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Huff makes Lakeview go against Niles
By BOB ETTINGER
Cortland
Lakeview guard A.J. McClellan made a point of stopping by teammate Carter Huff and letting him know what a night Huff had, though Huff’s numbers didn’t jump out of the scorebook.
Huff, however, played the role of facilitator well in helping the Bulldogs to a 68-41 victory over visiting Niles in Northeast 8 Conference play on Friday night.
“What [Huff] does is he knows people can score and he sees the open man,” McClellan said. “He makes great passes.”
Huff finished with two points and six assists.
“A.J. is the main scorer and he brings the ball up,” Huff said. “I see my role as having to get my teammates involved. You see we had mostly wide-open layups.”
Even the six assists might not have been Huff’s biggest contribution for Lakeview (6-1, 3-0). He drew the assignment of defending Niles guard Cyler Kane-Johnson and held the scoring machine to 15 points.
“[Huff] knows his role,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said. “He’s not the type of kid to care whether he scores one point or 80. He had one of the most difficult jobs in guarding Cyler. He did an excellent job. I can’t say enough about he made [Kane-Johnson] take difficult shots.”
McClellan paced an offense that was 26 of 42 (61.9 percent) from the field and 50 percent (6 of 12) from beyond the arc with 20 points.
“We feel confident,” McClellan said. “We feel good as a team.”
Jeff Remmick had 12 points and Brendon Kilpatrick and Daniel Evans each had 11 points for the Bulldogs.
“When you shoot the way we did tonight, that’s what we’re capable of,” Fitch said. “We had a lot of guys making shots. There’s not much you can do to defend that. I saw this happening two summers ago. The guys don’t care who scores. As long as Lakeview wins, those seven or eight guys who play are happy.”
The Bulldogs used a 12-2 run to turn a 13-6 advantage late in the first quarter into a 23-8 lead with 6:29 remaining in the first half. The Red Dragons (4-3, 2-1) struggled to keep pace from there.
“That’s just a good basketball team,” Niles coach Doug Foster said. “There’s a reason they went ot the regional last year. Coach Fitch does a great job. (The Bulldogs) are patient. If you look at time of possession, we had it for 25 seconds and they’d have it for 50. They don’t take bad shots.”
It’s tough to mount a comeback against a team that is working the ball for the right shots.
“They move the ball on offense,” Foster said. “When you run the offense like they do and you have really good shooters, it’s hard to defend. My hat’s off to them.”
Kane-Johnson’s 15 points led Niles while Corbin Foy finished with eight.