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Lakeview survives second-half chaos
STRUTHERS
Following the Lakeview High boys basketball team’s 61-58 victory over Struthers, senior Anthony Franco not only came out with a win — he got a few nicknames along the way.
He was on fire in the first quarter, starting the game with a 3-pointer and tallying eight of his 12 points to give his team a 17-7 lead.
It increased to 31-11 at half time thanks to strong defense from Lakeview, particularly in a stand by Franco which he dove full-out in an attempt to intercept a pass.
“My teammates call me everything,” Franco said. “Ginger, Red Head and now, after that play, Superman.”
They also voted him team captain.
He needed all his superlatives and his fellow Bulldogs to fend off a ferocious second half from the Wildcats. Trailing by 20 at halftime, Struthers coach Joe Savko lit a fire under the defending All-American Conference White Tier champions.
“High school kids can hang their head or rise up,” he said. “We tried to get them to believe that the game’s not over yet and I think they bought into it. That was the best effort we’ve had in a half since I’ve been here.”
The Wildcats out scored Lakeview 20-8 in the third quarter and created six of their 10 steals then, too. Instilling a high-intensity full court press quickly rattled the Bulldogs from their first-half high.
“I knew Joe would make adjustments at halftime; he’s a great coach,” Lakeview coach George Lanterman said. “He just said to create chaos and that’s what they did.”
Chaos was indeed kryptonite.
“We just weren’t playing with emotion like we did in the first half,” Franco said. SDLqNo intensity. I guess we were lackadaisical.”
Clearly, it worked in Struthers’ favor.
“We had to come out and get after them and try to get some momentum by using our defenses,” Savko said. “We trapped where we could and get some easy buckets off it.”
Lakeview was still outscored by the Wildcats in the fourth, but 13 of Louie Novakovich’s 15 points came in the final frame. Four of those points were off second-chance opportunities.
“We don’t have one superstar, we have different guys stepping up at different times,” Franco said. “I kind of did it in the first half, Louie kind of did it in the second half. But, it was a total team effort.”
Tommy Kimborough led the Wildcats with 19 points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the game. Struthers played without star senior point guard Jake Jakubec. He fell ill during pre-game warmups.