STEVE GOLDMAN
WILLOUGHBY — At halftime, Saturday night’s game between the Lakeside and South girls was competitive. The Dragons had sliced a 17-point deficit to nine and had the momentum.
But then, things took a turn, and as usual, what kind of turn depends on one’s perspective. It was an extremely bad one from Lakeside’s point of view but very outstanding for the host Rebels, who pulled away to a 71-37 victory.
The win marked the second 34-point win of the season by South over the Dragons.
After going into the locker room ahead 32-23, the Rebels (12-6, 8-3 in the Premier Athletic Conference), went on a 33-3 binge that both began and ended with a 12-0 run. It lasted more than four minutes into the fourth quarter. The Rebels didn’t allow a field goal during that stretch. All 25 of their points scored in the third period came from two girls: post Alexa Tropiano, who poured in 17 of her 23 points, and Caitlin Fitzpatrick (20 points, 3 3-pointers, 4 steals), who tallied the other eight.
“The wheels fell off,” Lakeside coach Rob Livingston said. “It’s a good team out there. They have two very good players with Fitzpatrick and Alexa. But then the other ones complement very well. Even if you do a decent job on them, which I think sometimes we did, they have enough firepower on that team that someone else can hurt you.
“They work very well together and move the ball around. They see a lot of good things.”
“A lot of our offense is run off of (Tropiano),” South coach Erin Ertter said. “I haven’t met a team that has shut her down completely that we have played. She’s a great athlete; she’s probably one of the best in the area, and she works hard every single day. And she deserves every single point that she gets because she works hard for those points.”
South started fast, and used an 11-0 stint to build a 17-4 lead. It pushed as high as 25-8 before the Dragons (4-11, 1-8) countered with a 15-7 surge over the 5 ? minutes before the break.
Summer Kelly, Megan Frye (8 points) and Krista Johnston all nailed 3-pointers for Lakeside during that stretch.
“I was very pleased with (the way we came back),” Lakeside coach Rob Livingston said. “I think we showed a lot of character at that point – a lot of poise. We made a nice little run.”
“I think our girls thought that because we were up by (17), they could take a break and they can make mistakes,” Ertter said. “But I told them at halftime that they can’t be playing like this and beating teams in the (Division I) tournament.
“They picked it up like I thought they would, but sometimes they need that little kick in the butt to get them started again.”
Laura Vidmar had nine rebounds, Kelsey Kobe four thefts, Kristen Vidmar four assists and Katie Shockey four blocked shots for the Rebels.
Taylor Lampela had seven boards for Lakeside.
Foul shooting was one area that helped South greatly — not only in the fact that it shot at a better percentage, but that it got many more trips to the line. The Rebels were 20 of 34 from the stripe as compared to five of 14 for Lakeside.
South had the edge on the glass by a 44-36 count. It also held the Dragons to 30.4 percent shooting (14 of 46) from the floor and forced 29 turnovers to its own 21.
“We’ve worked real hard to improve our man-to-man defense since last year when I got the program,” Ertter said. “And it’s really come a long way.”
“You can’t score (14) points in a half and expect to win; there’s no two ways about that,” Livingston said. “But at the same time, foul shooting killed us and we must have had 10 shots from 10 feet in that we didn’t convert on. I think we did a decent job of running the offense, but you have to finish it off.”
Goldman is a freelance writer from South Euclid.
