In a rematch Monday, Chautauqua Lake gave away the lead a little earlier.

But this time, the Thunderbirds rallied — and Jacobson was in the middle of it.

The freshman guard scored 8 of his game-high 11 points, including back-to-back 3-pointers, during the final eight minutes as Chautauqua Lake beat Pine Valley 44-42.

“He’s not shying away. We’re just helping him build confidence. … Once he started driving, he started scoring. He’s just gaining confidence right now,” Chautauqua Lake head coach Alex Reyda said of Jacobson. “This is literally his fourth varsity start. … Right now, until we get (senior Lawson Ormsby) back, he has to take on a lot of the load.”

Pine Valley’s Miles Volk puts up a shot in traffic during Monday’s nonleague basketball game at Chautauqua Lake. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

Panthers junior Miles Volk gave his team its first lead of the night, 30-29, with 34 seconds left in the third quarter and it grew to four points on a Jaiden Miller 3-pointer with 7:04 left in the game.

The Thunderbirds then began their rally as Jacobson scored in the lane and senior Ethan Testa followed with back-to-back baskets to tie the game at 35-all with 5:52 left. Jacobson then hit his only two 3-pointers of the night sandwiched around a pair of free throws by Pine Valley’s Jon Sheldon to give Chautauqua Lake a 41-37 lead.

After a Panthers turnover and a pair of missed 3-pointers, Thunderbirds senior Alex Brown made a 3-pointer to push the lead up to seven for the hosts with 3:08 remaining.

“I talked about it in a timeout … when you don’t box out every possession and dive on loose balls every possession, that’s going to be the result,” Pine Valley head coach Bobby Slisz said. ” … I think they learned a hard lesson today about not thinking doing those little things on 75 percent of the possessions is good enough. It has to be every possession like it’s the last possession of the game.”

Volk made a pair of buckets, including a three-point play, down the stretch to make it a two-point game, but Pine Valley had just three team fouls in the half with 10 seconds remaining and had to foul four times to send Chautauqua Lake to the foul line.

Chautauqua Lake's Ethan Testa puts up a shot in the lane during Monday's nonleague game against Pine Valley at Chautauqua Lake. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

“It’s a whole new group. … We were under the idea that we were going to step up and be ready to battle with a tougher schedule,” Slisz said. ” … We knew we’d have to get better in a hurry. We’re taking our bumps and bruises. They will get there if they put in the work.”

The Thunderbirds missed the front end of a one-and-one opportunity, but the Panthers were without a timeout, and a desperation half-court attempt at the buzzer was off the mark.

“We switched to man, and that kind of helped for a while. We don’t have any size right now. … Once they started working that game, we went back into our zone,” Reyda said. “We just tried to take away the high post. They were getting the ball in the high post and then driving to the basket. Once we took that away, then they had to come up with something else. Fortunately, they ran out of time before they came up with another plan.”

After Jacobson’s 11 points, Testa and senior John Szumigala each had 9 for Chautauqua Lake, which has yet to have Ormsby, its returning leading scorer available this season.

Sheldon led Pine Valley with 19 points and Volk had 14, but the remainder of the team had just 9. The Panthers are trying to replace 88% of the offense they lost to graduation last year.

Chautauqua Lake's Kaden Brushaber and Pine Valley's Collin Gregory battle for a rebound during Monday's nonleague game at Chautauqua Lake. P-J photo by Matt Spielman

“I think that we have multiple players on this team that can step up and fill those leadership voids,” Slisz said.

Chautauqua Lake got into foul trouble and sent the Panthers to the free-throw line early in both halves, but Pine Valley was just 9 of 23 (39.1%) from the charity stripe.

“(Sheldon) kept getting the ball in the open court and he got no resistance until he got all the way deep in the paint. At halftime we talked about slowing him down in the middle of the court,” Reyda said. ” … We just tried to slow him down in transition a little bit better.”

The Thunderbirds scored 9 points off eight Panthers turnovers to lead 16-10 after the first quarter and held a 25-19 lead at halftime before Pine Valley scored 9 points off nine Chautauqua Lake turnovers to take the one-point lead into the final eight minutes.

“We’ve been in three out of the four games,” Reyda said. ” … It’s important to build a little bit of morale and to help the kids understand that we’re heading in the right direction. We just have to clean up a lot right now.”

NOTES: Chautauqua Lake shot 19 of 60 (31.7%) from the field, including 4 of 21 (19%) from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 16 times, which resulted in 13 Pine Valley points. … The Panthers shot 15 of 45 (33.3%) from the field, including 3 of 15 (20%) from 3-point range, and turned the ball over 20 times, which resulted in 11 Thunderbirds points. … Chautauqua Lake won the jayvee game 74-11. Arley Culver had 14 points, Nate Henry had 13 and Zach Maguire had 11.

PINE VALLEY (42)

Logan 0 0 0, JaSheldon 0 0 0, Oakes 1 0 2, JoSheldon 7 3 19, Volk 4 6 14, Gregory 2 0 4, Miller 1 0 3. Totals 15 9 42.

CHAUTAUQUA LAKE (44)

4 1 9, Brushaber 0 0 0, Jacobson 4 1 11, Tarr 2 0 4, Brown 1 0 3, Gibbs 1 0 2, Szumigala 4 0 9, Prewitt 2 0 4, Reyda 1 0 2. Totals 19 2 44.

3-point goals–JoSheldon 2, Miller, Jacobson 2, Brown, Szumigala.

Pine Valley 10 9 11 12 — 42

Chautauqua Lake 16 9 4 15 — 44

Jayvees: Chautauqua Lake won 74-11.