Lakeview pulls away for victory

The Bulldogs used a 22-6 run late to topple Champion.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

CORTLAND — The final boys basketball season of the Trumbull Athletic Conference began Friday night. If Lakeview High’s 57-44 triumph over Champion is any indication, it should be just as competitive as league races of recent years.

A 5-0 Lakeview flurry in the final minute of the third quarter broke a 33-33 tie which had lasted for a little over four minutes.

In the final quarter, senior post player Greg McCumber scored eight of his game-high 16 points as the Bulldogs (3-2, 1-0 TAC) opened the lead to 55-39 with 1:51 to play.

McCumber scored six points in the first quarter as Lakeview opened a 19-11 lead.

“We talked about how we needed to get the ball inside tonight,” Lakeview coach George Lanterman said. “We did it right away, we took the ball right inside, we wanted to establish our posts right away. I thought the guards did a nice job in getting it to him [McCumber] in different ways.

“Greg has gone to all the post camps and he works on his post-up skills every day. Games like this he has to step up and give us that inside scoring threat.”

Champion (6-1, 0-1) gradually came back from its first-quarter deficit, cutting the gap to 28-24 at halftime before tying the game at 33 at the 5:09 mark of period three on three free throws by Joey Cvengros. The senior guard, who led the Golden Flashes with 15 points, was fouled while putting up a 3-pointer.

During the next four minutes plus, the teams combined to miss nine field-goal attempts and commit six turnovers.

“When it was 33-33 we must have taken five or six horrible shots in a row,” Champion coach Dan Bubon said. “I really thought if we got the lead we would have been kind of in control of the game. We got down 10 early and fought back.

“We told the kids if they battled we’d be fine, just keep playing defense. We did that, but the shot selection we had when it was 33-33 was just terrible. And then we didn’t score much after that. We got behind and started to press on offense — bad passes, bad shots.”

Two bench players for Lakeview were responsible for breaking the 33-all tie. Ethan Metheny sank two free throws with 53 seconds remaining in the quarter after getting a feed inside from Joel Davis.

Then Davis made a steal and converted a three-point play at the other end with two seconds left in the quarter.

“I feel like we have a deep bench,” Lanterman said. “Right now, we’ve got two seniors who aren’t playing. Steve Burns hasn’t played all year, he’s got a knee injury. Dan Whaley went out in the Poland game with a high ankle sprain. We’re kind of trying to get by without them. When those two guys come back, I think our bench is 10, 11 deep. And I tell those guys, we’re not just putting you in to rest the starters, we’re putting you in to play.”

Lakeview’s Robert Franks and Jon Kittle supported McCumber with 10 points each. McCumber had nine rebounds and Franks six, while Justin Clark dished out five assists.

Sean Sumner scored 12 points for Champion in support of Cvengros.

Both teams had good things to say about their respective team’s work on the defensive end.

“I think our defense has been outstanding for the most part,” Bubon said. “Lakeview is a good offensive team and the game was in the 30s through three quarters.

“They didn’t start to stretch it out until we had to gamble a little bit. This could have been a game in the 40s. We’ve come a long way in our program to get to that.

“I thought early in the season our offense would struggle some, but I’m very happy with our defense.”

Lanterman said he knew the Bulldogs would have to be sharp on defense Friday night.

“We’ve had 11 days off since we played Howland, and we talked about how the offense might not be as crisp,” Lanterman said. “So we really talked about how we had to defend. I give credit to the Champion kids because they are tough to defend. I scouted them twice and they have kids who can just flat out shoot it. They’ve got a nice ball team, they do, and they will give everybody in this league a run for their money.”