Boardman captures another narrow win

January 7, 2017 at 12:07a.m.

BOARDMAN

Both Boardman and East are enjoying a basketball renaissance, but right now, the Spartans are experiencing a smoother ride.

The two sides, both of which sport a senior class that has never seen a winning season, entered Friday night with the top overall records in the All-American Conference Red Tier. Boardman defended its home court with a 60-55 victory.

Boardman hasn’t had a winning season since 2011 and for East, the drought started after 2013.

The Spartans (7-1) have already matched their win total from last season during a three-game winning streak.

“We haven’t had a feeling like this in a while. Our program hasn’t had a winning record in I don’t know how many years, but it’s a lot of fun,” Boardman senior Holden Lipke said. “We have students everywhere. The student section has been great.”

During the streak, Boardman’s victories have all come by no more than five points.

“These games have almost been carbon copies. We’ll have 11- or 12-point leads and then we’ll give them right back and then it’s a 32-minute game all of the sudden,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “The good thing is we’ve been coming out on top of all of them. We’ve been in close games and we’ve been able to make plays down the stretch that have given us wins. We just have to learn to play from ahead a little bit better.”

Despite losing its last three contests, East (6-3) already has exceeded its win total from last year. Panthers coach Dennis Simmons called this year’s squad his most experienced in terms of working with him.

“This is new. Learning how to become a better team gradually is new for these guys,” Simmons said. “Even when we were 6-0, we still haven’t played four consistent quarters. I knew this month would test us. It would show us how much we’ve progressed.”

The works in progress for East are free throws (the Panthers shot 5 of 11), layups in traffic and not missing assignments on defense. Still, the Panthers were a formidable side as they took a 32-26 halftime lead, forcing 13 turnovers in the process.

Boardman took better care of the ball in the second half and held East to just seven points in the third quarter. The Panthers never regained the lead.

“The game plan was to run back in transition to limit them and we didn’t do that in the first half,” Lipke said. “Offensively, [East] is pretty good in transition, but if you get them at half court, they were limited.”

Boardman kept its points spread across multiple players. Lipke, who finished with a team-high 15 points, was the first Spartan to reach double figures in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve been pretty balanced all year. Holden is our leading scorer and he averages around 14 points a game and then we have three or four guys around the 10-point mark,” Birch said. “That’s a good thing because teams can’t completely load up on [Lipke] and we have other guys who put the ball in the basket.”

Mike Melewski and John Ryan put up 11 and 10 points, respectively, for Boardman.

Terrell Weaver led East with 17 points and Calvaughn Bryant scored 16.

East got within three points with six seconds left, but Lipke made two free throws with two seconds left to end the rally. Boardman saw a double-digit lead go by the wayside, but the result stood.

“They aren’t the prettiest, but a win is a win, right?” Lipke said.