Lancers out-battle Dragons
LAKEVILLE — As one of the last high school boys basketball teams to begin its season (just nine days ago), it has been a rocky start for Laville so far. But the Lancers ended the 2020 portion of their schedule with an impressive 55-48 win over Argos Wednesday night at Dale E. Cox Gymnasium.
“I was pleased with a lot of things I saw,” said Laville head coach Michael Edison. “They were fun to watch. Argos is very solid. They have some nice offensive players.”
It was a very physical contest, especially the second half, but the Lancers’ defense, three-point shooting and advantage at the charity stripe were the difference.
The first quarter was, by far, the most aesthetically pleasing as the teams went bucket-to-bucket, but four Laville 3s, including backto- back treys by Bobby Good and Andrew Dill to end the period gave the home team a two-point lead heading into the second period. Argos’ Dylan Kindig scored seven of his team-high 16 in the frame and Michael Richard five of his 11.
The Lancer defense really clamped down on the
Dragons in quarters two and three and seemed to get every loose or 50/50 ball, allowing just seven points during each stanza. Dill nailed his third 3 of the game and Leyton Czarnecki had five of his 17 points during the third period as the lead reached as high as 13 before settling at 41-30 going into the final quarter.
“Ball pressure, over time, wears you down,” said Edison about one of
the defensive keys. “When we have guys getting in (close) on defense, going for deflections, those are big. At the beginning of the game, they got the ball down low into the post, then we started taking that away. Collin Allen probably wouldn’t have played as much, but he was taking that high post pass away. Our goal is to make them earn it. That makes up for a lot of things. When you don’t have to score every
time down, that defense makes up for poor offense at times. We want to play tough, but within the rules, and not do anything cheap.”
Good had the last of his 10 points on a trey to start the fourth period for the largest lead of the night, but that would be the last field goal of the game for the Lancers. Argos rallied with an 18-point quarter,
seven from Kindig, and his rebound bucket with 30 seconds remaining cut the lead to five, but a missed 3 seconds later and two free throws from Dill sealed the LV victory.
Despite the lone field goal in the final eight minutes, the Lancers paraded 18 times to the foul line, a dozen by Czarnecki alone, and hit on 11 of them. The 19-11 foul differential led to 17 more free throw attempts and 10 more makes for Laville over the course of the game.
Dill, who was hounded by Richard all game, finished as the game-high scorer with 18 points (four 3s, 4-4 FTS).
“He shot the ball well,” Edison said of his senior guard. “He got frustrated at times, then emotions start going, but he did some nice things for us.”
Laville’s next game is Jan. 2 at home versus Goshen, while Argos is off for almost two weeks before hosting Trinity on Jan. 5 for a Hoosier Plains Conference contest.
• LAVILLE 55, ARGOS,48
At Lakeville
Argos 16 23 30 48
Laville 18 31 41 55 ARGOS: Michael Richard 5 0-0 11, JJ Morris 2 2-2 6, Jake Stults 1 0-0 2, Kayden Brady 1 0-0 3, Ted Redinger 2 0-0 6, Sean Richard 2 0-0 4, Dylan Kindig 7 2-2 16. TOTALS: 20 4-4 48. LAVILLE: Ayden Doyle 0 0-0 0, Ryan James 0 0-0 0, Leyton Czarnecki 5 6-13 17, Collin Allen 3 0-0 6, Bobby Good 3 2-2 10, Andrew Dill 5 4-4 18, Alec Coleman 0 2-2 2, Connor Henry 1
0-0 2. TOTALS: 17 14-21 55. 3-pointers: Argos 4 (Redinger 2, M. Richard, Brady), Laville 7 (Dill 4, Good 2, Czarnecki). Fouls (fouled out): Argos 19 (Stults, Redinger), Laville 11 (none) Records: Argos 4-3, Laville 2-2 JV score: Argos, Laville