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Elyria Catholic girls oust Lakeview
By CHARLES GROVE
BARBERTON
An 11-point Lakeview lead early in the second half vanished in the Bulldogs’ 50-44 loss to Elyria Catholic in a Division II regional semifinal.
Riley Schill led all scorers with 19 points while her Panther teammate Samantha Filiaggi scored 16 in the comeback win. Annie Pavlansky led the Bulldogs with 14 points and Addie Becker finished with a double-double of 11 points and 11 rebounds in her final high school game.
Things looked like they were going to get ugly early as the Bulldogs (22-3) had another sluggish postseason start and didn’t score for the first five minutes of the game. Elyria Catholic at one point led 12-3 before Lakeview’s Cammie Becker hit a 3-pointer to pull the game to within 12-6 after the first break.
Lakeview head coach Adam Lewis said his team got off to a sluggish start in their district final against Howland due to nerves, and said that had something to do with his team’s performance in the first quarter in this game.
“We’ve never played here before, the acoustics are weird and they couldn’t hear what I was saying,” Lewis said. “It just didn’t allow us to get comfortable.”
Lakeview came out in the second quarter with new life. The Bulldogs hit four 3-pointers and took a 25-17 lead into the half. That lead swelled to 11 early in the second half but Elyria Catholic chipped away in a patient offense to trail 35-29 after the third quarter. But that’s when the dam broke for Lakeview.
Elyria Catholic opened the fourth quarter on a 8-0 run that was stopped by a Pavlansky layup to tie the game at 37, but the Panthers were efficient getting to the foul line in the second half where they went 13 for 18 down the stretch and eventually pulled away.
“It felt like a lot of little things didn’t bounce our way especially towards the end of the third quarter going into the fourth,” Lewis said. “We were never comfortable. We knew this was a team that could make a run and get back into it relatively easily.
“We’ve been in a lot of tight games this year and the girls know what to do in those situations, but it just didn’t happen tonight.”
Elyria Catholic seemed to have little trouble getting past the Lakeview guards to drive to the key, which led to numerous trips to the foul line, where the Panthers (20-3) made 17 of 25 foul shots.
“The biggest thing we wanted to do tonight was defend their outside shooting,” Lewis said. “I thought we did a really good job but unfortunately if you’re playing out you’re going to give up something like the drive.”
Addie Becker ,Lakeview’s lone senior, took the loss especially hard.
“It’s just annoying knowing I’ll never get to put this jersey on again,” Becker said. “I love Lakeview more than anything, I love these girls more than anything and I love my coaches more than anything. Knowing I’ll never be able to be a Lakeview Bulldog again breaks my heart.”
Becker said Lakeview never gave up even when they were chasing the game and were forced to foul during the game’s final minutes.
“I feel like we lost control a little bit and then things didn’t start swinging our way,” Becker said. “We let things get to us too much. But we never felt like this is over, we never felt that this was done.”
In the end, Lewis feels like Elyria Catholic’s hot shooting in the second half was ultimately the difference between the two.
“I think their offense was the difference in this game,” Lewis said. “They started making their shots down the stretch while most of our big shots were in the first half.”