The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Lake is keeping it 100
Cougars’ rout reminds coach of final four team
Lake Catholic coach Matt Moran is aware of the capabilities of his team, but the Cougars’ nonconference 100-59 thrashing of host University on Dec. 16 made him reach back into his memory bank to recall a similar performance by a Lake Catholic squad.
“The sad thing is that I know (the answer to) that, I’m a stat guy,” Moran said without hesitation when asked about the last time the Cougars hit triple digits. “It was our 2012 team when Mark Chicone was the coach. We were a pretty special team that year. I’m hoping this is a sign for this team.”
That 2011-12 edition of the Cougars, on which Moran was an assistant, advanced to the Division II state final four. December is too early to be discussing whether this Lake Catholic team can match that accomplishment, but fans in attendance at University can be forgiven imagining it’s at least within the realm of possibility.
Lake Catholic fans have grown accustomed to witnessing dominant performances by standout sophomores Luka Eller and Luke Frazier, and the duo combined to account for the majority of the production on both sides of the ball once again.
The 6-foot-5 Eller, a big man who can play the low post and also put the ball on the floor and drive to the basket as well as shoot from the outside, led Lake Catholic (3-0) with 23 points. He scored 20 of his points in the first half, and also finished with six rebounds, four assists and one block.
Preppers point guards found the task of advancing the ball past the 6-foot-2 Frazier difficult, as he frequently poked the ball away from the opposition en route to six steals. Frazier added three rebounds and a blocked shot, and even soared for a dunk in the third quarter as part of his 21 points.
“They’re so coachable, and they always want to get better,” Moran said in regard to Eller and Frazier. “They’re always in the gym — there’s times I need to kick them out of there because I want to go home. They’re students of the game. Their basketball IQ is amazing. When you have guys that are students of the game, have a high basketball IQ and want to get better, it’s just so fun to be able to coach those type of guys.”
Of course it wasn’t all the Luke and Luka Show, as 14 Cougars saw playing time. Christian DeMitro scored 12 points, Robert Morgan and Cyncere Watkins pulled down five rebounds each and the Cougars as a team had around 20 steals, with Brandon Horton grabbing four.
If ever a basketball game could have used a running clock as exists in football, this was the game. Lake Catholic led, 24-2, after the first quarter, and 5516 at halftime, as the Cougars pressured the Preppers into turnovers and turned them into points time and again throughout the first half.
It didn’t get much better for University (2-3) after the break, as Frazier’s dunk capped a 12-0 Lake Catholic run to start the second half. The Cougars broke triple digits in the game’s final minute after sitting on 97 points when junior guard Nick Grandini hit a 3-pointer from the wing.
Senior Seven Richmond led University with 16 points, and junior Grant Pawlikowsky added 12 on four 3-pointers for the Preppers. Richmond added four rebounds and a pair of steals. University will look to get back on track in a pair of back-to-back games Dec. 22-23 when it will host Kenston and CVCA.
“My initial takeaway is how much respect I have for Lake Catholic,” University coach Sean McDonnell said. “They have an exceptional team. Obviously 5 (Frazier) and 11 (Eller) are both amazing players. We knew that it would be a tough test for us.
“Until you actually line up and play against guys, sometimes film and practice doesn’t really prepare you for a team of that caliber. We just came out of final exams, so we need to take advantage of the fact that we can now have five full practices and get ready to play a couple games next week.”
Lake Catholic will encounter two severe challenges to its unbeaten mark next week as it will host Ursuline on Dec. 19 and Akron Hoban on Dec. 22.
“We just said in the locker room that this coming week is a grind for us,” Moran said. “We have Ursuline coming up, and then Hoban, then we’re off to Wooster to play a very good Berlin Hiland team. I feel very confident that we’ll be prepared for every single one of those games, because of the type of kids we have. They want to succeed, they want to get better and they’re competitors.”