unsure of.”

They began the game with some tough interior play of their own. After the Mounties started the game with three three-point plays, two of them the conventional way, the other a bucket and a foul, Logan McGinley got to work inside, getting fouled en route to the hoop on three of their next six possessions, establishing a presence inside that disappeared later in the game.

McGinley’s early trips to the charity stripe helped the Zephs open an eight-point lead late in the first quarter.

McGinley finished with 15 points to lead the Zephyrs, nine of those coming at the foul line.

“We were able to get the ball in the middle initially pretty well,” said Jones. “He [McGinley] did well in the middle and finished.

“They started to take away the middle a little bit more, and we had some plays where we’re trying to get room there, but we just didn’t execute them as well as we did earlier.”

With the Zephs establishing momentum early, they utilized a balanced attack to take a 35-28 lead into intermission. However, that’s when the Mounties began to chip away, finally taking the lead 37-35 midway through the third quarter. From that point the lead changed hands a few times, with Mikey Esquilin’s breakaway bucket tying the game at 50 to close out the third.

But once the final period began, the Mounties asserted their muscle, especially down low on the glass as they walked out of Zephyr gymnasium with the win.

Esquilin finished the game with 10 points, mixing in one trey to go along with his other three buckets from the floor. Additionally, Jackson Buskirk had 11 points, while Walshberger had 9, all of them from beyond the arc.

Senior Andre Diokmedian said the loss was part of the learning process, making sure that once they have the lead they play smart basketball and stay on an even keel emotionally.

“We just need to keep our heads and not get out of control,” said Diokmedian. “Just play calmly.”

The Zephs hit the hardwood again on Saturday night and dropped a non-conference game to Hazelton, 72-63. Once again McGinley led all Zephs with 17 points, while Zach Gilbert finished with 15.