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Spartans ice Bulldogs
Anderson’s late free throws seal Boardman’s win at Lakeview
By BOB ETTINGER
CORTLAND
Derrick Anderson’s two free throws with 20 seconds remaining on Tuesday helped the Boardman High School basketball team seal a 58-53 win over Lakeview.
“Credit Lakeview. Every time we made a run, they’d come back at us,” Boardman coach Pat Birch said. “They’re one of my favorite teams to watch on film with the way they make cuts and run their offense.
“Every time we made a mistake, they made us pay.”
Those words were especially true in regards to the final minute. Boardman (3-2) held a 55-47 lead after Che Trevena’s two free throws in the double bonus with 42.4 seconds remaining.
The Bulldogs’ A.J. McLellan connected on a 3-pointer and Daniels Evans hit another following a steal by Clay Lazzari to get Lakeview (3-1) within two, 55-53, with 22.8 seconds to play.
Anderson took the inbounds pass for the Spartans and was promptly fouled. He made both ends of the double bonus for a 57-53 lead.
“We work on it in practice, when we’re tired and the other team is getting on us,” Anderson said. “We work on free throws a lot so we don’t feel the pressure.
“I just shot them. I just don’t pay attention [to the crowd],” Anderson said.
Cam Kreps closed out the win with a free throw 10 seconds later.
Anderson paced the Spartans with 17 points and Trevena had 10.
McClellan netted 16 points, Jeff Remmick 15 and Evans 11 for the Bulldogs.
“We knew it would be a full 32-minute challenge,” Birch said. “I’m proud of the guys for handling the adversity. [Lakeview] could’ve stolen it at the end. We made the free throws when we had to.”
Birch’s first wholesale substitution midway through the first quarter sent the Spartans on a 15-0 run that spanned four minutes to give the Spartans a 17-7 advantage 15 seconds into the second quarter.
“Our message is to have everyone at full throttle,” Birch said. “We’ve got waves of players and we want to use them to get the momentum.”
Lakeview’s answer was a 12-2 spurt that was bookended by triples from Evans and Remmick to knot it up, 19-19.
“[Defense] is really what we want our calling card to be,” Birch said. “We tell the guys to empty the tank, give everything they have. Then we’ll bring in the next wave, who we want to empty the tank, too.”
The Spartans used a 9-3 stretch late in the second to take a 28-24 lead at the intermission, then used a 9-2 spurt to open the second half and led, 37-26, midway through the third.
“Boardman is really deep,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “They bring guys in and they’re laterally quick.
“Pat did a good job putting pressure on us. They wore us down a bit. It wears on, wears on you and wears on you. They keep bringing guys in and they keep the pressure on you.”
Lakeview answered with an 11-0 run, capped by Evans’ third 3-pointer, to close the gap to just three, 44-41, with 7:15 to play.
“This is one group, for sure, I can count on to never fold,” Fitch said. “We were down 10 and I didn’t worry much. I knew they’d battle back. I know I can count on the guys to never quit.”
A jumper from Anderson and the two free throws from Trevena made it 55-47 with 42.4 to go.