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Howland takes charge to run from Lakeview
By ERIC FORTUNE
HOWLAND
For half of the opening quarter, the Lakeview High School basketball team was working at a pace that gave them an early advantage.
It didn’t last as the Bulldogs committed six turnovers that started a 10-1 Howland run. The Tigers finishes strong for a 68-49 victory.
The Tigers extended their lead to 15 points at halftime by making shooting 13-of-23 shots.
“I was told last week that my favorite kind of team is a run and gun,” Howland coach Jason Lee said. “You like to trap and everything. My team is not that team.
“My team is the one who sees who we are going to play and we do what we need to do to win the game.”
Howland (5-4) also had the benefit of making seven of their game high nine 3-pointers in the opening half to keep the Bulldogs at bay.
“We applied some pressure here and there,” Lee said. “They made some mistakes. I think that is just a little bit of pressure. I think when we got those turnovers we transitioned well and got lay-ups on the other end.”
The Tigers also made numerous trips to the rim during their fast-break opportunities from Lakeview (3-7) turnovers.
“We had guys that were open against their press,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “We just threw the ball away. We have to value each possession. You can’t spot a team like Howland a 15-point lead through our own mistakes.
“The pressure didn’t even really bother us,” Fitch said. “It just really came down to making bad passes.”
The Tigers got away from what worked to start the third quarter by slowing down the ball.
“They played well and I kicked back the reins a little bit,” Lee said. “It’s one of those times where you see your kids grow up and you have to let go of the reins.
“I tried to haul them in a little bit and I think that hurt us. We wanted to run our offense and push the ball, but I had them slow it down a bit.
“We got away from what we wanted to do.”
The Tigers shot just 4-of-13 in the third quarter as the Bulldogs cut the lead down to six before Connor Antinone’s 3 pushed it back to nine at 46-37 going into the final quarter.
“We stopped turning the ball over and started getting a better shot selection,” Fitch said. “We were able to get the ball to the rim more. We started handling their pressure. When we broke the press, we were getting open shots and finally just started making them in that run.”
Chris Muir was big for the Bulldogs during this stretch scoring nine points.
Drew Munno’s opening bucket of the fourth quarter got it back within seven. But besides his eight points in the final quarter, Lakeview couldn’t generate much in the way of offense as the Tigers continued to push the lead back out to double digits down the stretch.
Munno led the Bulldogs with 20 points.
“We don’t play a lot of guys so we expended a lot of energy trying to make the run to get back into it,” Fitch said. “I could see our guys were tired out there. We got it to six, but I just think we ran out of steam.”
On the other end, Luciano Romeo was big for the Tigers scoring 12 of his game high 21 points in the final quarter.
“We’re 3-0 over the Christmas break,” Lee said. “In most of those games, teams have pushed at us and we’ve been able to withstand it. I think that is the sign that we are making the turn. The kids are getting more confident.”