Staff photo / Preston Byers Lakeview’s Paige Schwartz (5) and Sienna Terry (13) trap Struthers’ Natalie Wolikow during Thursday’s game in Struthers.

STRUTHERS — Lakeview got off to a fast start to Northeast 8 Conference (NE8) play Thursday, smothering Struthers with its press and trap defense in a 60-34 win on the road.

Throughout the NE8 opener for both teams, the Bulldogs forced numerous turnovers from the Wildcats, who, despite scoring a season-high number of points, could not keep up with the faster and more aggressive Lakeview.

“The eight we’re rotating in right now are working really hard,” Bulldogs head coach Jason Lee said. “And what I like is it’s a team effort. As you can see, we’re a defensive team — we really like to put pressure on people — and I think our girls not only buy into it, but they help each other out with it.

“We did it the first game, we did it the second game, and I think that it’s nice for us to enforce what we want to do on teams versus let them attack us.”

Aside from a Vivian Marker three 95 seconds into the game, Lakeview held Struthers scoreless in the Wildcats’ home opener for the first nearly five-and-a-half minutes, during which time the Bulldogs established an 11-3 lead. The teams traded baskets from there until the end of the first quarter, allowing Lakeview to take a 16-8 lead into the second period.

The Bulldogs continued with their pressure-oriented defense, expanding the advantage to 11 before halftime, and to 20 by the end of the third quarter after a flurry of steals and fast-break points. To start the third, Bulldogs guard Kalyssa Werner finished off two successive fast-break baskets within the first 20 seconds following takeaways in the backcourt.

“We game planned and knew exactly what they were going to do, we were ready for what they were going to do, and we just didn’t execute,” Struthers head coach Halle Minchin-Skook said. “They give a lot of pressure, they’re aggressive, they’re quick. We just didn’t handle that well tonight.”

With the win, Lakeview improved to 2-0 on the season and began conference play with a victory.

“I don’t think people realize how tough this conference is,” Lee said. “Last year, it was like any game [could be won or lost], and we lost four conference games by four points or less. It was rough. We had a team that was getting used to my system, and we had a lot of growing mistakes. And we’re not making those mistakes now, and I really think, to me, that shows a lot of growth mentally and physically from the girls and what we’re trying to accomplish.”

Struthers dropped to 1-2 overall with the defeat. The Wildcats lost their season opener to Mineral Ridge last week before grinding out a 24-15 win vs. East on Tuesday.

“I think offensively, we definitely played better [tonight]. We got moving a lot,” Minchin-Skook said. “I know last game, we tried to slow the tempo a little bit and try to just run some things and work on some things. We got sped up tonight, but we were able to exploit little weaknesses in their press as well. We got some fast-break layups and we got some kids scoring that have been injured and haven’t been playing, so that was nice to just get their feet wet.”

The Wildcats visit Austintown Fitch on Monday, while Lakeview, which beat Champion in its first game of the season, returns home to host NE8 foe Hubbard the same day.