Lakeview’s teamwork pays off impressively

By Doug Chapin

sports@vindy.com

CORTLAND

Lakeview High girls basketball seniors Abby Dunn, Ali Gagne and Jamie Sentner have experienced the lows and now the highs along with third-year coach Adam Lewis.

The Bulldogs (13-4) continued their outstanding season Monday night with a 59-28 rout of Hubbard.

“The senior class we have now, they were sophomores in my first year and they were varsity starters as sophomores,” Lewis said. “A lot has fallen on their shoulders. They’ve put in a lot of time and a lot of work and they’ve bought into the style of play we want to play here. I give them a lot of credit for where we are today.”

The Lakeview program, which has done its share of winning over the years, experienced a difficult stretch in recent seasons. The Bulldogs have a chance on Thursday to clinch the All-American Conference National Division title in a home game against Girard.

“Winning the league is very important to us,” Lewis said. “We sat down as a team before the season and going 10-0 in our division was what we wanted to do. We’ve set ourselves up for that right now.”

Gagne, who earlier this season passed the 1,000-point mark for her career, led the Lakeview attack Monday night with 20 points. Sophomore Allie Pavlik had 12 points, nine assists and five steals. Sophomore Calli Schmitt grabbed 14 rebounds and junior Lizzy Konitsney added nine boards.

Pavlik’s nine assists were emblematic of the Bulldogs’ teamwork.

“We have Gagne and she’s a 1,000-point scorer and she’s put up some good numbers, but the girls are very unselfish,” Lewis said. “They are very willing to share the ball and the common goal is to win the basketball game. They’ll do whatever it takes to get that done.”

Hubbard (3-14) was led by freshman Caitlin O’Hara with seven points and nine rebounds.

Come tournament time the Bulldogs will venture north to the Division II district at Pymatuning Valley. Lakeview came out of Sunday’s draw with the fifth seed and will play Painesville Harvey in the first round.

“You always think you could do a little better,” Lewis said about the results of the seeding voting. “Geographically where we are it’s difficult to get placed where we think we should, but I’m happy with where we ended up and who we play.”

Like most coaches Lewis always thinks his team can play better.

“We need to work on taking care of the ball, the little things,” he said.