Campbell turns back Lakeview at foul line

By Doug Chapin

Four free throws in the final 17 seconds helped Campbell escape with a 59-56 win.

CORTLAND — A game that threatened to put everyone asleep through the first three quarters suddenly perked up in the final period Tuesday night as the Campbell High basketball team held off a late charge by host Lakeview for a 59-56 victory.

Jerah’me Williams and Doriann Jones each made both ends of one-and-one free throw situations in the final 17 seconds.

Williams finished with 19 points and three assists, while Jones tallied 16 points and grabbed six rebounds for Campbell (2-1).

“Lakeview is always extremely well coached, they are always prepared, and this is a hard place to play,” Campbell coach Brian Danilov said. “It’s hard to win here, they do a great job, so we’re fortunate.

“Any time you can beat a good program at their place with their type of kids, it’s going to help you.”

Lakeview (1-3) was led by Joel Davis with 16 points and Robert Franks with 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists. Ethan Metheny added seven points and seven rebounds.

“We’ve lost too many close ones already,” Lakeview coach George Lanterman said. “We lost to Newton Falls in OT. We lost at Poland, we were right there at the end, and we lost this one. We need to find a way to win at the end.

“Tonight we played our best basketball at the end of the game, but it seems like we wasted 26 minutes of time on our floor. Give Brian and his team a lot of credit, but I wish we would have played them harder. I wish we would have challenged them a little bit more early.”

Campbell held a 37-31 lead through a sloppily-played first three quarters. The teams then combined for 47 points in the fourth quarter which came down to a missed Lakeview 3-pointer in the final seconds.

The Devils committed 11 turnovers and suffered nine steals by the Bulldogs.

Lakeview had nine turnovers, but gave up 11 steals to Campbell.

In addition, Lakeview shot just 38 percent (18-for-48) from the field, but took advantage of a 28-17 advantage in free throw attempts to stay in the game.

“We had too many turnovers, but a lot of that is growing pains early,” Danilov said. “We’ve got a lot of guys playing different positions and we’ve got to develop some chemistry.

“We took care of the ball when we had to. Other times we threw it away a lot. We still need to get that chemistry in our rotation, plus we were in foul trouble tonight, so a lot of guys played extended minutes that they might not normally play.”

Neither team led by more than six points through the first 24 minutes before the visitors opened the lead to 42-31 two minutes into period four. Eleven points was the Devils’ largest lead, the last time at 50-39 with 3:58 remaining.

Lakeview chipped away and Campbell did just enough to still hold a 54-48 advantage at the 1:36 mark. It was a 55-54 Campbell lead with 33 seconds left to play after Franks canned two free tosses.

Williams converted both of his one-and-one free throws with 17 seconds left, then Lakeview’s Justin Clark made two foul shots with 11 seconds to play. Jones followed with his two free throws, forcing the Bulldogs to have to make a 3-pointer for a tie.

“We’re still on a little bit of a roller coaster ride from the first game to the second game to the third game,” Danilov said of his team‘s progress. “Hopefully we’ll get to that smooth ride going up. We’re more like the stock market right now.”

Lanterman said he thought his Bulldogs were making progress.

“I thought we were on the right track until tonight,” he said. “We’ve played some good basketball teams so far, but you can’t keep losing to all the good teams. I thought before tonight we were making progress, but we stepped backward a little bit. Can we step forward now? I don’t know, but we’ll find out tomorrow in practice.”