Lake Catholic routs NDCL

Balanced scoring and ebullient defense continue to be the winning formula for Lake Catholic, despite Coach Matt Moran calling his team’s Jan. 26 win “ugly”.

The Cougars did not let an NDCL run at the end of the third quarter bother them. After that, Lake Catholic turned it around and ran away with a 78-49 win.

Luka Eller’s 24 points and Luke Frazier’s 23 created a two-man wrecking crew on the floor.

NDCL started the game on a 5-0 run. The run ended quickly as Lake Catholic responded with a 11-0 run on back-to-back 3s from Brandon Horton and Eller before Lions coach Chris Poulos called his first timeout.

“I think our guys woke up a little bit and knew we were down early on,” Moran said. “In the first half, our lead was big but I thought the energy level wasn’t there. Credit to NDCL because they came in, started off strong and they played a great game as well.

Lake Catholic continued its dominance on the floor as its shots kept falling. Kameron King’s layup cut NDCL’s deficit to 38-23 at halftime.

The Lions used a 8-2 run to start the second half. Brian Carney’s layup drew NDCL within five, 42-37.

The Lions held Lake Catholic to 10 points in the third quarter, but Frazier’s 3-pointer late opened things up again for the Cougars.

“It was a whole team effort and everyone did what they had to do.” Frazier said. “The defense was shaky but everyone contributed on offense.”

King and Zach Zienka each finished with 12 points for NDCL.

“We battled against a tough team today and we got to learn from our mistakes,” said Poulos.