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Bombers advance past Westport

Lake Placid senior Stuart Baird glides toward the hoop to lay in two of his 17 points during the second half of Wednesday’s Section VII, Class D playoff game against Westport in Lake Placid. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

LAKE PLACID — The Lake Placid boys basketball team advanced into the next round of the Section VII, Class D playoffs Wednesday with a 54-43 victory over Westport.

Hosting a rare postseason game at home, the Blue Bombers got a strong performance at both ends of the court in a matchup that saw them trail just once after the Eagles scored the opening basket of the evening.

Blake Roy paced Lake Placid with a game-high 19 points, Stuart Baird added 17 and their teammates came through with solid efforts throughout the contest on both offense and defense.

Schylar Kurth knocked down the first basket of the game to give the Eagles a 2-0 edge, but after Roy answered with his lone 3-pointer of the night, Lake Placid never fell behind the rest of the way, although Westport did briefly pull even at 34-34 early in the third quarter. The Blue Bombers, however, responded with an 8-1 run to close out the period and remained solid enough down the stretch to improve to 9-12 overall.

Lake Placid finished the winter with a three-game sweep over Westport, which included two victories during the regular season.

Blue Bombers sophomore Jacob Novick gets a look at the basket through a maze of players Wednesday. (Enterprise photo — Lou Reuter)

“At times is was a little nerve-racking, but our guys fought hard,” Lake Placid coach Brian VanNostrand said. “Except for the first basket of the game, we had the lead the entire time. There were times when it was closer than I would have liked, but the guys stuck with it. They picked it up on the defensive end when they needed to, they came through on the offensive end, and they found a way to win.

“Our role players in the last five, six games have really picked it up,” VanNostrand added. “Tony (Matos) defensively, he was out there getting steals. Jacob Novick grabbing rebounds, Craig Stetson for a guard, he’s a very good rebounder. Logan Brown underneath, he’s very tough, and even Jacob Coursen. He’s someone who can go out and shoot the ball a little bit and then go inside. Anyone we put in there, they know their role and they go at it full force.”

Roy and Baird, Lake Placid’s top two scorers, took control early on by picking up all Lake Placid’s points in an opening quarter that saw the hosts grab a 13-8 lead.

The Blue Bombers scored the first five points of the second period to push their lead to double digits with Novick starting things off by draining his lone basket of the game on a three-pointer and Roy following with a steal that resulted in a fast-break layup.

The Eagles, who got double-digit scoring performances from Wyatt Gough and Riley Martin, began finding some rhythm and worked their way back into the game. They finished the first half with a 4-0 run and were only trailing 30-28 at intermission.

The teams then battled back and forth early in the third quarter, but the Blue Bombers ultimately took over by mounting a 10-3 run to lead 42-35 heading into the fourth. The closest the Eagles got the rest of the way was a five-point deficit with 2:50 left in the game, but Lake Placid sealed the win by finishing on a 6-0 run.

“We had five our six games this year where we played opponents real tough and we’d have a bad stretch,” Westport head coach Ike Turner said. “We wouldn’t get a break here and there, or we’d miss our foul shots like we did tonight, or have a few turnovers. We just wouldn’t come through in the stretch. We have the potential to beat anybody but my team is not used to winning.

“The best thing about this group is they are a great bunch of kids,” Tuner continued. “They come and they work hard. That said, I don’t have any pure basketball players on this team. They don’t play basketball year-round. They play soccer, they play baseball. They come out and play basketball in November and now they’re done. With the good teams, you’ll see their kids playing AAU ball and they do it year round.”

Both squads struggled at the free throw line, with Westport going a dismal 4-for-17 and Lake Placid not faring much better with a 4-for-12 effort.

Gough led Westport in scoring with 12 points and Martin tacked on 10 in the loss. The Eagles finished their campaign with a 6-11 mark, which included five losses decided by two points.

With the win, Lake Placid now moves on to play Section VII’s top Class D seed, Moriah, on the road Saturday with the opening tip-off slated for 6 p.m.

Facing the Vikings will be a monumental undertaking for the Blue Bombers. Moriah was New York state’s runner-up Class D squad a season ago and heads into Saturday’s playoff game with a 19-1 record and ranked third in the New York State Sports Writers Association poll. Moriah rolled past Lake Placid 77-31 when the teams met for the only time this season on Jan 23.

Despite the odds, VanNostrand said his players are looking forward to the challenge.

“From the beginning of the year, all our kids have stepped up their confidence,” VanNostrand said. “I think we have to go in with the mentality that we are going to play our game. We can’t go in there and as soon as we walk in let them win the ball game. We’ll have to fight for everything. We’re going to go in, give it everything we got, and that’s what our kids are planning on. If our guys come ready, come ready to play, I think we can give them a good ball game.”

Lake Placid 54, Westport 43

Eagles 8 20 7 8 — 43

Blue Bombers 13 17 12 12 — 54

Westport (43)

Napper 1-2-4, Gough 4-2-12, Kurth 3-0-6, Stephens 2-0-4, Smith 3-0-7, Martin 4-0-10, Looby 0-0-0. Totals: 17-4-43.

Lake Placid (54)

Matos 3-0-6, Stetson 0-0-0, Baird 8-1-17, Roy 9-0-19, Novick 1-0-3, Coursen 1-0-2, Brown 2-3-7. Totals: 24-4-54.

Three-point goals: Westport (5), Gough 2, Smith, Martin 2. Lake Placid (2), Roy, Novick.

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