Staff photo / Neel Madhavan Lakeview's Isaiah Lantz finishes a layup through contact during the first half against Columbiana on Tuesday in Cortland.

CORTLAND — Ordinarily, Columbiana likes to push the pace and get up and down the floor in transition. On Tuesday, Lakeview succeeded in taking the Clippers out of their comfort zone.

The Bulldogs slowed the game down and weathered a hot start by the Clippers, pulling out a 46-40 victory against Columbiana in Cortland to close out 2025.

“They did a great job of taking us out of what we like to do and that’s run the floor,” Columbiana head coach Todd Johnson said. “They were able to slow it down, play their style and play their pace. That really gave us issues.”

Lakeview opened the game in a 2-3 zone, something that head coach Nate Solak said they worked on a lot in practice on Monday.

However, the Clippers had few issues with the zone in the first quarter, knocking down three 3-pointers, including two from Avery Young, as they jumped out to a 13-8 lead by the end of the period.

From there, the Bulldogs settled in. The zone started to do its thing and Lakeview began to move the ball and knock down shots on the other end.

In the second quarter, the Bulldogs took their first lead of the night, 16-15, on a three by Isaiah Lantz with 4:42 left in the first half. As the team’s leading scorer, Lantz proved to be Lakeview’s catalyst, as he scored 11 of his team-high 19 points during the period.

“He’s just a great kid — a hard worker who does everything right and is a phenomenal player,” Lakeview head coach Nate Solak said of Lantz. “You can’t ask for a better kid to coach, you really can’t. He works hard, and he works hard in practice. He makes other players work hard. He’s a leader, and it shows during games. He’s our leader out there, and puts up a lot of points every game.”

By halftime, the Bulldogs had taken a 24-20 lead after climbing out of their early hole. Then, Lakeview opened the second half on a 7-0 run and began to pull away from there.

“We talk about that almost every game in the locker room,” Solak said. “Those first three minutes of the second half, you can come out, extend the lead, or if you’re down, you could fight back, or it could go the other way. We said, ‘Hey, these first three minutes, we want to push this lead, get it to double digits and make them play from behind.”

Lakeview’s Brandon Toot had five of his 10 points during the third quarter, as the Bulldogs held Columbiana to just three points coming out of the half. Trace Goyzueta joined Toot and Lantz in double figures, as he also finished with 10 points.

During the third, the Clippers made one field goal and were 1-for-8 from the floor, while also missing three times at the free-throw line.

“If you can’t put the ball in the bucket, that’s gonna kill you,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter how well you defend. I thought, for the most part, we defended okay. To give up 46 points in a varsity game, you give yourself an opportunity. But again, we just couldn’t get anything to fall. Couldn’t get anything going to the rim. We struggled with that, but that’s a credit to their defense and what they did.”

Columbiana trailed by as many as 15 points during the third quarter and were down 36-23 heading into the fourth.

Cooper Brown came alive late, as he tried to give the Clippers’ offense a spark. He knocked down three 3-pointers and scored 11 of his game-high 22 points during the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough.

Despite Columbiana pulling to within five in the final minutes, Lakeview did just enough at the free-throw line to close things out.

“It started with our defensive intensity,” Solak said. “The main thing was rebounding. We rebounded well today. We gave them one shot and it was over after that. As we keep doing that, we’ll keep holding teams to 30-40 points.”

Lakeview improves to 5-2 on the season, as it looks to continue its recent momentum on Saturday at Newton Falls. Meanwhile, Columbiana falls to 7-2, as it looks to bounce back in its next contest at home against Wellsville on Jan. 6.

“We don’t lose, we learn,” Johnson said. “We’re going to learn from this. We’re going to hopefully grow from this, watch some film and get back at it and get ready for our next opponent.”