PAINESVILLE TOWNSHIP — The Lakeside girls are trying to become more balanced on offense. Saturday afternoon’s 49-44 victory at Riverside could be a big step in that direction.

Posts Morgan Farr and Sallie Christian stepped up with big games against the Beavers, with Farr putting in 18 points and Christian 16 including eight-of-eight from the free-throw line. Neither girl restricted her contribution just to offense, as Christian pulled down 13 rebounds and had seven of her team’s 16 steals, while Farr added seven boards.

“We’ve been trying to stress that we have to have both an inside and an outside game for us to be successful,” Lakeside coach Rob Livingston said. “People know that we have a couple girls who are capable of shooting a 3-pointer. We broke down on our (practice day) to work with the posts inside. We’ve been trying to emphasize to Morgan that she has to be more of a scoring threat inside.”

The Dragons (2-5, 1-4 in the Premier Athletic Conference) had to persevere to win after leading by as much as 10 at 22-12 late in the first half. They held Riverside (0-9, 0-6) to two field goals until the final 1:30 prior to intermission.

However, the Beavers, who had managed just 14 points in a loss at Madison on Wednesday, started to heat up, with Megan Rossman igniting the fire. Rossman, who put in a career-high 17 points, scored the final five points before the break and then hit a pair of treys that brought Riverside within one point. Then freshman Amber Land provided its only lead of the contest with a basket to make it 27-26 less than three minutes into the second half.

“Megan got hot and she made good decisions with the ball,” Riverside coach Drew Hartmann said. “She took a few threes and she also took the ball to the basket strong and finished.”

But a Farr basket regained the lead for the Dragons, and four foul shots and a follow by Christian pushed it to 34-29 early in the fourth period. Christian’s steal and layup made it 36-31 moments later.

“Sallie just plays hard 32 minutes a game,” Livingston, who noted she stands only about 5-foot-7, said. “She has the heart of a giant; there’s no two ways about it. She’s a leader on and off the floor. It was nice for us to see her have a game like this. She deserves it.

“She does a lot of dirty work that goes unnoticed, I think, by statistics at times.”

The Beavers were able to cut the margin to one and two points, but failed on four chances to tie or take the lead, including a missed one-and-one when down 36-35. Eventually, baskets by Farr and Dianna Moore (7 caroms) and a converted one-and-one by Christian pushed it to 46-37 with 1:30 left.

“This whole year our trouble is we’ve (let) the teams get runs on us, and we haven’t done the things we need to do to stop that run,” Livingston said. “I think we did it today; I think we tightened up on the defensive end. We were aggressive on the boards. We knew where their scorers were.”

“They came up with a lot of loose balls and they converted on some second-shot opportunities,” Hartmann said when asked about the fourth quarter. “And they made their free throws. They had a nice second half.”

The Dragons outrebounded Riverside 54-34, with Megan Frye contributing eight. They went 18-of-30 from the foul line, including 11-of-13 in the second half before two misses in the waning seconds after the game had been decided.

“Free throws have been our Achilles’ heel somewhat this year too,” Livingston said. “I believe at one point in the year we were shooting (about) 40 percent.”

Riverside hit 12-of-21 shots in the second half, and went 13-of-25 from the line in the contest. Lauren Bell (10 points, 7 rebounds) hit all eight of her free-throw attempts while converting three one-and-ones.

“We executed well all (game),” Hartmann, who nevertheless regretted some missed easy shots in the first half, said. “We got good looks. In the first half we didn’t convert. In the second half we started to shoot quite a bit better, finishing the basket.

“It was good. We were talking about it in practice. Unfortunately with the snow day (on Friday), we only had one day of practice. But they had a real good practice, and the girls executed well (today).”

Christina Minjares blocked three shots despite first-half foul trouble, and Kelly Kohr added four assists for the Beavers, while freshman teammate Kortlyn Carr had seven boards despite foul problems.

“Our girls wanted this game today,” Livingston said. “We talked on Thursday and Friday about (needing) to come in and be ready to play.”



Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.