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Round two of The Battle of Lemoyne Road is set for Tuesday, as the Lake Flyers will look to avenge their loss to the Northwood Rangers during football season and throw a punch back at their friendly rivals at Owens Community College.
If last season's matchup between these two teams means anything, we should be in for a battle at SHAC. The Flyers edged Northwood last season, 35-34, and have a two game winning streak against their crosstown foes.
Lake is headed in the right direction under first year head coach Ryan Bowen. The Flyers picked up an impressive 80-77 win in the season opener against Rossford and nearly took down Oak Harbor on the road last weekend.
The Flyers look poised to improve on their 3-18 record a season ago and a win against Northwood would go a long way.
“Northwood is a good team. They played Gibsonburg tough and are very athletic and have size. My kids are finally starting to get acclimated to my system and we will have to play up-tempo offense and good defense to win this game,” said Bowen.
The team’s success starts with guard Rashad Smith. Smith, a 5-10 junior, has been a key contributor for Coach Bowen all season long. The speedy shooting guard put on a clinic against Rossford, scoring 12 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter to help the Flyers snap what was a 12 game losing streak dating back to last season.
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Northwood senior post David Green and Gibsonburg
junior post Logan Jones vie for a rebound during the
Golden Bear's 75-71 victory in the Ranger's home
opener this season. (Press photo by Don Thompson/
picasaweb.google.com/donrachael.
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“There are not a lot of pure basketball players around this area anymore, but Rashad has all of the talents needed to be a good player, he just needs to work on his defense and keep his head in the game,” Bowen stated. “If he catches fire, we will feed him the ball and he will have a great game against Northwood.”
Smith has been consistent thus far and leads the Flyers in scoring, averaging 18.66 points per game, but is not the only one who has been putting the ball in the basket with ease for the Flyers.
Like Smith, Josh Tantari has added much needed scoring for Lake this season. The junior has been effective both beyond the arc and in the paint. Tantari scored a season high 20 points in the loss to Oak Harbor and is averaging 15 points this season.
And senior guard Kurt McKee has been in the mix night in and night out. McKee has played well offensively and defensively and is averaging 12.66 points per game.
Even with the much improved play from his team this season and a trio of proven scorers, Bowen still understands his Flyers will have to bring their A game to knock off Northwood. The Rangers notched their first win of the season last Tuesday at home against Emmanuel Christian and things are starting to click for John Bryan’s Rangers.
Like Bowen, Bryan has a tough task at hand of changing the culture of Rangers’ basketball. Bryan has seen improvement from his team, but knows they can do even better and expects them to get better as the season progresses.
Northwood will have to rely on seniors David Greene and Zack Wielinski to wear the Flyers down in the post. Their athleticism and agility allows them to move around in the paint and start fast breaks, making it tough on opponents both on offense and defense.
Greene, a 6-5 forward, averaged nine points last season and looks poised to have an even better year than last season when he averaged 12.5 points and nine boards per game. Greene showed his improvement, dominating the paint against Emmanuel Christian on Tuesday en route to a 22 point game.
“David has been a project,” said Coach Bryan. “He has a lot of athletic ability and has added muscle this season, making him a solid player inside. He’s not going to kill you outside of the paint, but in the paint he is a force. In two of the three games, he has recorded double-doubles. If we can keep him under control and keep his head in the game, he will continue to help us,” added Bryan.
Like Green, Zack Wielinski has athletic ability and the tools to be a very good basketball player but needs to learn how to utilize those tools. “These kids have gone through three coaches in three years, so it’s not their faults. It’s tough for kids to adjust to that. They need to focus on the fundamentals,” Bryan said.
Wielinski added 14 against Emmanuel Christain and hit a few big three pointers to give extend Northwood’s lead in the second half. Wielinski will need to play well against the Flyers if Northwood wants to defeat their rivals.
Coach Bryan said his team will have the height advantage on almost every team they play this season and if they can balance the guard play with the post play, it should be a great game Tuesday night against rival Lake.
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