| Lake Flyers looses the ball while being defended by Gibsoburgs Heather Heiminger (24). (Photo: Andrew Weber/Sentinel-Tribune) |
Once again, Lake’s girls basketball team dominated its opposition Thursday night.
Although the Flyers started off sluggish, they were able to regroup and come away with a 55-18 victory
over fellow Suburban Lakes League member Gibsonburg.
“I think this was the best we’ve ran the floor all year, and we got a lot of easy baskets from running
the floor,” Lake head coach Denny Meyer said. “The problem is we had given them four days off … so
we’ve only have a few practices since then, and I really think we got tired. I think we’re in better
shape than that normally, but we were running so much on the fast break, getting easy baskets, and then
we got kind of slow on defense because of that.”
Lake’s defense played well all night, causing 24 Gibsonburg turnovers, and holding the Golden Bears to
just 16 percent (7-45) shooting.
With the loss, Gibsonburg falls to 3-8 overall and 1-3 in the SLL.
The Flyers (10-0, 4-0) started by pressuring the ball, then switched on-and-off to a zone defense
throughout the game, confusing Golden Bear players, which led to many of the turnovers. PHOTO GALLERY
“I don’t think we did anything different (defensively),” Meyer said. “Our press got things going, and I
thought Kaysie (Brittenham) altered a lot of shots by jumping is some passing lanes.”
Brittenham led Lake offensively and defensively throughout the game, resulting in a triple-double for the
5-foot 9 senior.
She totaled a game-high in three categories: points (16), rebounds, (12), and steals (10).
Most of Brittenham’s points came via defense and her speed, allowing for fast break opportunities.
“I think my teammates doing what they were supposed to do helped me get in the passing lane and read the
passes more easily,” said Brittenham. “Offensively a lot of my defense helped out. We pressured them
(Gibsonburg) a lot and I don’t think they were ready for that. I think we definitely frustrated them and
forced them into some passes that weren’t open.”
A big factor in the game was the Flyers were able to go on three separate scoring runs of at least 12-0.
The first run of 16-0, led by Alyssa Shaffer, started in the middle of the opening period and ended with
6:24 remaining in the half.
Shaffer scored six of her eight total points for the Lake during the stretch. She also added eight
rebounds for the Flyers.
“I think the first run was big, because we did start so slow,” said Meyer. “A lot of the runs is just
getting confidence. If we score a couple baskets, then everybody feels a little more confident. Alyssa
Shaffer came out looking to score tonight, early especially, and she hit some big shots when we were
really struggling.”
