The Niles girls and boys basketball teams both played well enough to win against visiting Lakeshore Friday night.

Unfortunately for the Vikings, neither team came away with a victory in SMAC West Division action.

In the girls game, Niles led 16-8 after one quarter, but could not maintain the lead as the Lancers outscored them 45-31 over the final three quarters to pull out a 53-47 victory.

With the win, Lakeshore remained atop the West Division standings with a 4-0 record. The Lancers are now 8-4 the year.

Niles (7-3, 3-3 West) after giving up the lead trailed by as many as 10 points late in the contest before rallying.

The Vikings cut the lead to 58-47 with 24.7 remaining on a pair of free throws by Elyse Zimmerman, who led all scorers with 23 points.

Niles forced a turnover on the ensuing possession, but could not come up with the go-ahead basket.

Morgan Kaiser was fouled and went to the line where she made the first to make it 49-47, but missed the second. Morgan Shewmaker corralled the rebound to seal the victory.

“That was my fault,” Niles coach Phil D’Amico said. “I burned a lot of time outs early. That is all on me. If we have a time out there at the end when we are down one with the ball we probably set something up like a high screen and roll with Zimmerman going to the basket. But we didn’t have any time outs left.”

The Niles boys team went cold in the final four minutes of its game against the Lancers after battling to get back into the contest.

Lakeshore led from the outset and was up seven (47-40) entering the fourth quarter.

A series of turnovers allowed the Vikings (3-6, 0-4 West) to score the first six points of the final quarter to cut the Lancer’s lead to 47-46 with 6:31 remaining.

A 10-0 Lakeshore run proved to be the difference.

“We had some really good looks,” Niles coach Todd Pawielski said. “We shared the ball really well, we attacked the rim. We just had some wide-open looks that just did not go down when it counted the most. But what a gutty effort by the kids.”

Lakeshore (8-1, 3-0 West) led 17-9 after one and 32-25 at halftime.

Ruben Conway, the Lancers’ 6-foot-5 forward, led all scorers with 22 points. He also had seven rebounds. Braden Burke, who stands 6-foot-10, added 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Ra’Quon Glenn and Gabe Stokes, both of whom scored 12 points, led Niles. Gavin Rasler added 11. Glen also had eight rebounds, while Stokes finished with eight rebounds and four assists.

“Lakeshore really made some shots from the outside when it counted,” Pawielski said. “They’re just a pretty good basketball team with a lot of weapons. I thought our kids played pretty well. Lakeshore’s a better team.”

 

GIRLS

LAKESHORE 53, NILES 47

Lakeshore 53

Taylor Wagner 12, Carley Dubbert 9, Lindsay Ebeling 12, Morgan Kaiser 10, Morgan Shewmaker 10, Miranda Shindeldecker 0. TOTALS 17 14-19 53

Niles 47

Jaiden Rolen 5, Antonia Palmer 0, Elyse Zimmerman 23, Maya Brookins 0, Emily Gaines 2, Kylee Myer 2, Jazmin Brann 15. TOTALS 17 11-13 47

 

Lakeshore      8          27       41       53

Niles                16       26       33       47

3-point baskets: Lakeshore 5 (Kaiser 2, Ebeling 2, C. Dubbert 1), Niles 2 (Zimmerman 1, Rolen 1); Total fouls (fouled out): Lakeshore 10, Niles 11; Records: Lakeshore 9-2, 4-0 SMAC West; Niles 7-3, 3-3 SMAC West Division

 

BOYS

LAKESHORE 65, NILES 51

Lakeshore 64

Jimmy Gathright 4 1-2 9, Rubin Conway 8 3-4 22, Braden Burke 7 2-2 16, Logan Steffes 4 0-0 2, David Upton 2 0-1 4, Brady Veine 0 0-0 0, Gibson Archer 0 0-0 0, Jake Bushu 0 0-0 0, DQ Wiggins 1 0-0 3, Trevor Bundy 0 0-0 0, Jacob Brewer 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 26 6-9 64

Niles 51

Adam Langmeyer 0 2-2 2, Jacob Hamm 0 0-0 0, Gavin Rasler 5 0-1 11, Gabe Stokes 5 1-2 12, Ray Glenn 5 1-3 12, Derek Brown 1 0-0 3, Tyler Phillips 1 0-0 2, Jalen Alexander 1 0-0 2, Alex Harpenau 1 0-0 2, Dontae Murphy 2 0-0 5, Sammy Rodts 0 0-0 0, Devin Kuemin 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 21 4-7 51

 

Lakeshore      17       32       47       64

Niles                9          25       40       51

3-point baskets: Lakeshore 6 (Conway 3, Steffes 2, Wiggins 1), Niles 5 (Rasler 1, Stokes 1, Glenn 1, Brown 1, Murphy 1). Total fouls (fouled out): Lakeshore 11 (none), Niles 15 (none). Varsity records: Lakeshore 8-1m 3-0 SMAC West; Niles 3-6, 0-4 SMAC West