Lake Catholic remains undefeated this season

The Cougars had a tough test against Akron Hoban on Dec. 22, and they passed it big time with a convincing victory to improve to 5-0.

Coach Matt Moran is a big believer good defense leads to good offense.

That was the story of the night for his Lake Catholic team improving to 5-0 after it defeated Akron Hoban, 66-43, in a North Coast League matchup Dec. 22. With the win, Lake Catholic has won all of its games winning by at least 20 points.

The Cougars jumped to a 8-2 run to start off the game before Hoban’s guard Collen Gurley put in a 3 to cut the deficit to 8-5. That was the closet Hoban would get before Lake Catholic took control of the rest of the game.

“Defense really helped up today and that was huge for us,” said Lake Catholic coach Matt Moran. “I wish I had the magic word to explain how the team won today. Everybody did their part. We played tough defense, that led to good offense and we rebounded the ball. If we missed the shot, we had a guy there all the time to put in the shot. A great game for us.”

Sean Fitzgerald connected on a 3 to extend the lead to 20-11 with 4:37 to go in the first half. Lake Catholic got one of its biggest lead in the game when it led by 13 on Luka Eller’s layup late in the first half.

Eller lead Lake Catholic in scoring with 24 points and 16 rebounds. Sophomore Luke Frazier connected with 14 points. Both were dominant inside the paint and behind the arc.

Hoban shot 4 of 25 from the field in the first half. Collen Gurley had 14 total points for Hoban, with eight coming in the first quarter.

With Hoban down, 51-25, entering the fourth quarter, the Knights hit three straight baskets from Kam Mc’lver (two 3-pointers) and Robert Morson. But it wasn’t enough for Hoban to catch up.

“This is a special group of guys,” Moran said. “If you defend well you’re going to be in a lot of games and you’re going to win. It’s on these kids because they believe in each other and they have each other backs.”

Lake Catholic will be in action again Dec. 23 against Berlin Hiland in Wooster.