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Lakeview nips Howland in Route 46 battle

Tribune Chronicle / Eric Murray T.J. Lynch (5) of Lakeview looks for a way around Howland defender Connor Tamarkin Tuesday at Lakeview. The Bulldogs beat the Tigers, 55-53.

CORTLAND — A pair of Chris Muir free throws with 5.4 seconds lifted the Lakeview Bulldogs boys basketball team over the Howland Tigers, 55-53, Tuesday night. Muir’s 12 points helped the Bulldogs earn their first win of the season.

“Their (Howland’s) defense is very good, very physical defense. We just decided to make some plays and we wanted to win the Battle of Route 46,” Muir said. “We’re glad to get this win back. This is a huge win for us because it’s gonna keep going. We got Niles on Friday and we gotta keep rolling, gotta keep this momentum and keep this positivity.”

In the final minute and a half, the Tigers led by three, 53-50. After several back and forth possessions, TJ Lynch drilled a long 3-pointer from straight-on to tie the game with 1:20 remaining.

A traveling call on Howland gave the Bulldogs the ball back, and a tie-up gave the ball right back to Howland, which had the possession arrow. However, a Lakeview steal went out of bounds off of a Tiger player, giving the ball back to the Bulldogs with 13.1 seconds left.

Eventually, Muir drove in for a jump shot and was fouled, before knocking down both free throws. The Tigers had one final chance, and after Connor Tamarkin drove the ball down the court, all he could muster was a long jump shot, which was no good, giving Lakeview its first win of the season.

Tribune Chronicle / Eric Murray Howland’s Branden Fronzaglio (21) prepares to inbound to teammate Jonah Weisman.

First-year Tigers coach Dan Bubon believes that missed opportunities in the second-half doomed his squad.

“I was disappointed about three things: too many balls that were loose that we didn’t just pick up with two hands, that we lost,” he said. “Our foul shooting was bad, we’re (usually) a really, really good foul shooting team, overall. We were really bad tonight. And then, too many times tonight at the basket, we didn’t finish when we had three feet away, five feet away. We didn’t shoot, or didn’t take a good shot. You have to score down there some.”

The Bulldogs (1-2) were coming off an emotional down-to-the-wire loss to Champion Friday night, followed by an ugly 56-44 loss to Maplewood the next night, in which they shot just 13 of 40 from the field and 3 of 17 from 3-point range. That made Tuesday’s game against Howland an absolute must-win.

“It was huge. We talked about circling the wagons a little bit and not letting it spiral out of control,” Lakeview coach Ryan Fitch said.

“We had a tough one on Friday, and then Saturday we had to come back and play a back-to-back and we seemed a little lethargic, seemed to have no energy. We thought tonight was kind of that turning point in the season, where we thought if we could get this one, we got some momentum going and we could play well and compete in the next two or three games. If we didn’t get this one, that’s when that spiral starts and you run into real problems. Good team victory.”

In the first half, Howland came out and played fast, as Michael Massucci drilled three-straight 3-pointers, giving the Tigers a 10-9 lead midway through the quarter. Three-pointers by Lynch and Daniel Evans eventually put the Bulldogs back in the lead to end the first quarter, 17-16.

Howland (0-1) continued to be aggressive in the second quarter, as it consistently drove to the lane and made a number of layups, led by Tamarkin. The Tigers led 26-23 with less than a minute remaining before halftime, but a putback by Muir and then a fadeaway jump shot by Drew Munno off of a miss went in as time expired, giving the Bulldogs the 27-26 halftime lead.

For Howland, the layups weren’t as easy in the second half, and it began turning the ball over more consistently.

“We just talked (about the) first half, their (Howland’s) guys were all going to their strong hand. Connor was going left, Massucci was going right,” Fitch said.

“We tried to tell our guys, ‘You gotta make them at least do something with it with their opposite hand to try to slow them down.’ They’re two very good guards, so you’re not going to eliminate them from scoring, you just gotta try to make it a little bit harder, send them to their weak hand, and contain in the dribble-drive a little bit.”

After tying the game at 42 late in the third quarter, the Tigers came out with a Massucci 3-pointer and layup to go ahead 48-45, with 5:52 left. A pair of free throws by Austin Shortreed closed the gap to within a point, before a Massucci steal and fastbreak layup eventually put the Tigers ahead by four, 51-47. However, in the end, it was not enough for Howland.

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