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Lakeview seize control to defeat Niles
By BOB ETTINGER
CORTLAND
Controlling, or losing control, of the tempo of a basketball game almost always will decide the outcome.
Lakeview found a way to control the pace of play at exactly the right moments in toppling rival Niles, 64-56, on Friday in All-American Conference White Tier play.
“That’s pretty spot on,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “They like to get it up and down and go. I think if we’d have done a little better in the game management and beating traps. It’s high school basketball, it’s going to happen.”
The Bulldogs (2-1, 1-0) used a 10-0 run to close the first quarter and open the second behind a conventional three-point play from Jeff Remmick and a 3-point field goal and a bucket from Daniel Evans. Then came a layup from Carter Huff to build a 27-13 lead with 6:01 remaining in the first half. Lakeview held that margin at the break leading, 36-22.
“Niles likes to get after you a little bit and they like to mix up defenses,” Fitch said. “We just talked about getting the ball in to the high post and trying to attack the rim.
“I thought we did that early. And, you know, you beat zones and you beat traps from the inside out so we tried to get the ball inside and score which opened up the threes a little bit. Then we tried to keep attacking pressure. We try to attack pressure instead of just beating it.”
All five of the Bulldogs’ triples came in those first 16 minutes and were instrumental in the halftime advantage. Evans and A.J. McClellan each hit a pair of them and T.J. Lynch added one of his own.
SDLqIt was a combination,” Niles coach Ron Price said. “They did a great job with all the threats and a lot of guys were hitting them.
“They penetrated well. It was also a little bit us. We didn’t get out of the gate very quickly with what we wanted to do. We really wanted to do a better job of contesting and stopping the drives. It was a little bit us and a lot them. They did a good job.”
The Red Dragons (1-2, 0-1) seized control of the tempo early in the second half and used an 11-2 run to close the gap in half at 42-33 after falling behind by 18 in the first 1:06 of the third period.
Corbin Foy netted four of those 11 points and Cyler Kane-Johnson had four. Jason Johns Jr. had the other two.
Kane-Johnson netted the final points of the third to send it to the final eight minutes with Lakeview ahead, 44-35. A drive to the rack from Johns Jr. and Kane-Johnson’s 3-pointer cut the deficit to 44-40 with 7:08 to play.
“We wanted to bring the pace up a little bit,” Price said. “We talked about they were getting open looks anyway, so we figured we’d speed the game up. They made some layups, but speeding the game up got us back in the game, no question. We were down in that third quarter. To get it down to four against a good team, we were scrapping and battling.”
Consecutive buckets from Remmick allowed the Bulldogs some breathing room, 48-40, with 5:28 left. Lakeview was 10 of 10 from the charity stripe over the final 3:40 to close out the win.
Kane-Johnson led all scorers with 32 points and Foy added 16 of his own for the Red Dragons.
Drew Munno led the Bulldogs with 18 and Remmick had 15 while Evans and McClellan each added 10.