By By ERIKA PICKLES / Niles Daily Star
The Niles varsity basketball team was able to come back from a 16 point Lakeshore lead to take the 45-42 Big 16 win Tuesday night.
The win didn't come easy for the Vikings. Niles trailed the Lancers for the first three quarters of play.
In the first quarter the Vikings went scoreless, but held Lakeshore to only eight points. The Lancers didn't pull of their first basket until the 4:10 mark, which was made by Shaine Tierney who scored six of Lakeshore's eight points. Jason Woodrick was the only other Lancer to score in the first. Lakeshore had the 8-0 lead going into the second.
Pete Brandstatter opened up the second quarter with Niles' first basket. Nick Etzcorn also added two points and a free throw to give him the three point play taking the score to 8-5. Lakeshore quickly answered back and scored the next seven points to give them a 15-5 lead. Brandon Thomas added another two points to Niles' score, but another basket from Kobly Smith put the Lancers back up by 10 with 3:42 left in the half.
Etzcorn scored the last two baskets for Niles, but the Vikes were still sown 23-11 going into halftime.
Nate Parks and Thomas both scored the first two basket for Niles to start the third. Paul Wreggelsworth made 2-of-2 from the line, but Lakeshore kept the lead and this time went up by 16 points 33-17 halfway through the quarter. Being down by 16 wouldn't be enough to frustrate most teams, but the Vikings kept their heads in the game and stayed patient. Thomas nailed the first three for the Vikings to bring the gap to 13. A double double foul on Niles' Ben Hansen and Lakeshore's Tierney gave Niles possession and allowed Tom Robson to score his first three. Lakeshore still had the 33-23 upper hand going into the fourth.
The Vikings decided enough was enough in the final quarter of play. Tierney hit 1-of-2 at the line to start the quarter for the Lancers, but Etzcorn was again successful on a three point play to cut Lakeshore's lead to eight. Tierney again scored another basket for the Lancer's, but not before Parks added a three of his own to Niles' score to cut the lead to seven. Parks was fouled on the next play and made 1-of-2 free throws to bring the score to 30-36. Etzcorn added another basket for the Vikings on the next play to bring them within four, the closest Niles had been all night. One key that kept Niles in the game and took Lakeshore out was patience. The Lancer got too impatient and frustrated, which ultimately made them lose focus of the game. Tierney again fouled Parks to put him in a 1-and-1 situation for Niles. Parks was successful at hitting both free throws to bring the score to 34-36.
Tierney was charged with carrying and after a few choice words with the officials he was charged with a technical and again put Parks on the line. He was once again made both free throws to tie the game up at 36. Thomas scored on the next play for the Vikings to give them the first lead of the night with 2:15 left to play.
Both teams continued to share the lead in the final two minutes of play, but a final free throw by Tom Robson gave Niles the three point lead and the 45-42 win.
The loss takes the Lancers to 5-3 in the conference, 10-7 overall.
Etzcorn led the Vikings with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists. Thomas had 11 points and Parks had eight.
Tierney had 18 points for Lakeshore and Nic Deboer had nine. The Lancers only had five players score the entire game.
The Vikings improve their conference record to 3-4.
Niles will host St. Joseph on Friday. Game time is set to start at 7:30 p.m. with Freshmen and JV playing before.
Niles' JV team picked up a win against Lakeshore 68-50. Chauncey Willimas had 20 points for the vikings. Josh Moffitt had nine. Demetrius had eight and Paul Dreher, Josh Beers and Matt Peters all had seven. Sam Bitterman had 16 for the Lancers. Justin Gerschoffer had 10 and Brad Anderson had six.
Niles……………….45
Lakeshore………..42
Niles 0 11 23 45
Lakeshore 8 23 33 42
Niles (45) Scott Quaye 0 0-0 0, Tom Robson 1 1 4-1 6, Ben Hansen 0 0-0 0, Nate Parks 1 1 9-8 12, Paul Wreggelsworth 0 2-2 2, Brandon Thomas 4 1 0-0 11, Nick Etzcorn 5 4-2 12, Pete Brandstatter 1 0-0 2, Lavette' Walker 0 0-0 0, Andrew Foster 0 0-0 0
Lakeshore (42) Nic Deboer 0 3 0-0 9, Jason Woodrick 1 0-0 2, Steve Gathright 0 0-0 0, Logan Wilke 0 0-0 0, Shaine Tierney 7 6-4 18, Eric Rue 0 0-0 0, Dustin Barinka 0 0-0 0, Tim Frakes 0 0-0 0, Ken Welch 0 0-0 0, Kolby Smith 3 0-0 6, Joe Welch 3 2-1 7, Steve Polaskey 0 0-0 0.