On Feb. 12, 2018, the Bulldogs defeated Southeast High School, 54-45, at Lakeview High School, and that was the Bulldogs’ last win until Thursday evening.

Lakeview finally broke its winless skid with a 55-38 victory on the road against the Hubbard Eagles in a Northeast-8 Conference matchup.

After starting the season 0-6, Bulldogs coach Kevin Haynie wanted his team to go back to basics.

“I think the girls executed the game plan,” he said. “We worked (Wednesday) on just fundamentals of shooting, going back to fundamentals.

Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Hubbard’s Jackie Adler follows through on a 3-pointer Thursday.

“And really focusing on us, not really playing against another team, but just focusing on what we can do to get better. We opened up with some tough competition, and it doesn’t get easier because it’s a tough schedule, but the girls responded today and they played great. I’m so proud of them.”

Hubbard finds itself in the midst of a seven-game losing streak to begin its season. Eagles coach Scott Slovesko tries to stay positive and look forward with his team.

“We’re battling, we’re young, it’s tough,” he said. “Like I told them, there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. We’re going to get there.

“We didn’t get in this hole overnight, and we’re not going to get out of it overnight, but we’re going to keep battling, we’re going to keep after it and we’re going to keep our heads up.”

Jackie Adler and Tosheanna Stone tied with a team-high 9 points for Hubbard.

Slovesko said that the lessons learned during tough times will eventually reward his team.

“We talk about it all the time, we stick together, we’re going to win together, and we’re going to lose together.

“We’re a family and like I told them, we have these younger ball girls here and there, and this is all going to pay off. You might not see it now, but in the long run it’s going to pay off and it’s going to be prosperous.”

Haynie is in his first season at the helm of the Lakeview program, and he was happy for his team after winning their first game.

“I wasn’t part of that (the 2017-18 team), but just to get one starting out where we where, I know I feel good, I know the girls feel great,” he said. “So it feels good for me, but the girls, it’s long overdue for them. So they get all of it, it’s all them.”

Lakeview (1-6) held a 29-23 advantage at halftime, and outscored the Eagles (0-7) in every quarter throughout the course of the evening.

Maggie Pavlansky, a freshman for Lakeview, had a game-high 16 points for her team, along with four 3-pointers.

She said she understands that there’s still a long road ahead, but was thrilled following the win.

“It feels really good, we’re all ecstatic, we’re super excited,” she said. “But we know that we have a lot more work to do, a lot of ways to improve and we’re just ready to keep going and pushing through the season.”

Melanie Wolf, a junior, had 10 points in the winning effort and said that facing adversity early in the season has helped the Bulldogs grow.

“Facing tougher competition at the beginning lets you know how you should play in the future, and what teams expect and how you need to step up your game to be able to compete against them,” she said.

Haynie said he saw some things on Thursday that he hasn’t seen previously this season.

“This is the first time that I thought my girls really were focused,” he said. “They weren’t intimidated, they wanted this. They asserted themselves from the start and it payed off.”

“They believed in themselves today.”