CHARDON – Friday night gave onlookers a glimpse of what the Lakeside boys look like when they are playing their game, and also when they are not.
Fortunately for the Dragons, there was enough of the former to come out of Chardon with a 52-33 win.
Emilio Parks led Lakeside with 24 points, including three dunks, and 12 rebounds. But the win wasn’t as easy as the score might indicate. After a 10-0 run helped the Dragons (10-2, 7-2 in the Premier Athletic Conference) to an 18-7 lead in the first quarter, Lakeside scored just four points in the last 10:52 of the half. Using a 9-point streak, the Hilltoppers tied it twice, with the score 22-22 at halftime.
Lakeside coach Rob Pisano explained that whereas his team is used to pressuring and converting steals into layups, it wasn’t able to do that on Friday. After the break, the Dragons played a zone, with much better results.
“Our second quarter was terrible,” he said. “We got a little cocky, I think (after we built the early lead).
“We started to get away from our game plan. We were shooting the ball off of one pass; we were trying to drive to the hoop off of one pass. We’re not a one-on-one, one-pass team.
“We were playing at their pace in the first quarter, and we didn’t want to do that,” Chardon coach Matt Moran said. “They want to press, get the game going.
“In the second quarter, we pulled out and we wanted to be patient with the offense. We executed just the way we wanted to.”
Chardon (2-10, 2-8) took two brief advantages, the second one coming at 26-25. However, the Dragons then took over. They had the upper hand by a 27-7 count over the final 13 minutes of play, with Parks terrorizing the Hilltoppers on the inside for 18 of those points, 12 in the fourth frame.
Parks had temporarily gotten away from his inside game before sitting out the last four minutes of the first half with two fouls.
“I give my team a heck of a lot of credit in the second half,” Pisano, whose team took its second decision from Chardon, said. “They got back to their offensive fundamentals. They played that zone the way we had to.”
“They made better adjustments at halftime than us,” Moran said.
Chardon was hurt by the fact Ryan Weed, its outside threat, didn’t play because of food poisoning. The Hilltoppers didn’t hit a 3-pointer all night, but not for lack of trying.
“My assistants told me, ‘Hey, they aren’t shooting the ball (well),’” Pisano said.”’ Let’s just take away their two big guys (Jake Hollinger and Brett Reiter), because they hurt us in the first half.’”
“(Weed’s absence) does hurt,” Moran said. “I have to give Rob and his staff credit. Once they noticed that he wasn’t in there, he packed it in on us, and they did a great, great job doing that to us.”
Cody Blizzard added eight points and 11 boards for Lakeside. The Dragons held the Hilltoppers to four-of-20 shooting and just 11 points in the second half. They turned the ball over only eight times to Chardon’s 12.
Emonte Parks had five assists, four coming in the fourth period and three to his brother Emilio. Lakeside outrebounded Chardon 20-8 in the second half, and overall, between Brendan Hester and Emilio Parks, hit all 10 of its free throws.
Hollinger led Chardon with 12 points with 10 coming in the first half, and added three blocked shots. .
“I want to credit Chardon,” Pisano said. “They played a heck of a game. They’ve got good ballhandlers.
“You come to this place, anybody will tell you — it’s tough to play here. I don’t care what their record is. Throw their record out the window.”
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
Sports
Dragons: Half nots... halfs
Lakeside puts together enough solid play to knock off Chardon
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Lakers make it four in a row
Amid a sea of pink and a blaze of red all over the court defensively, the Pymatuning Valley Lakers accomplished something many thought they couldn’t at the beginning of the season: Win the Northeastern Athletic Conference championship.
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Scholastic Schedule:
FRIDAY, FEB. 3
Boys Basketball
n Jefferson at Lakeview
n US at Geneva
n Lakeside at Riverside
n PV at Badger
n Mathews at Grand Valley
n Madison at North
n Andrews at Edgewood
n Perry at Chagrin Falls
n Lake Ridge Academy at Grand River Academy -
An appreciation for the past
In 1958, a mere 54 years ago, the Grand Valley High School and Ashtabula County boys basketball career scoring record belonged to Jim Dodd. The ACBF hall of famer scored 1,377 points in his career as a leading post player for the Mustangs.
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ALL-TIME ASHTABULA COUNTY BOYS BASKETBALL SCORING LEADERS:
- RK. PLAYER SCHOOL YEARS POINTS
- 1. A.J. HENSON GRAND VALLEY ’09-'12 1,531
- 2. Matt Zappitelli Conneaut ’85-’88 1,454
- 3. Steve Savel Pymatuning Valley ’05-’08 1,440
- 4. Jim Dodd Grand Valley ’55-’58 1,377
- 5. Adam Schumann Edgewood ’99-’02 1,341
- 6. Frank Zeman Deming ’52-’54 1,338
- 7. Sean Freeman Pymatuning Valley ’87-’90 1,301
- 8. Corey Shontz Pymatuning Valley ’05-’08 1,292
- 9. Fred Scruggs Harbor ’86-’89 1,248
- 10. Randy Linsted Pymatuning Valley ’73-’76 1,223
- 11. Emilio Parks Lakeside ’08-’10 1,221
- 12. Jemal Harris Harbor ’90-’93 1,214
- 13. Chuck Naso Jefferson ’54-’56 1,210
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Geneva doesn’t miss a beat
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Abbie answers call
When the game is on the line — no pun intended — it’s nice to have the ball in the hands of the area’s leading free-throw shooter.
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Maplewood too much for GV
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Scholastic Statistics:
GIRLS BASKETBALL
PREMIER
Geneva 50, Lakeside 32
at Lakeside Gymnasium -
Area High School Boys Basketball Statistical Leaders:
INDIVIDUAL
POINTS PER GAME
1. Harry Story Lakeside 26.1
2. Cody Blizzard Lakeside 22.4
3. A.J. Henson Grand Valley 19.7
4. Tim Cross PV 17.7
5. Stephon Ortiz Madison 17.2
5. Quintin Ratliff PV 17.2
7. Mitchell Lake Grand Valley 16.3 -
Dibble can’t save Falcons
Gia Dibble scored a game-high 17 points, including a 3-pointer, but the Jefferson seventh-grade girls came up just short against visiting LaBrae on Wednesday, 25-21.
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Lakers make it four in a row
