Lancers savor upset win too much

by Nick D’Amuro
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, January 19, 2008

As a neutral spectator, coming into last Tuesday’s game between the Lewiston-Porter Lancers and Kenmore East Bulldogs, you would have expected to watch a complete blowout. The Lancers have been doing well, but lately with their loss at Kenmore West two weeks ago, many thought their true colors were shown. They were wrong.

If you were a Lew-Port fan that night, following the first half, you indeed felt something special was in the air. The Lancers were poised for an upset. The first half went back and forth for the most part, but the Lancers then began to pull away towards the end of the half, and junior Zach Rougeux hit two 3-point shots in the last minute to widen the gap. The Green Machine was ecstatic and rowdy as ever after the half, and the team knew it as well, they were not going to let this one slip away.

In the second half, the Lancers played staunch defense and rebounded hard inside. In fact in the entire game they played tough defense, which largely contributed to the win. As the final minutes began to tick off, everyone began to sense the Lancers were on their way to upsetting Western New York’s 8th rated team, and the second undefeated team in the NFL. The “bye, bye ... it’s all over” chants began, and the Lancers got their upset. In a nutshell, the underlining reason for this win was simply great coaching, rebounding, and defense. The execution was flawless at times. The final score was 58-53.

In the stat book, Brad Maines had 5 points, but 10 rebounds, and he played great inside despite being undersized. Junior Robby Seyler led the team offensively as usual with 21 points. Rougeux had a hot hand and finished with 10 points and two key 3 pointers. Senior Zach Euote played well and added 11 points.

The Lancers then went into Grand Island last Friday ready to keep the wins coming, but lost the contest 49-46. They dropped another one Tuesday night 67-47 to Lockport. Despite being up in both games, they came up empty.

Rebounding seemed to have been a problem with this team all year long, and it’s starting to catch up with them. The Lockport game would have been an easy win if they had just rebounded. Still, the Lancers deserve some credit. They indeed have come a long way from anyone’s earlier expectations. But it just seems when one thing goes wrong on the court, a chain reaction occurs and then everything that can go wrong does. The sloppy passes come in and the bad shots.

Perhaps this team got a little too comfortable after upsetting Kenmore East. But they need to put those losses in the past and move on, because the next few games will determine their season. Their current overall record is 7-4. The NFL opponents will keep coming down the stretch, and hopefully the Lancers can rebound.