LAKEVIEW COMPLETES UPSET IN GIRARD
By Noah Ricks
GIRARD, OH – Both the Lakeview and Girard girls’ teams started off their Northeast 8 campaigns with a loss, but Lakeview used a strong 14-4 third quarter to help propel them to a 48-44 victory over the Indians.
“Girard’s a good team,” said Lakeview coach Kevin Haynie. “They came in with a nice record. I know they are a little banged up. We had a nice lead, though, in the second half and we just got to learn from that. In this league, any win’s a good win and it does not get any easier.”
After Girard controlled the tempo in the first half to hold a 25-23 advantage going into the locker room, the Bulldogs utilized a very good mid-range game with the likes of Maggie Pavlansky and Brooke Schneider. The perfect shooting forms and drives to the basket helped Lakeview build up a 44-34 lead. Girard, however, went on an 8-0 run late in the fourth to bring it within two. Coach Haynie then wanted to remind his girls that they belonged in the moment.
“I told the girls at the timeout, I said, ‘I’m done. You figure it out. You guys, it’s up to you now. You guys have played enough games. Most of you have a ton of varsity experience. It’s time for you to figure this out. I’m done,’ and I did use a timeout, I told them I was not going to use it anymore, so I did tell them I lied, but I was proud of the effort. I wish we could make our foul shots and close out even easier, but, take the win.”
Lakeview was a team coming into their game with Girard having only scored 177 points and averaging 35.4 in their first five games. The late second-half push helped push the Bulldogs to their season-high in points scored in a game with 48. Some nice steals in the end and buckets in transition by Schneider helped make that happen. Coach Haynie was extremely pleased to know that Lakeview went well above their season average in this early-season conference matchup.
“I know we can shoot the ball, and today, we shot it pretty good, so, I’m glad it’s not 33, because I was looking at the scoreboard, I’m like, ‘Oh, we already beat that 33,’ so I’ll take it.”
The Bulldogs will move back to .500 on the year as they improve to 3-3 overall and 1-1 in Northeast 8 play. They will go back to home on Thursday to play defending Northeast 8 champion South Range, a team that only had one conference loss a year ago and also a team that beat Girard 45-36 last Thursday. Coach Haynie is aware of the tough challenge that his team faces on YSN Live.
“Well, let me tell you, they are aggressive on defense, they get after it, they have got some scorers. We have got to look at film, we have got to learn. The girls have got to watch film, they have got to invest, that’s one thing we talked about. We said those who invest the most are the last to surrender, and it kind of worked into our favor here at the end. We didn’t give up, so we got the win.”
The Indians with the close loss will drop to 3-2 on the year as they remain winless in conference play at 0-2. They will play another home conference game on Thursday as they play host to Jefferson. That game can be streamed on YSN Live.
You can watch the full interview with Coach Kevin Haynie and YSN’s Noah Ricks below.
