By John Raffel
Boys’ basketball
It’s promising to be quite a second half of the season for the Lakeview boys basketball team.
The Wildcats had an 8-0 record before losing to Pine River, 56-50, on Jan. 9. But coach Mike Schreiber, whose team was Class C state runner-up in 1995, is reserving judgment before determining just how good this team could be.
“I knew early in the season we would be better off than some teams,” he said. “Three of our seniors have played with me since they were sophomores. I thought that with their understanding of what I want to get done, and the offensive and defensive things we want to get accomplished, that we could get a good start ahead of other teams.”
When the Wildcats play well, it means that they are running, Schreiber said. “We run a strong transition. When we’re playing well, we’re pretty good at that.”
The three seniors in their third varsity seasons are Nate Shurlow, Caleb Ruvalcaba, and John Torres.
Schreiber commented that last year, Shurlow “finished 15.8 points a game. He’s in the 15s right now as well,” Schreiber said. “He’s a very good passer. Back to our transition game, he’s also the one who makes the nice pass down court that some players could not make.”
Torres has been focusing on defense. “He shores up a lot of what we try to get accomplished,” Schreiber said. “Defensively we’re not bad, we’ve given up a few points lately. Additionally, that’s been keeping us in games. John’s a big factor in his responsibility in helping us creating things for defensive pressure.
“Caleb is the other end of that transition. He’s the person who does get out and then runs the lanes defensively. He’s probably as consistent in stopping other players on that end of the court than any other player I’ve coached in years.” He averages just under 12 points a game.
Kobe Perez had 15 points and eight rebounds in a victory over Class A rival Greenville. Michael Hallada has also been scoring.
Lakeview followed the win over Greenville with a victory over Kent City in a Central State Activities Association Silver Division battle.
“We’re going to lose some games,” Schreiber said. “That just happens. The guys, especially those have been up for so long, they’ve been capable of each game coming in and not taking any time off. They’ve been exceptional for their consistency.”
Girls’ basketball
The Lakeview girls basketball team has had a unique season, with a 7-4 start under coach Dave King.
“I feel like we’ve underachieved to this point,” he said. “We did have a really nice win and played well against Greenville. Otherwise, I feel we’re a better team than what we’ve played so far.”
The team is getting better at halfcourt defense, King indicated.
“We just need to work hard for 32 minutes,” he said. “Every game up until the Greenville game, we’ve had a lull at some point. We either give away a lead or we fall behind.”
Sadie Massie is leading the team in scoring. Maddie Shurlow leads in rebounds. Both are seniors, Shurlow in her fourth year on the varsity and Massie in her third. “They’re experienced, and both are real gutty players,” King said. “Maddie is the most complete player, I believe, in our conference. Sadie plays really hard all the time.”
Massie will be walking on at Ferris State University and King expects Shurlow to play somewhere in college.