The last couple seasons have been very tough on Lakeside Dragon basketball teams, especially the boys. Chances to win as they've learned to persevere have been minimal at best.
The last couple seasons have been very tough on Lakeside Dragon basketball teams, especially the boys. Chances to win as they’ve learned to persevere have been minimal at best.
At the Dragons’ temporary home Feb. 19 on the court of St. John High School, Lakeside was getting schooled in solid team basketball for three quarters and 15 seconds, as the West Geauga Wolverines whacked them hard.
But call it lesson learned, for both teams, as Lakeside got hot over a 6-minute-33-second portion of the fourth period and held the Wolverines scoreless to earn a 62-56 non-conference victory.
The early going saw the game played in close quarters, but gradually, the Wolverines established control in both shooting and rebounding, and played tight defense. With Cooper Paskowski hitting for 12 first-half points, and Mason Pesho owning the paint area to the tune of 13 first-half points, the Wolverines took a 36-27 edge into the locker room at the intermission.
Sadly, as has happened several other times this season for Wolverines Head Coach Micah Young and his team, after a pair of Vince Vecchio free throws helped West G gain a 10-point lead with 15 ticks gone in the fourth period, those would be the team’s only points of the fourth period until Pesho hit the second of two free throws with just 54.5 seconds left to play in the game.
Meanwhile, Lakeside — with only a single senior in uniform, but a plethora of sophomores and freshmen eager to win after consecutive three-win seasons — got confident behind sophomore Drequan Bradley and junior Jarez Osborne to score 15 points in a row for a 58-53 lead.
The Wolverines just couldn’t climb the hill against the fire-breathing youngsters in green.
Pesho finished with only 16 points as Lakeside shut down his work in the paint, and Paskowski added only two more points to his total.
It’s happened like that before for the Wolverines (8-14), who haven’t figured out how to avoid collapses in tough times this season.
“It has to be a mental thing for us,” Paskowski said as he exited the locker room after the game. “We have a very good team here this year, but it seems like we just have short periods of time when we lose focus, and it has hurt us every time. We need to control ourselves better in tight spots, to stay in sync within our own skill sets to control games better.”
Coach Young agreed.
“This has been the story of our season to this point,” he said. His team now prepares for tournament play at Orrville. “We’ve just had so many games when we played very well, then something would alter how we were seeing things, and we’d fall apart for short periods, and it hurt us every time.
“Games are just not going our way completely, and it’s those times that have cost us almost every time we play. These kids are working so hard, so the effort is not hurting us — it’s just mistakes at the wrong time.”
Although thrilled for his team’s win, Lakeside Head Coach Bill Osborne expressed great respect for the Wolverines after the game.
“Let me tell you, that is one great team in West Geauga uniforms,” Coach Osborne said. “We are also doing much better this year, and playing teams like WG is what is making our kids better, because they’re learning to work harder.”
Jarez Osborne and Drequan Bradley were a two-man wrecking crew for Lakeside (10-12) with 25 and 23 points, respectively, but other kids stepping up to help have been key to building the Dragons this year. Louis Flores added 12 points and six rebounds, many of them in that fourth period rally.
The Wolverines never let up, but the shots just didn’t drop, especially in the fourth period, as Lakeside outscored West Geauga 19-5.
