Rockets, Flyers work for positioning in the NBC

Rockets, Flyers work for positioning in the NBC

Press Contributing Writer
sports@presspublications.com

Despite not being in the same conference for decades, Lake and Oak Harbor are fairly familiar with one another.
The two schools have played each other for some time, and now that the Rockets have joined the Flyers in the Northern Buckeye Conference, they’ll play at least two times each year.
Lake already has more wins than it did all of last season, as it sits 3-2 and 1-2 in the conference, its only losses coming to teams expected to finish at or near the top of the conference in Fostoria (66-61) and Eastwood (69-66).
Lake’s lone conference win was a 73-72 victory over Otsego, which came on a put-back by Preston Snyder at the buzzer.
It was an amazing rally, one that saw the Flyers trail 38-16 with 2:24 remaining in the second quarter. Lake scored 51 points in the second half and hit 11 3-pointers in the final two quarters. For the game, the Flyers made 13 3-pointers and were 12-of-14 at the charity stripe.
Jay Blazevich, who had a team-high 16 points, made three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, while Dylan Wiley and Aaron Tobias scored 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Lake coach Luke Hickey, whose team had to endure its share of growing pains last year during his rookie season as coach of the Flyers, talked about the reasons for the turnaround.
“I think we have a core group of seniors and a couple of underclassmen that have really bought into our system and our offensive and defensive style. Dylan Wiley, Caleb Tobias and Preston Snyder are our captains, and they stay on their teammates,” said Hickey. “I think these guys have bought into the philosophy that every time we go out there, we’re going to leave it all out there. These guys go out and play for each other, and I think that’s helped us have some early success as well.
“We have learned from all of those growing pains that we had to go through. We were very young last year; we knew we were going to struggle here and there. It was a young and inexperienced team. We learned a lot about ourselves, we learned to make some adjustments. We had some success from learning those things.”
Hickey talked about the comeback win over the Knights.
“That game, to me, is what speaks the most value of the character of our team. We went into halftime and I said, ‘We’re just not making shots.’ We had to make some adjustments, but it wasn’t an execution thing, I didn’t think we were playing poorly,” said Hickey. “I told the guys that whatever just happened for those 16 minutes, it’s over. Let’s focus on the first three minutes of the third quarter. They understand that they’re never out of the fight. We were able to find a way to win it in the end, I’m not sure how, but it’s a testament to the kids.
Wiley is averaging 15.0 points and 6.2 rebounds, Snyder is putting up 10.6 points per game and 8.6 assists while Tobias is averaging 10.2 points.
“We’ve had some early success, but we’re not at the tip of the iceberg in terms of where our potential is,” Hickey said. “The players are accepting constructive criticism and taking to coaching. We certainly want to be playing well and hope to be doing that in February and March.”
On the other side is Eric Sweet, whose Rockets are 3-2 and 2-1 in the league.
Oak Harbor opened the season with a 68-49 win over Rossford and handed Genoa its only loss of the year with a 57-51 victory over the Comets. Oak Harbor put up a great fight in a 58-53 loss to Clay and fell 68-61 to Otsego for its lone conference loss, but rebounded to defeat rival Port Clinton 73-47.
“We started off great, going 2-0 in league play and beating a top power in Genoa on our home court. We couldn’t ask for a better start. We were playing together, playing hard and playing focused and it led to a great start to the season. We then dropped the next two games to Clay and Otsego,” said Sweet. “We were tough and physical, coming from behind in both games but ultimately didn’t win either of them. We are not a tall team but we are tough and physical when we need to be. We have done a great job of getting out and pushing the ball up the court. When we run and push the tempo, we are a much better team.
“In those two losses, I feel like we did not play the way we were playing in the first two games. Our overall focus was not there for both of those games. For the Otsego game, we didn’t shoot very well, either, but that was the result of their length. In both losses, we were not fully engaged in our defense and scouting report. We played hard and tough in both games but you cannot have mental and physical mishaps and expect to win games. We were right there in both games and both games we could have won, but we didn’t, so we had to go back to the film and get better and that is what we did.”
The win over Genoa was very impressive as the Rockets jumped out to a 14-6 lead after one quarter and a 21-10 lead at the half. Oak Harbor forward Ethan Stokes led all scorers with 27 points and Michael LaLonde chipped in with 11. As a team, the Rockets made 16-of-20 free throws.
Sweet knows it will be a game with great potential when the teams clash on Wednesday.
“Even though we have played Lake over the years, this will only be the second meeting with Coach Hickey. Luke has done a great job over there and you can see the growth that they have had this year, sitting at 3-2,” said Sweet. “They have good length and are playing hard. It is now a league game and every league game in the NBC is going to be tough. I have nothing but respect for Luke and what he is doing over there at Lake.
“I am looking forward to the game and the great holiday atmosphere that will be at the gym,” he said.